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Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for Death

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 5, 2020 • ( 0 )

One of Dickinson’s most famous and widely discussed poems, Fr 479 appeared in the first 1890 edition of her poems, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson had given it the inappropriate title “The Chariot,” thinking, perhaps, of an image from classical times that survived in Victorian paintings of Apollo, patron of the arts, carrying the artist to heaven in his chariot. (Farr, Passion, 329). The editors seriously disfigured the poem by omitting the fourth stanza; and Mrs. Todd “improved on” the poet’s exact rhyme in stanza 3, rhyming “Mound” with “Ground” instead. Not until the publication of Johnson’s 1955 Poems were readers able to see the restored poem. Despite this, it had already been singled out as one of her greatest and continues to be hailed as a summary statement of her most important theme: death and immortality. As in all of Dickinson’s complex works, however, the language and structure of the poem have left readers plenty of room to find varying and sometimes sharply opposed interpretations. At one end of the spectrum are those who view the poem as Dickinson’s ultimate statement of the soul’s continuance; at the other end are those who see the poem as intrinsically ironic and riddled with doubt about the existence of an afterlife; in the middle are those who find the poem indisputably ambiguous.

Scholars have suggested that Dickinson’s carriage ride with Death was inspired by a biographical incident—the 1847 death of Olivia Coleman, the beautiful older sister of Emily’s close friend Eliza M. Coleman, who died of a tubercular hemorrhage while out riding in a carriage. But there are also abundant cultural sources for the image. The poem’s guiding metaphor of a young woman abducted by Death goes back to the classical myth of Persephone, daughter of Ceres, who is carried off to the underworld by Hades. In medieval times, “Death and the Maiden” was a popular iconographic theme, sometimes taking the form of a virgin sexually ravished by Death.

Doubtless aware of these traditions, Dickinson made of them something distinctly her own. Not only did she transplant the abduction to the country roads of her native New England, she transformed the female “victim,” not into a willing or even passionate lover of Death, but into an avid witness/participant in the mysterious transition from life to death, and from human time to eternity. The speaker never expresses any direct emotion about her abduction; indeed, she never calls it that. She seems to experience neither fear nor pain. On the other hand, there is no indication that she is enamored of Death: She is too busy to stop for him and it is he, the courtly suitor, who takes the initiative. But she does not resist. Death’s carrying her away is presented as a “civility,” an act of politeness. And she responds with equal good manners, putting away her labor and her leisure, too, that is, the whole of her life. What does draw her powerfully is the journey, which she observes and reports in scrupulous detail. The poem is her vehicle for exploring the question that obsessed her imagination: “What does it feel like to die?” Note that there is a third “passenger” in the carriage—“Immortality”—the chaperone who guarantees that the ride will have an “honorable” outcome. Immortality is a promise already present, as opposed to the “Eternity” of the final stanza, toward which the “Horses’ Heads” advance. Eternity is the ultimate transformation of time toward which the poem moves. In stanza 1, the speaker, caught up in this-worldly affairs, has no time for Death, but he slows her down. By stanza 2, she has adjusted her pace to his. Stanza 3, with its triple repetition of “We passed,” shows them moving in unison past the great temporal divisions of a human life: childhood (the children competing at school, in a ring game), maturity (the ripeness of the “Gazing Grain”) and old age (the “Setting Sun”). As the stages of life flash before the eyes of the dying, the movement of the carriage is steady and stately.

But with the pivotal first line of stanza 4, any clear spatial or temporal orientation vanishes; poem and carriage swerve off in an unexpected manner. Had the carriage passed the sunset, its direction—beyond earthly life—would have been clear. But the line “Or rather—He passed Us” gives no clear sense of the carriage’s movement and direction.

It is as if the carriage and is passengers are frozen in time. The sun appears to have abandoned the carriage—as reflected in the increasing coldness that envelops the speaker. She is inadequately dressed for the occasion, in “Gossamer,” which can mean either a fine filmy piece of cobweb or a flimsy, delicate material, and a “Tippet,” that is, a small cape or collar. While tippets were commonly made of fur or other substantial materials, this one is of “tulle”—the fine silk netting used in veils or gowns. All at once, the serenely observing speaker is a vulnerable physical presence, dressed for a wedding or ball, but “quivering” with a coldness that suggests the chill of the grave. A note of uneasiness and disorientation, that will only grow stronger from this point on, has been injected into what began as a self-assured journey. This is a stunning example of how “Dickinson, suddenly, midpoem, has her thought change, pulls in the reins on her faith, and introduces a realistic doubt” (Weisbuch, “Prisming”, 214).

In stanza 5, the carriage “pauses” at “a House that seemed/ A Swelling in the Ground—,” presumably the speaker’s newly dug grave. The word “Swelling” is ominous, suggesting an organic, tumorlike growth. But there is no unified physical picture of what the speaker sees. In line 2, the ground is swelling upward. In lines 3 and 4, the House has sunk; its cornice, the ornamental molding just below the ceiling, is “in the Ground.” The repetition of the word “Ground” stresses its prominence in the speaker’s consciousness. It is as if all her attempts to hold on to the things of this world—the children at school, the grain, the setting sun, the cobweb clothing, the shapeless swelling of a House—have culminated in this single relentless image.

Then, in a leap that takes us to the poem’s final stanza, the speaker is in a different order of time, where centuries feel shorter than the single day of her dying. This is the poem’s only “description” of Eternity and what it implies is that life is immeasurably denser, fuller, weightier. Eternity has no end, but it is empty. Significantly, in the speaker’s recollection of the final, weighty day, “Death” is not present. Instead, she invokes the apocalyptic vision of “the Horses’ Heads” (a synecdoche for the horses) racing toward Eternity. But, for the speaker, seated in Death’s carriage, the horses’ heads are also an obstruction, “they are all she can see, or what she cannot see beyond” (Cameron, “Dickinson’s Fascicles,” 156). They point to the fact that the poem is an artifice, an attempt to imagine what cannot be imagined. “Toward Eternity—” remains only a “surmised” direction.

FURTHER READING Sharon Cameron, “Dickinson’s Fascicles,” in Handbook, Grabher et al., eds., 149–150, 156, and Lyric Time, 121–133; Judith Farr, Passion, 92–93, 329– 33; Kenneth L. Privratsky, “Irony in Emily Dickinson’s ‘Because I could not . . .,’ ” 25–30; Robert B. Sewall, Life, II, 572, 717–718; and Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Emily Dickinson, 274–276; Robert Weisbuch, “Prisming,” Handbook, 216–217.

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A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘My life closed twice before its close’

A summary of a classic Dickinson poem by Dr Oliver Tearle

‘My life closed twice before its close’ is one of Emily Dickinson’s finest short poems. In just two quatrains, Dickinson ponders immortality and the concept of an afterlife by posing a first line which doubles up as a riddle. How can one’s life close twice before it … closes? What does she mean? The poem is worth analysing more closely because of this puzzling enigma.

My life closed twice before its close – It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me

So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.

As with many of Emily Dickinson’s greatest poems , it’s impossible to pin down her poetry to one monolithic analysis or interpretation, and a critic who sought to do so would run the risk of destroying the subtle beauty of the language Dickinson uses, couched in abstractions and vague ambiguities as it often is. ‘My life closed twice before its close’ is no exception.

The rest of the poem, however, does allow us to shed some light on this memorable opening line:

There are numerous people whom Emily Dickinson had known and who had died by the probably composition date of ‘My life closed twice’, which is one of the last poems in Dickinson’s manuscripts. Judge Otis Phillips Lord, with whom Dickinson appears to have shared a passionate correspondence and friendship, had died in 1884, two years before Dickinson herself died.

With this analysis of the poem in line, we might paraphrase it as follows: ‘Before I have even died myself, I have known the deaths of two people who meant so much to me that their deaths led, in a small way, to my own, by robbing my life of its vitality.

It remains to be seen whether there is an afterlife, and it’s such a vast and ungraspable concept that it’s futile to try to imagine it. Other people’s deaths are the only way we gain access to heaven, and (thankfully) the only way we can learn of hell, until we ourselves die.’

Those last two lines, which read like a sort of unspecific Miltonic allusion, are intriguing, since they appear to suggest that we gain some sense of what heaven is like, and also what hell is like, by contemplating the deaths of those close to us. Their deaths are ‘all we know’ of the afterlife, because somehow the visceral experience of losing somebody close to us allows us to gain some brief insight into what an afterlife, whether good or bad, might be like. Otherwise, we cannot conceive of such a thing:

Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.

In a sense, this is a darker and more elliptical version of John Donne’s famous lines in his sermon:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

We have discussed these lines of Donne’s in more detail  here .

Through the deaths of those close to her, had Emily Dickinson felt that she had gained some terrible (or wonderful) insight into what awaited her, so soon after she penned this lines? Such a biographical analysis of ‘My life closed twice’ must inevitably reach a dead end.

But then would death be an ‘end’, or a ‘close’? Dickinson could not choose but wonder at what the veil concealed from view.

4 thoughts on “A Short Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s ‘My life closed twice before its close’”

• Pingback: Analysis of Emily Dickenson’s poem ‘My life closed twice before its close.’ | Librarian Musings

Dickinson remains a favorite to speculate–such a creative enigma

Yours is a very clear-headed reading. I suppose the other leading alternative would be some life event equivalent in the poet’s life to death, something which fits into the sort of tragic spinster narrative that was predominate when I first encountered Dickinson in my youth, a view that modern scholarship has greatly modified. Your reading makes sense of the 2nd stanza as well.

With the most enigmatic Dickinson I try to just let her hymnal music carry me though a few rounds while I hope meaning breaks through. I suppose that might be like meditating on a Zen koan, and in her nature poetry she seems almost like a classical Chinese poet, a Li Bai in 19th Century New England.

Thanks, Frank – I love the comparison between Dickinson and classical Chinese poetry. There’s something about that clipped, telegrammatic style, at once full of wise pronouncements and yet full of vulnerability and uncertainty, which seems tuned into ancient philosophy. I agree that Dickinson is one of those poets whose work it’s often best just to let wash over you and enjoy the musicality – to resolve the poems too definitely risks losing sight of what she’s doing, I think :)

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In a Library by Emily Dickinson

“In a Library” is a classic of Emily Dickinson, written around 1862 and published in 1890 in her first collection, Poems , edited by two of her friends M. L. Todd and T. W. Higginson. Dickinson was born on 10th December 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. From her childhood, she was very studious and bright. She took a keen interest in writing poetry and works of literary appreciation. Most of Emily Dickinson’s poems are stylistically novel and marvelous. Her style of putting her thoughts on a piece of paper is very different from her contemporary poets. She spent most of her life in solitude, so the main themes one can encounter in her poems are loneliness and death.

• Read the full text of “In a Library” below:

Dickinson’s “In a library” is a poem about the timelessness of an old book and the importance of the greatest source of knowledge, a library. In this poem, Dickinson expresses her love for the old books of a library. The books become a means for her escape into the antique world, the worlds of the prominent ancient writers. The setting of the poem is there in the title, i.e., a library. The poem’s speaker finds herself overwhelmed and loses track of time when she is around books. They nearly fill the empty void that Dickinson had in her life, the void of solitude, dejection, and sadness.

Through her poem “In a Library,” Dickinson highlights the various facets of a library. She strikes a conversation with an old book as if it is a wise, old human being. It is at one hand a comforter to the speaker. On the other hand, the book is an ocean of knowledge and a great healer. The speaker experiences a “mouldering pleasure” while “warming” her mind with the knowledge of the book. It reminds her of other writers who sown the seed of hope in the past. She expresses her gratitude to them and tries to persuade the old book to stay a little longer. Sadly, in its present “mouldering” state, it cannot. Hence, Dickinson remarks, “Old volumes shake their vellum heads/ And tantalize, just so.”

Form, Rhyme Scheme, & Meter

“In a Library” by Emily Dickinson runs into seven quatrains (stanzas having four lines each). The first quatrain does not follow a specific rhyme and rhythm. However, the other stanzas strictly follow the ABCB rhyme scheme. It means the second and fourth lines end with a similar rhyme.

The speaker of the poem can be counted as the poet herself, who enjoys being around old books of a library and feels the warmth of knowledge while around them.

Regarding the setting, Dickinson sets this poem in a library. It is written from the first-person point of view with a grateful tone. In the last sections, the tone reflects the speaker’s longing and sadness for the deterioration of old books due to neglect.

Like other poems of Dickinson, this piece is composed of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter alternatively. Let’s have a look at the scansion of the first two quatrains:

A pre /-cious, mould /-ering plea/-sure ‘t is To meet / an an /-tique book , In just / the dress / his cen /-tury wore ; A pri /-vi- lege ,/ I think , His ve /-ne- ra /-ble hand / to take , And war /-ming in / our own , A pas /-sage back ,/ or two ,/ to make To times / when he / was young .

Poetic Devices

In Dickinson’s poem “In a Library,” one important literary device is Allusion.

An allusion is an indirect reference to some author or work, especially in literature. “In a Library” has many allusions such as:

• “Plato” — Plato is considered the father of western political philosophy. He is also the creator of the “metaphysical theory of forms.”
• “Sophocles” — Sophocles is a legendary figure in the history of English literature. His best-known work Oedipus Rex is a primer for understanding the genre of tragedy.
• “Sappho” — Sappho was a Greek poet. In the ancient age, she was regarded as one of the greatest lyric poets, even given the titles “Tenth Muse” and “The Poetess.”
• “Beatrice” — Beatrice was the principal inspiration of Dante. She appears in Dante’s Divine Comedy and in his other works.
• “Dante” — Dante, the creator of the Divine Comedy , was an Italian poet and philosopher. He was one of the important poets of the Mediaeval Ages.

Let’s have a look at the other poetic devices used in the poem.

• Personification: It denotes human qualities to animals, objects, or abstract ideas. In the poem, “an antique book” is personified, described with all the living qualities, like having hands, a mind, wisdom, etc.
• Extended Metaphor: It is a form of metaphor that extends for multiple lines or stanzas; the “book” is an extended metaphor for a wise man from the antique age.
• Anaphora: When a word or phrase occurs at the beginning of consecutive lines, the technique is called anaphora. For instance, the term “His” is repeated at the beginning of lines 5-6, and “What” is repeated in lines 9-10.
• Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same sound (vowel/consonant) at the beginning of words next to each other; like, “ t wo, t o” (repetition of the “t” sound), “ m utual m ind” (repetition of the “m” sound), “ th at D ante d eified” (repetition of the “d” sound), “ t o t own” (repetition of the “t” sound), etc.

Stanza-by-Stanza Analysis & Explanation

A precious, mouldering pleasure ‘t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think,

Dickinson’s “In a Library” begins on a pleasant note. The poetic persona is extremely content and delightful that she is meeting an old friend of hers, “an antique book” in a “mouldering” library. The book is personified as an old acquaintance that wears a century-old dress. Its “dress” is a metaphor for an old “vellum” cover. From this reference, it can be inferred that this book is a classic. As the book dates back nearly a century, its cover seems extremely dull and pale to the speaker. She also believes that it belonged to a glorious era. Hence, it holds a sort of “privilege” to “meet” (having the opportunity to read) the classic by holding it in her own hands.

His venerable hand to take, And warming in our own, A passage back, or two, to make To times when he was young.

In the second stanza, Dickinson’s speaker expresses her feelings about her encounter with the old friend, i.e., the book. The speaker feels honored to hold its “venerable hand” as if the book is a great, wise man with several enriching facts in its store.

The book is depicted as a man of wisdom, intellect, and knowledge in this section. The speaker can feel the warmth while holding hands with it. She recollects all the memories she has with it. They both move back to the time when the book was young, latest, and popular.

The speaker feels overwhelmed with her eyes glittering in happiness. It is like meeting the person with whom one longs to have a chat.

Stanza Three

His quaint opinions to inspect, His knowledge to unfold On what concerns our mutual mind, The literature of old;

In the next stanza, she explores several aspects the book as a wise man has to offer her. It has some “quaint opinions” (debatable theories) the poet does not agree with. It can also be a reference to the old wisdom available in the book.

The book has a vast ocean of “knowledge to unfold.” Hence, she keeps peeping through the books to have insight and clarity on the antique age. She further claims that they (the book and the poet) both share mutual thoughts. Their main concern is about the “literature of old.” The speaker is interested in knowing the intricacies of the old literature, and the book unfolds the popular topics from the age.

Stanza Four

What interested scholars most, What competitions ran When Plato was a certainty. And Sophocles a man;

In this stanza, Dickinson goes back to the past with the mentions of the various literary figures. Her tone shows her deep interest in the legacy that the literary ancestors have left behind. She wants to know what exactly interested the ancient scholars and what they liked or abhorred.

The speaker is also curious to find out the ideas of “Plato” and “Sophocles” when they both were in full command in their time. She tries to ask what the major line of difference was and how one can identify the better one between them. Further, she alludes to “Plato” and “Sophocles.”

Plato was an Athenian philosopher best known for his work called the Republic . His dialogues deal with several aspects of metaphysics. On the other hand, Sophocles is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His best-known works include Oedipus Rex , Antigone , etc.

Stanza Five

When Sappho was a living girl, And Beatrice wore The gown that Dante deified. Facts, centuries before,

This stanza begins In continuation of the allusions to the ancient gems of literature from the previous stanza. Dickinson alludes to “Sappho,” a poet, alive back then, again tracing back to Ancient Greek literature. Sappho, known for her lyric poetry, is regarded as “The Poetess” and the “Tenth Muse.” Like Dickinson, Sappho’s poems are melodious in nature, written to be sung accompanied with music.

The next allusion that the poet has made is that of “Beatrice,” from the Divine Comedy written by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri. Dante adored Beatrice so much that his vast array of poetry was centered around her.

The reference of “the gown” represents Dante’s love for Beatrice, who “deified” (glorified with veneration and deep admiration) her like a goddess. All these references to the writers are the witness of Dickinson’s devotion to classical Greek and Italian literature. In this way, she takes readers along with her long back in time when those figures were at their prime, through the medium of an old book.

He traverses familiar, As one should come to town And tell you all your dreams were true; He lived where dreams were sown.

Dickinson, in this stanza, nostalgically recounts the supremacy of ancient Greek writings of art, philosophy, and myths. The “antique book,” which is full of knowledge, saw the transition of several ages. It can tell about the high reliance of western culture on Greek art and how their themes and concepts are still relevant and sound.

The word “dreams” represents the thoughts and ideas that a writer planted in the book long back. The new generation is reaping the crops of their “dreams” now, following their legacy. In this way, the seeds of knowledge and ideas are sown in the form of writing a book. After ages, when curious ones come across such writings, they come to understand that the “dreams” of the past are the “reality” they are living in.

Stanza Seven

His presence is enchantment, You beg him not to go; Old volumes shake their vellum heads And tantalize, just so.

The last stanza of “In a Library” is more of a sad note as Dickinson is not ready to believe that it is time for the books to go. She cannot let the book go. She begs it “not to go” because the air around is enchanted with its wise spells. It has fumes of pleasure that the poet does not want to let go. She feels overwhelmed being around it, grasping all its knowledge, feeling less lonely than she is. So, seeing its deteriorating pages, she is hesitant to let it fade.

The “antique book,” on the other hand, tantalizes (teases) the poet, making fake promises to return. All the old books of the library start nodding, and they shake their “vellum heads” in unison. However, deep in her heart, Dickinson knows that she will not get this chance again. This is the time to wave “the book” a warm and heavy goodbye.

Historical Context

Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest American poets. Her poetry is still relevant in the contemporary world. She has lived most of her life alone, and hence, most of her poems showcase her state of loneliness, grief, and obsession with death. She witnessed the death of her parents when she was a child. Thus, many of her poems share the theme of death. By being on her own, for most of the time, writing became her only strength and the voice which we can hear until now through her works. The rest of her life was spent in misery and ailing health. Being lonely throughout her life, she was dragged to reading. Her love for ancient literature/books is portrayed in the poem “In a Library.”

Questions & Answers

Emily Dickinson’s poem “In a Library” is about “an antique book” from a library. The speaker compares the book to a wise old man with whom she spends some quality moments, diving back and forth in time, reminiscing on the Greek and Italian writers, and brooding over the drooping condition of other books of the library.

According to Dickinson, the books of Plato, Sophocles, Sappho, and Dante are still important to this day. In this poem, she gets lost in her thoughts while holding an original edition of an “antique book.”

In this poem, Dickinson reads an “antique book” from an old library. This book belongs to Ancient Greek literature as the speaker spends several lines recapitulating the names of some great Greek writers such as Plato, Sophocles, and Sappho.

According to the poet, books help us to relive the past. They are the window to the opinions of our forefathers, their concerns for the world, interests, traditions, and, most importantly, their dreams which have become our reality.

In this poem, Dickinson uses a number of literary devices such as allusion, personification, alliteration, etc.

Emily Dickinson was a keen observer, and her poetry has a variety of themes covering death, immortality, nature, and life. In this poem, she taps on the themes of books, reading, past, dream, mortality, and knowledge.

“In a Library” was published in Dickinson’s first collection of poetry, Poems (1890). It appears as the tenth poem in Book I, entitled “Life.”

Emily Dickinson’s poems include the use of long dashes, elision, and unconventional capitalization. Her poems are titleless. She is regarded as one of the greatest and most unique poets of all time.

Similar Poems about Books & Writing

• “ The Writer ” by Richard Wilbur — This piece is about a father’s concerns for his daughter, struggling while writing a short story.
• “Dreamtime” by Oodgeroo Noonuccal — This poem is an impassioned address to the ancestors who died protecting their culture.
• “Under a Certain Little Star” by Wislawa Szymborska — In this poem, Szymborska addresses a number of ideas, admitting her inadequacies as a poet.
• “ Have you got a brook in your little heart ” by Emily Dickinson — This poem taps on the themes of life, mortality, and death, comparing the soul to a brook.

External Resources

• About Ancient Greek Literature — Learn about the Greek writers, their works, and major themes.
• The Role of Libraries — Learn about the importance of libraries in society.
• Read the full text of Poems (1890) — Explore the first collection of Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
• Life of Emily Dickinson — Unfold the chapters of Dickinson’s Life and her poetic career.
• Poetic Style of Emily Dickinson — Discover the major characteristics of Dickinson’s poetry.
• Check out My Wars Are Laid Away in Books — Explore this enriching book on the life and poetic development of Emily Dickinson.

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Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American Poet, now considered as a powerful and popular literary figure in American Culture. She is known for her innovative and proto-modernist poetic style.

A Critic, Harold Bloom has placed her name in the list of major American poets. Her works are widely anthologized and she is a source of inspiration for artists today, especially those artists who are feminist-oriented.

Emily Dickinson’s poetry falls in three periods:

The poetry that has written before 1861 is conventional and sentimental in nature while the time between 1861 and 1865 is the most creative period when much of her creative work was written. This was the period when she wrote on the themes of life and mortality.

About two-third of Emily’s poetry was written after 1866.

Emily Dickinson’s poetry is taught in literature classes in the United States in middle schools and colleges. Several schools are also established in her name. Few journals, such as The Emily Dickinson Journal , are published in her name.

Many of her works have been translated into different languages including Spanish, French, Farsi, Chinese, Russian, Georgian, Mandarin and Kurdish etc.

A Short Biography of Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born into a prominent but not a wealthy family, on the 10th of December 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States.

She studied English and classical literature, Latin, botany, geology, history, arithmetic and mental philosophy during her seven years at Amherst Academy. She was a well-behaved child and an excellent student. She then attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year.

Emily began writing at an early age and among those who influenced her to include Leonard Humphrey, a young principal of the Amherst Academy, and Benjamin Franklin, a family friend, who introduced her to the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Wordsworth. 

In 1855, Emily went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where she befriended Charles Wadsworth, who remained a correspondent for a long time.

Susan Gilbert, Emily’s sister-in-law, was her best friend and many of Emily’s poems are written for Susan.

Emily Dickinson was a very reserved person, she rarely went out of the house. Among her, few acquaintances were Otis Phillips Lord, a judge in the Massachusetts judicial court, and Samuel Bowles, the owner of the Springfield Republican .

Emily never married and spent the later years of her life in seclusion. She died on 5th of May 1886, at the age of 55.

Little of Emily Dickinson’s poems were published during her lifetime. Her sister Lavinia discovered her poetry after her death. The first volume of her poetry was published in 1890.

The Dickinson family Homestead was turned into The Emily Dickinson Museum in 2003.

Emily Dickinson’s Writing Style

Emily Dickinson’s poems are lyrics, expressing thoughts and feelings. She was a keen observer and wrote about everything that she observed. Her themes are universal. Her style of writing is not a conventional one, she did not typically follow the poetic rules but had a unique writing style of her own. 

There is no such theme that has not been discussed in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. She has talked about life, death and emotions which show her aesthetic intentions. Sometimes she wrote with humour while other times she used strong wit. 

She had strong imaginative power, she used to dwell in her imaginary world for hours which seemed concrete to her. It would then lead her to write something unique.

The literary techniques that she has used in her poetry include irony , humour , puns and satire .

Emily’s unique style of expression added oddness to her writings which made her different from other poets of her time. She was a prolific and influential poet who focused more on her word choice rather than following the conventional syntax of writing poetry that made her popular even among today’s literary world.

Short lines

Emily writes short and brief lines that make her poetry compact. She conveys her idea in a small number of words. Her style is so compact that she delivers a great theme in a few numbers of lines that are not very lengthy but brief. Such as:

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne’er succeed

A reader can understand the main idea of the poem by reading these two short lines.

Lack of Titles

Emily Dickinson’s poems do not have titles. The first line of her poems is used as the title for example, the poem Success is counted sweetest is actually the first line of the poem that is used as its title.

Slant rhyme

Though Emily uses perfect rhymes for second and fourth lines, she also sometimes uses slant rhymes, also called approximate rhyme, the rhyme that has similar but not identical sounds). For example in the below lines from Emily Dickinson’s “Not any higher stands the Grave” , Queen and Afternoon show an example of slant rhyme.

“This latest Leisure equal lulls

The Beggar and his Queen

Propitiate this Democrat

A Summer’s Afternoon –”

Unconventional Capitalization and Punctuation

Emily’s poetry has an unconventional use of Capitalization which emphasizes a particular theme and puts stress on it. This unconventional Capitalization and Punctuation sometimes slow down the pace and sometimes it speeds it up. 

The extensive use of dashes in her poetry indicates pauses, to join two thoughts or to push them apart. It also shows her individual style of line break and makes her works unique. For example;

“Not any higher stands the Grave

For Heroes than for Men –

Not any nearer for the Child

Than numb Three Score and Ten –”

Grave , Men , Child and Ten are capitalized in the above lines. The excerpt also shows the use of dashes.

Major Themes

Emily has discussed a variety of themes in her works such as religion , home and family , death , nature and love .

She has talked about flowers and gardens in her poetry. She has associated flowers with certain emotions, for example, she associated gentias and anemones with youth and insight.

She has also discussed morbidity and death in her poetry. She has talked about different methods of death such as crucifixion, drowning, hanging, suffocation, shooting, stabbing etc.

She has also written Gospel poems in which she has addressed Jesus Christ and has reflected his teachings.

She often uses the ballad stanza in her poems, a form which is divided into quatrains where the first and the third lines use tetrameter while the second and the fourth line use trimeter. The second line rhymes with the fourth line in such a way that the rhyme scheme becomes ABCB.

Emily’s use of meter is sometimes regular while oftentimes it is irregular. She has used Hymn Meters which includes tetrameter and trimeter but not iambic pentameter , while dimeter is less commonly used by her.

She has also used Ballad Meter which is a variant of Hymn Meter. It is conversational in nature and is less strict than the Common Meter.

She uses the Common Meter of eight syllables followed by a line of six syllables while writing a hymn, with an 8/6/8/6 pattern however unlike traditional hymns, she has liberated herself from the common meter. She uses enjambment and takes breaks where there are no syntactic pauses or line breaks. For example, in I cannot live with you, she has paused unconventionally.

The Sexton keeps the Key to – 

     Putting up

     Our Life – His Porcelain – 

     Like a Cup –

Works Of Emily Dickinson

• Success is Counted Sweetest
• I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Poem of the week: The saddest noise, the sweetest noise by Emily Dickinson

This evocation of springtime quickly takes on a darker tone and stands among the author’s unforgettable works

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise (No 1789)

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise, The maddest noise that grows, — The birds, they make it in the spring, At night’s delicious close,

Between the March and April line — That magical frontier Beyond which summer hesitates, Almost too heavenly near.

It makes us think of all the dead That sauntered with us here, By separation’s sorcery Made cruelly more dear.

It makes us think of what we had, And what we now deplore. We almost wish those siren throats Would go and sing no more.

An ear can break a human heart As quickly as a spear. We wish the ear had not a heart So dangerously near.

This undated poem, numbered 1789 in The Poems of Emily Dickinson , seems to inhabit a modest and even populist lexicon at times. Dickinson is known for paradoxical analogies, often opening her poem with a terse declaration of the unexpected: “My life had stood — a loaded gun —”, “Hope is the thing with feathers …” and many others. The two superlatives of the first line, “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise”, are less than arresting. Elsewhere, some adjectives and adverbs seem too metrically driven; “cruelly” in the third verse’s last line may be one of them. But the association of spring and death is slowly firmed and filled out as the slow-paced, regularly constructed verses accumulate. An extraordinary figurative strike in the fifth, with a spear rather than a gun, earns the poem a place among the unforgettable.

It’s a mark of Dickinson’s fidelity to experience that she describes the collective sound of the birds as “noise”, not “song”, and the third of the trio of superlatives, “maddest”, points in a direction neither “saddest” and “sweetest” initially can encompass. That “madness” will become tangible in verse three. Meanwhile, the second verse foregrounds seasonal delight, though hinting that the “magical frontier” between spring and summer might resemble the fine line between life and death: “Between the March and April line — / That magical frontier/ Beyond which summer hesitates, / Almost too heavenly near.”

The verb “sauntered” in the third verse suggests a relaxed pace, as if the companions had felt no fear of time’s passing. Now the noise of the birds “makes us think of all the dead” – as if the birds had become a confusing, ghostly chorus of voices and memories of voices. Even the narratorial voice, always using the first-person plural pronoun, might include the dead. Something unheavenly enters the verse in the third line, the bad magic of a sorcerer who takes away cherished companions to make us cherish them all the more. The birds’ “siren throats” are a threat, because of the awareness of loss they provoke. The poem puts it with appealing bluntness: “We almost wish those siren throats / would go and sing no more.”

Dickinson has made room for sweetness, sadness and madness, but her concluding verse is honed to a figure of startling violence. “An ear can break a human heart …” Instead of bird noise, it’s the human ear which delivers pain, like the “spear” with which it rhymes. A well-aimed spear can literally stop a heart, and so that cliche of metaphorical “heartbreak” is redeemed. With “a heart / so dangerously near,” the ear almost acquires a creaturely existence of its own, especially when the two “hearts” are end words in lines one and three, as if human and ear were indeed separate beings. An adverb powered by understatement, “dangerously” seems fully earned. This perfect verse, in a direct and disturbingly “organic” way, connects sound with emotion, and is almost a poem in itself:

• Carol Rumens's poem of the week
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25 Famous Emily Dickinson Poems (Free Printable)

Get swept away by this famous American lyricists’ poetry.

Emily Dickinson remains one of the most mysterious poets. She didn’t leave an autobiography or journals, and she wrote many of her poems in secret. (After Emily Dickinson died, her sister found almost 1,800 poems in her bedroom.) So, without a lot of guidance from Dickinson about why she was writing or the meaning behind her poems, we have to read her poetry with an open mind. Perhaps that’s why her poetry is so profound—each reader brings themselves to her poems and connects with her words from where they are.

The 25 Emily Dickinson poems below are among her most popular. Get the full text of each poem as a free printable to use with your students by filling out the form on this page.

Who was Emily Dickinson?

25 famous emily dickinson poems.

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 to a wealthy Massachusetts family. She was known for her individuality and “rebellious” attitude. She wrote poems with themes of death, immorality, faith, fame, and doubt. Her poetry is known especially for her originality and style with unconventional capitalization and dashes to move the poem along. She’s still an incredibly popular American poet and a wonderful poet to read to get students interested in poetry in general.

These 25 Emily Dickinson poems are a drop in the bucket (she wrote almost 1,800 poems ), but these are among the best and show her range, mastery of language, and innovation.

Get the full text of each poem as a free printable to use with your students by filling out the form on this page.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

“hope” is the thing with feathers – that perches in the soul – and sings the tune without the words – and never stops – at all –.

This Emily Dickinson poem is among her most famous. It reads like a song (characteristic of Dickinson’s poetry). This is a good poem to start a unit on poetry as it’s life-affirming and, well, hopeful.

Success is counted sweetest

Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed. to comprehend a nectar requires sorest need..

Fame was a theme in Dickinson’s work. This particular poem was published anonymously in an anthology (Dickinson’s father did not think women should publish, and she published few poems during her lifetime). This poem begs the question, did Dickinson avoid fame because she wanted to protect her name or because she had already tried to seek fame and been rejected?

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –

Outside of the literary world, Dickinson is known for her poems on mental health. This poem is perhaps her most famous about mental health . After reading it, students can talk about what in Dickinson’s experience may have sparked this poem and what she wants to communicate about mental health.

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

I’m nobody who are you are you – nobody – too then there’s a pair of us don’t tell they’d advertise – you know.

Dickinson is known for her use of seemingly random capital letters. This poem is a great one to explore for why she capitalized some letters and how it influences the meaning of the poem. For example, when she capitalizes “nobody,” how does it change the meaning of the word?

Because I could not stop for Death

Because i could not stop for death – he kindly stopped for me – the carriage held but just ourselves – and immortality..

This classic, melancholic poem is among the many Emily Dickinson poems that deal with death and the afterlife. Just the first two lines provide a lot to talk about. But the poem is not dark—on the contrary, it’s hopeful and meditative.

A Bird, came down the Walk

A bird, came down the walk – he did not know i saw – he bit an angle worm in halves and ate the fellow, raw … .

This poem is good for younger readers because it is an observation of nature, with details that children can understand.

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun

My life had stood – a loaded gun – in corners – till a day the owner passed – identified – and carried me away –.

This poem has one of Dickinson’s strongest first lines (and she has a lot of strong first lines!). The actual topic of the poem is up for debate—is it the afterlife or her meditation on anger? Or is it Dickinson’s frustration with having to write in secret?

Tell all the truth but tell it slant –

Tell all the truth but tell it slant – Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth’s superb surprise …

In this more playful poem, Dickinson uses images to get the point across that one can be honest in a kind way. This poem is more didactic than other Emily Dickinson poems, which makes it interesting in its own right.

There’s a certain Slant of light

There’s a certain slant of light, winter afternoons – that oppresses, like the heft of cathedral tunes –.

This poem is a serious contemplation of the seasons changing, time passing, and endings, from a year ending to the ultimate ending, death.  

This is my letter to the World

This is my letter to the world that never wrote to me – the simple news that nature told – with tender majesty ….

In this poem, Dickinson takes a stronger stance on communicating with her readers. It’s one of her poems where the feelings (loneliness, frustration) leap right off the page. Read this poem alongside composer David Leisner’s version that puts the words to song.

I dwell in Possibility –

I dwell in possibility – a fairer house than prose – more numerous of windows – superior – for doors –.

This poem is a great one to connect to Dickinson’s life—she was a homebody. You can also read it for the use of imagery—the use of architectural references to create meaning in the poem, and the use of juxtaposition—the smallness of chambers against the expansive sky.

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –

I heard a fly buzz – when i died – the stillness in the room was like the stillness in the air – between the heaves of storm –.

This poem is in the canon of poems about death, but with a little more humor and matter-of-factness than other poems. Students can analyze this poem with a focus on deciding when description is literal and when it is meant to be figurative.

It was not Death, for I stood up

It was not death, for i stood up, and all the dead, lie down – it was not night, for all the bells put out their tongues, for noon..

This poem is an objective observation of Dickinson’s state and her feelings on pain and hopelessness. Students can analyze the way Dickinson describes these feelings, and how she uses opposites (“it was not …”) to help set the tone and meaning of the poem. Read this analysis for more insight.

Before I got my eye put out –

Before I got my eye put out – I liked as well to see As other creatures, that have eyes – And know no other way –

Dickinson is known to have had bad eyesight and eyes that were light sensitive and sometimes painful. With that biographical information, it’s hard not to read this poem literally. Dickinson never had her eye put out, but we are reading the words of someone whose eyesight, or loss of eyesight, is a frustrating or even frightening topic.  

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – the nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs – the stiff heart questions ‘was it he, that bore,’ and ‘yesterday, or centuries before’.

This poem is only 13 lines long, but it hits the emotional level that makes Dickinson unique. It’s about the numb feelings that come after strong emotions, like grief, and how short those feelings can be.

Dear March – Come in –

Dear march, how are you, and the rest – did you leave nature well – oh march, come right upstairs with me – i have so much to tell –.

This poem is about the coming of spring and is written as a letter between the poet and a guest, the month of March personified. It’s a good counterpoint to “There’s a certain Slant of light,” showing how Dickinson thought about various times in the year and periods of life.

My life closed twice before its close

My life closed twice before its close – it yet remains to see if immortality unveil a third event to me.

This poem provides a metaphor for death . “Close” shows both heartbreak and death, and Dickinson ends the poem with a note of sarcasm. This is a poem for which we’d love to know more about Dickinson’s personal life to understand.

To fight aloud is very brave

To fight aloud, is very brave – but gallanter, i know who charge within the bosom the cavalry of wo –.

This poem explores the honor in living and dying quietly . It recognizes that there is honor in fighting and dying with valor, but also in the unsung or quieter lives and fights.

Publication—is the Auction

Publication – is the Auction Of the Mind of Man – Poverty – be justifying For so foul a thing …

One of the questions about Dickinson is whether she wanted to be published at all . Much of her work was published after her death, and her poems convey that she may not have wanted fame or even publication. In today’s world of constant content creation, this poem is a great way to start a conversation about what’s worth sharing and when we might create just for the joy of it.

If I can stop one heart from breaking

If i can stop one heart from breaking, i shall not live in vain; if i can ease one life the aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin unto his nest again, i shall not live in vain..

This is another famous Dickinson poem. The theme of wanting to make life worth living is another great one for middle and high schoolers who are starting to think about philosophical ideas.

The Heart asks Pleasure – first

The heart asks pleasure – first – and then – excuse from pain – and then – those little anodynes that deaden suffering –.

Another poem that is a meditation on what life is and what makes it meaningful. Students can analyze what Dickinson sees as important: pleasure, lack of pain, comfort.

I died for Beauty – but was scarce

I died for beauty – but was scarce adjusted in the tomb when one who died for truth, was lain in an adjoining room –.

One of the most well-known poems about death by Dickinson and one of the most lyrical, this poem is also about the meaning of life and what might come after death. Two dead people meet, each having lived and died for a different reason. In the end, we see that both got covered up, leaving the question of which is more important in the long-term.

As imperceptibly as Grief

As imperceptibly as grief the summer lapsed away – too imperceptible at last to seem like perfidy –.

Grief is often a theme in Dickinson’s poetry, and this poem tackles that theme head-on. In this poem, the rhythms of nature and details of the natural world are in parallel with human actions as summer ends.

A death-blow is a life-blow to some

A death-blow is a life-blow to some Who, till they died, did not alive become; Who, had they lived, had died, but when They died, vitality begun.

This short and sweet poem packs a punch. It’s all about people who are more impactful in death than in life (not unlike Dickinson’s own life). Students can analyze these four lines and connect them to other poems about death and fame, or to Dickinson’s biography.

I have not told my garden yet

I have not told my garden yet, lest that should conquer me; i have not quite the strength now to break it to the bee..

This poem is a perfect example of Dickinson’s tone, imagery, and understated prose. It’s a great poem to introduce or conclude a unit on Dickinson.

Now that students are intrigued, here are 24 famous poets students should know .

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I taste a liquor never brewed Summary & Analysis by Emily Dickinson

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

Emily Dickinson's "I taste a liquor never brewed" is about getting completely drunk—not on booze, but on life. On a glorious summer day, the poem's speaker imagines drinking so deeply and joyously of nature's beauty that even the angels run to their windows to watch the speaker's happy shenanigans. First appearing in 1861 in the newspaper the Springfield Daily Republican , this is one of only a few of Dickinson's poems published in her lifetime (though, as usual, the editors of the paper where it was first published messed around with her distinctive style).

• Read the full text of “I taste a liquor never brewed”

The Full Text of “I taste a liquor never brewed”

1 I taste a liquor never brewed –

2 From Tankards scooped in Pearl –

3 Not all the Frankfort Berries

4 Yield such an Alcohol!

5 Inebriate of air – am I –

6 And Debauchee of Dew –

7 Reeling – thro' endless summer days –

8 From inns of molten Blue –

9 When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee

10 Out of the Foxglove's door –

11 When Butterflies – renounce their "drams" –

12 I shall but drink the more!

13 Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats –

14 And Saints – to windows run –

15 To see the little Tippler

16 Leaning against the – Sun!

“I taste a liquor never brewed” Summary

“i taste a liquor never brewed” themes.

Appreciating the Glory of Nature

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I taste a liquor never brewed”

I taste a liquor never brewed – From Tankards scooped in Pearl – Not all the Frankfort Berries Yield such an Alcohol!

Inebriate of air – am I – And Debauchee of Dew –

Reeling – thro' endless summer days – From inns of molten Blue –

When "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee Out of the Foxglove's door – When Butterflies – renounce their "drams" – I shall but drink the more!

Lines 13-14

Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats – And Saints – to windows run –

Lines 15-16

To see the little Tippler Leaning against the – Sun!

“I taste a liquor never brewed” Symbols

Alcohol and Drunkenness

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

The Sun and the Sky

“i taste a liquor never brewed” poetic devices & figurative language, alliteration.

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

Personification

“i taste a liquor never brewed” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Frankfort Berries
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I taste a liquor never brewed”

Rhyme scheme, “i taste a liquor never brewed” speaker, “i taste a liquor never brewed” setting, literary and historical context of “i taste a liquor never brewed”, more “i taste a liquor never brewed” resources, external resources.

Drunken Bees — Though Dickinson isn't being literal in this poem, bees can, in fact, get a little tipsy when drinking nectar that has fermented. Check out this article to learn more!

Dickinson's Handwriting — See the original manuscript of the poem.

A reading of the poem — A reader with a slight Irish accent performs the poem—in a different version. Spot the differences!

Dickinson's Life — Additional biographical information on Dickinson, plus links to more of her poems, from the Poetry Foundation.

The Emily Dickinson Museum — Take a look at the museum housed in Dickinson's former home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

A Light exists in Spring

A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

A narrow Fellow in the Grass

An awful Tempest mashed the air—

As imperceptibly as grief

A still—Volcano—Life—

Because I could not stop for Death —

Before I got my eye put out

Fame is a fickle food

Hope is the thing with feathers

I cannot live with You –

I cautious, scanned my little life

I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

I did not reach Thee

I died for Beauty—but was scarce

I dreaded that first Robin, so

I dwell in Possibility –

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

If I can stop one heart from breaking

I had been hungry, all the Years

I have a Bird in spring

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

I like a look of Agony

I like to see it lap the Miles

I measure every Grief I meet

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

I started Early — Took my Dog —

It was not Death, for I stood up

I—Years—had been—from Home—

Like Rain it sounded till it curved

Much Madness is divinest Sense -

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

Nature is what we see

One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

Publication — is the Auction

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

Success is counted sweetest

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

The Bustle in a House

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

There came a Wind like a Bugle

There is no Frigate like a Book

There's a certain Slant of light

There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

The Soul has bandaged moments

The Soul selects her own Society

The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

They shut me up in Prose –

This is my letter to the world

This World is not Conclusion

'Twas the old—road—through pain—

We grow accustomed to the Dark

What mystery pervades a well!

Whose cheek is this?

Wild nights - Wild nights!

Everything you need for every book you read.