Life and Death: An analysis of two Emily Dickinson poems, by Love Webb

The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, report approximately 2,596,993 deaths each year. What the CDC neglects to report is what those deaths actually mean. In two of her poems, Emily Dickinson takes a close look at death. Unlike the CDC, Dickinson also evaluates what death means.

On the surface, the poems “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain” and “I Heard a Fly buzz - When I Died” are about death. However, they are about life as well. In “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” the speaker attends a funeral and, using vivid imagery, describes how the funeral unfolds from a first-person point of view. In this way, the speaker evaluates how she feels about the end of life. In “I Heard a Fly buzz - When I Died,” the speaker is in the process of dying and details how she feels about her life. In this way, Dickinson, known for her poetry about death, actually reveals her views on life.

In “I Heard a Fly buzz - When I Died,” the speaker is dying, yet examines what she felt was important about her life. She begins by describing the room as “still,” yet there is a buzz from a fly. The first stanza compares the way the room feels to the way the air feels between a storm. In this way, the speaker suggests life is constantly in motion and, even as death approaches, there is not complete silence. The speaker further suggests there is a similarity between the beginning of death and the “calm before a storm,” which implies both life and death are the storm. In the third stanza, the speaker states, “I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away/What portion of me be/Assignable” (9-11). This suggests the narrator can select what to leave people based on the importance of those items. This signifies there is something from a person’s life, regardless of death, that will be carried on by other people.

Additionally, the poet’s phrasing is important because “willed…[and] signed” the parts of them away means it was up to the narrator to transfer parts of her life; they could not be taken but only given. Another important phrase is “what portion of me be/assignable” (10-11). It indicates there are parts of the narrator’s life that she could not assign to another person. Still, this is not the only poem by Emily Dickinson that is about death on the surface but, when analyzed, it is about life as well.

“I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain” is another example of a poem by Emily Dickinson about death, which indicates how the narrator understands life. The language in this poem is important as well. The first line states the narrator “felt a funeral, in my brain.” It is unclear whether the narrator is imagining a funeral or if she is actually attending a funeral and feels the funeral within her. With either reading of that line, it is obvious the narrator is deeply affected by the funeral.

Another noteworthy aspect of this poem is the repetition. In the first and second stanza, words are repeated close to each other, highlighting the importance of the word. The words “treading” and “beating” were repeated in the first two stanzas, along with the punctuation of sentence and other words. This repetition assists with the rhythm of the poems. However, it can also indicate how the narrator feels even though a person has died. The bereaved must still must keep moving forward through their grief.

Another indicator of how the narrator feels about life is the senses used in describing the funeral. Although the poem is known by the first line, it makes many references to sound and hearing. This indicates the speaker believes sound is an important sense to experience life. Another aspect of the poem that leads to this conclusion is the musicality, a clear rhythm.

Interestingly, the only two senses mentioned in the poem are the sense of hearing and the sense of touch. The end of the poem is an important aspect as well. The poem ends with, “-then-/” leaving the impression there is more to come. This shows that, although death is the end of a person’s life, a part of that person remains in others and continues in that way. In this way, the poems are similar.

These poems can be juxtaposed, which adds another layer of comparison between life and death. On the surface, the narrator of one poem is dying, while the narrator of the other poem is reacting to a death. One aspect the poems have in common is the seemingly random capitalization of words. This signifies the importance of the word. Of course, since Dickinson did not intend to publish her poems, these included, the capitalizations could be unimportant and simply an error or handwriting style. Additionally, they are untitled. This means the reader is left to infer the meaning and importance of the poem without any direction from the title. Therefore, it is difficult to determine if Dickinson truly wrote these poems as an insight into the her thoughts about life or not. Still, stylistic elements, such as word choice, imagery and rhythm, give insight into the message Dickinson was trying to convey. Imagery, one rhetorical device Dickinson uses in both poems, aid the reader's comprehension and interpretation of the poem.

To conclude, although there is great mystery surrounding Dickinson’s poetry because she never intended to publish it, she still wrote in a manner that allows the reader to interpret and comprehend the poem. In both of these poems, “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain” and “I Heard a Fly buzz - When I Died,” the narrator is experiencing a physical death, the ending of a life. However, the reaction the narrator has to death gives the reader the ability to interpret the meaning of life. Using figurative language and rhetoric, Dickinson examines what death means for those who are “left behind.” If these poems are to be believed, each person leaves behind pieces of himself or herself after death. It’s up to individuals to determine what they leave behind as well. Additionally, the legacy continues regardless of death, especially if there are those who will use the pieces. While scholars might disagree, Dickinson’s obsession with death can also be read as an obsession with the legacy a person leaves when he /she dies.

Works Cited

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths & Mortality 25 02 2016.

<http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm>.

Dickinson, Emily. "I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain." Johnson, Thomas H. Final Harvest. Back Bay,

n.d. 42-43.

Dickinson, Emily. "I Heard a Fly buzz - When I Died." Johnson, Thomas H. Final Harvest. Back

Bay, n.d. 111-112.