FREE ESSAY ON EMILY DICKINSON POEMS

EMILY DICKINSON POEMS

Auer 1
Paul Auer
English
Final draft
10-30-00
Death is Good
Emily Dickinson is a writer well known for her poems on death. Her poems "Safe in their
Alabaster Chambers" and "Because I could not stop for Death" are two of her more famous
poems. The persona's attitude in both of these poems is very similar.
In the poem "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" the persona's attitude toward death is
peaceful. The peaceful attitude is evident in the first few lines, "Safe in their
Alabaster Chambers-- / Untouched by Mourning-- / And untouched by Noon..."(553). This
poem is about someone who has died and is in his tomb underground, which is untouchable
by the sun. The word "safe" is used to describe the persona's peaceful attitude toward
death.
Another way the peaceful persona attitude is portrayed in "Safe in their Alabaster
Chambers" is with the persona's look back on life. The lines, "Untouched by Morning / And
untouched by Noon / Lie the meek members of the Resurrection..."(553). This is the person
looking back on his life. The "Morning" symbolizes childhood, the "Noon" symbolizes
growing up, and the "Resurrection" symbolizes the person's death. Most people think when
a human dies, they get to look back on all their happy times in life. The persona's
attitude here is one of happiness because he got to look back on all the happy times of
his life.
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In the poem "Because I could not stop for Death" the persona's attitude is also peaceful.
The peaceful attitude is evident in the first few lines, "Because I could not stop for
Death / He kindly stopped for me / We slowly drove---He knew no haste..."(554). The words
"kindly" and "slowly" are used to portray the persona's peaceful attitude toward death.
Another way the peaceful persona attitude is portrayed in "Because I could not stop for
Death" is with the persona's look back on life. The lines, "We passed the School, where
Children strove / at Recess-in the Ring-- / We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain / We
passed the Setting Sun--..."(555). This is the person looking back on his life. The
"School" symbolizes childhood, the "Grazing Grain" symbolizes growing up, and the
"Setting Sun" symbolizes death. The persona's attitude here is one of happiness because
he got to look back on all the happy times of his life.
The persona's attitude in both the poems "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" and "Because
I could not stop for death" is peaceful and happy. In both poems the words "safe" and
"kindly" are used to portray the persona's peaceful attitude. Also, in both poems the
persona looks back on the happy times in his life, which also portrays the persona's
happy attitude. In most poems the attitude toward death is negative, but the persona's
attitude in both of these Dickinson poems is one of peacefulness and happiness.
Bibliography
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Work Cited
Dickinson, Emily. "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers." Literature and the Writing Process.
Elizabeth McMahan, Susan Day, and Robert Funk. 5th ed. Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice,
1999. 553
... "Because I could not stop for death." Literature and the Writing Process. Elizabeth
McMahan, Susan Day, and Robert Funk. 5th ed. Upper saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1999.
554-555