In the poem I felt a funeral by Emily Dickinson the “funeral in her brain” is a metaphor for the loss of her mind. The poem is an allegorical interpretation of the loss of her brain. She feels like she is going crazy but Dickinson represents this through death, which is a loss that any reader can relate to. The sole purpose of this literary work is to convey her feelings but she externalizes her thoughts by using sustained allegory. The opening line of the poem says, “I felt a funeral in my brain.” This statement gives reference to her feelings to set up the metaphor.
Published on April 30, 1930 in a major magazine at the time, Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” showcases the life of Ms. Emily Grierson, a local townswoman, and is captured in a mysterious and eventually horrific context that allows the reader to understand the sadness and morbid side of death. The story is a set in a southern context that Faulkner knew all too well and contains implications of contrasts between northern and southern society. Faulkner uses many different elements in this work to portray death in its entire grotesque and horrifying splendor. Particularly, Faulkner uses two certain elements to accomplish this task. Faulkner successfully conveys the theme of the power of death in “A Rose for Emily” by incorporating the use of the literary elements of foreshadowing and narrative voice.
Death has to be accepted but is not always understood. It is not always concrete. In the poems “I could not stop for Death” and “The silence of Women” death is the issue at hand. In the poems the carriage ride is the symbol for death and the angry women are also a sign for death. “Because I could not stop for Death” is about someone seeing her death every day and different parts of her life she has gone through that lead up to her death.
“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” shows Emily Dickinson’s feelings of anguish towards death by conveying the magnitude of death that was prevalent in the nineteenth century. The poem illustrates a definite theme of Dickinson’s life being interrupted by death. “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” expresses how consumption literally consumed life and society during Dickinson’s time period by communicating the predominant emotions felt by those who lived in the nineteenth century. Dickinson does not appear to have written this poem in praise or criticism of society, but rather as an expression of feelings felt by many people who were plagued by death. Dickinson uses “Because I Could Not Stop For
People have different interpretations of what death is and have various approaches as to understanding the broad idea of death. Karen Chase expresses her perception and understanding of death with descriptions in her poem “Before She Died”. Karen Chase dedicates this poem to a loved one that has died. It is apparent to the reader of this because she sums up different ways of dealing with her loss. In her first verse Chase mentions how she “could take in” her views of the sky for her loved one.
Just like in her other poems she gives the reader this magical but horrifying image of the death while giving a great insight of it at the same time. To my understanding in “I heard a fly buzzed” poem Dickinson talks about a silent, painless death and how that person sees it while taking his or her last breath. The dying person hears a fly buzz. Which is I think is pretty much similar to saying a death has arrived and its waiting in the door step. I get the image I have seen many times in movies and such where vultures circling around and waiting for their prey to die out of dehydration.
Ralph Waldo Emerson taught her about transcendentalism which would become a big part of her poetry later on in life. By the age of 20, Emily Dickinson had begun the path to seclusion that would define the rest of her life. The deaths of several friends and mentors had begun weighing heavily on Emily’s mind and sent her depression even
Although it was just one unfortunate couple so terribly disturbed, they may represent the thousands of unnoticed tragedies that occur. The poem depicts one tragic death paralleling it with the loss of love and familiarity. The poem is from a woman, whose husband had recently died, as an expression of her sentiments. I believe the poem was a monologue and the woman was speaking to herself in a loss. It could also be interpreted as a funeral speech because she makes strict orders to aid her mourning.
Emily Thomas Professor Marshall English 1102 13 February 2012 The Experience of Death and Denial Throughout Life Although Miss Emily and Granny Weatherall are very different on the outside, their shared internal values and the way they experience death and denial are very similar. Death and denial can both create a significant impact on one’s life by causing many emotional and psychological problems. Death is something everyone has to experience in his or her life whether it is just a friend or a family member. Death can come by surprise or you can watch someone slowly die in agony, while being in denial can create the same effect. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Katherine Ann Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” they both examine the central theme of death and denial throughout the two short stories.
“I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” The poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” by Emily Dickinson, is about the death of the speaker, who tells us about the last moments of life. In the poem, the author distinguishes two different perspectives of death which are the traditional beliefs and the rituals of death. Dickinson utilizes these two perspectives of death, the traditional beliefs and rituals of death, to exaggerate the meaning of death and immorality, further making the speaker talk in a sarcastic tone by comparing them to the fly buzzing. In the beginning of the poem, the first stanza, the speaker is in on the eve of death, which implies that the speaker’s sense through the “fly buzz,” the speaker shows an ironical perspective about traditional ideas about death. The “stillness” in the second line, it is not just calm, but so calm that anxiety is deeply inhered.