At Least Half in Love With Debonair Death: Emily Dickinson's Attitude to Mortality - Essay Example

The best way to gain insight into Dickinson's attitude to death appears to be to look closely at a few other poems by her on the subject. One such poem has her in the rather unusual role of an outside observer-"There's Been a Death." The opening stanza introduces the subject: The poet may be a detached observer, but the keenness of the observation is remarkable. Not only does she note the 'numb look' which at least to her, is characteristic of a house in which a death has recently occurred, she also remarks on what other people might see and then forget: The narrator notes, moreover, the minister's proprietorial approach, the entry of the milliner and of "the man/ Of the appalling trade" and the entire "dark parade" of "tassels and coaches".

The poem ends with words that disavow any special insight on the part of the speaker and claim instead that this power of observation is second nature to country folk: This fact is brought out quite easily in the most well-known of Dickinson's poems on death, "Because I Could not Stop for Death" (also known as "The Chariot"). In this poem the speaker (no doubt the poet herself) is a young lady of marriageable age and Death is a gentleman who has come to call on her, to take her out on a date.

The narrator's tone in the first stanza is almost coy: Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.In such a situation, the poet is as ladylike as any courteous gentleman caller could expect: We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility.The carriage or