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This essay is a sample only. The annotations explain how this writer effectively organizes and
communicates ideas. The content of this essay is not to be reproduced in whole or part. Use of the ideas
or words in this essay is an act of plagiarism, which is subject to academic integrity policy at Trent
University and other academic institutions.
It Beckons and It Baffles: An Analysis of Death, Dying and What Comes After in Five Poems by
Emily Dickinson
Good, narrowed, focused topic. No general statement about life is made or is necessary. The essay is
about five poems by Dickinson, and right from the beginning, its focus is on that.
Emily Dickinson was captivated by the riddle of death, and several of her poems deal with it in
different ways. There are many poems that describe, in the first person, the process of dying right
up to and including the moment of death, often recalled from a vantage point after death in some
sort of afterlife. As well, several poems speculate more generally about what lies beyond the
visible world our senses perceive in life. This essay examines four of Dickinson’s poems that are
about dying and death and one that is more speculative. Two are straightforwardly about dying,
while the other two present dying symbolically, but taken together they show many similarities.
Death is experienced matter-of-factly and without fear and with a full consciousness that
registers details and describes them clearly. All the poems examined hint at an afterlife which is
not described in traditionally Christian terms but which is not contradictory to Christian belief
either. Yet death remains a riddle. While one poem may emphasize an afterlife of peace, silence
and anchors at rest, others only hint at an ongoing consciousness, and one both asserts that
something beyond life exists while also saying that belief is really only a narcotic that cannot
completely still the pain of doubt. Dying, the moment of death, and what comes after preoccupy
Dickinson: in these poems, death and eternity both “beckon” and “baffle” (Dickinson, “This
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World is not Conclusion” 5).
The thesis of the essay is one sentence, but it may be more. Note that this thesis statement does not
list supporting points; a good thesis statement provides the organizing principle of the essay, and the
essay writer has decided to let the supporting points appear throughout the body of the essay.
English essays use MLA documentation style; the author’s last name and the page number are put in
parentheses. For verse, line numbers are used. As the essay discusses five poems by the same poet,
each title is also included in the citation. As all the poems are by Dickinson, only the first citation needs
to include her last name.
“Because I could not stop for Death” is the first poem examined that describes the
process of dying right up to and past the moment of death, in the first person.
Good topic sentence here. The sentence makes a clear claim that the rest of the paragraph develops
through details, quotations and analysis.
This process is described symbolically. The speaker, walking along the road of life is picked up
and given a carriage ride out of town to her destination, the graveyard and death. The speaker,
looking back, says that she “could not stop for Death – / [so] He kindly stopped for” her (1-2).
Dickinson personifies death as a “kindly” (2) masculine being with “civility” (6). As the two
“slowly dr[i]ve” (5) down the road of life, the speaker observes life in its simplicity: the
“School,” (9), “the Fields of Gazing Grain” (11), and the “Setting Sun” (12), and realizes that
this road out of town is the road out of life. The road’s ending at “a House that seemed / A
Swelling of the Ground” (17-18) is a life’s ending at death, “Eternity” (24).
Verse quotations of two or three lines are also incorporated into the sentence structure, but with
the lines separated by a space, slash (/), space. As the text of the essay makes clear which poem is
being quoted, only the line number is needed in the citation. Verse quotations of a single line or
shorter are incorporated into the structure of the sentence.
Once in the House that is the speaker’s grave, that is, after death, the speaker remains conscious.
Her death is not experienced as a loss of consciousness, a sleep or oblivion. Her sense of time
does change though:
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Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity – (20-24)
This essay has many quotations, and that is fine for an English essay. The words from the poems
illustrate and, therefore, support the writer’s analysis. Many short, pertinent quotations work best
although occasionally a larger chunk of text is needed.
It has become difficult for the speaker to tell the difference between a century and a day. But she
knows it has been “Centuries” since then, so the implication is that her consciousness has lived
on in an eternal afterlife.
Notice that the essay writer does not just let the quotation do all the work. The quotation is
followed by the writer’s analysis of the quoted words and argument about their implication. This is
the best way to use textual evidence.
There are other Dickinson poems in which the speaker’s death is described, but not from
a vantage point of “Centuries” after the moment of death. Rather, the speaker describes the
moments before, and moment of, her death, with only hints that there is a life or ongoing
consciousness after death. “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died” describes the deathbed experience:
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 - (1-4)
Verse quotations of more than three lines begin on a new line. Each line is indented an extra five
spaces from the left margin. No quotations marks are added. The spatial arrangement of the
original lines is reproduced accurately from the source.
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The speaker is lying on her death bed in a still room, surrounded by loved ones who have been
weeping and who recognize that the moment of death is at hand: “The Eyes around - had wrung
them dry - / And Breaths were gathering firm / For that last Onset” (5-7). As in the previous
poem, death is personified as a male being; she and her loved ones are waiting for “when the
King / Be witnessed - in the Room” (5-6). Unlike in the previous poem, the speaker is speaking
only up to the moment of death, which is not depicted symbolically as a carriage ride to a
graveyard, but as a conventional deathbed. And unlike in the previous poem, the actual moment
of death is described: one sense fails, sight, and one sense, hearing, briefly become more intense:
and then it was
There interposed a Fly –
With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz –
Between the light - and me –
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see - (11-16)
Because this long quotation begins in the middle of a line, the first, partial line is positioned where
it is in the original source – not shifted to the left margin.
At the moment of death, sound interposes itself between the light of life perceived by sight, and
then sight fails completely. The moment of death is described as the intense sound of buzzing
and the dying of the light. The ending is abrupt but the end punctuation is not a period or full
stop, only a dash.
The sense of time in “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died” is different than in “Because I
could not stop for Death.” This poem describes a moment or two, an instant in time that is
experienced and described intensely and then is over. The poem does not mention or evoke a
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sense of time passing over a duration - whether of a day or a century. It is a poem of a moment:
the moment of death. The ending can be interpreted in two ways. It can be seen as not implying a
full stop to life and, therefore, may suggest there is a continuation after the moment of death. But
it can also be seen as an abrupt end. As the poem ends at the moment of death and there is
nothing about what comes after, as there is in “Because I could not stop for Death,” whether
there is a “life” beyond death, or whether consciousness continues after death, is left more open.
However, as the speaker describes her moment of death using the past tense, this could suggest
that her consciousness goes on after that moment in the same way it does in “Because I could not
stop for Death.”
This is a summary paragraph, so it contains no quoting. In this paragraph, the
essay writer extends the analysis by comparing two poems already discussed in
detail. The reader understands the analysis because of the previous discussion
and quoting.
“The Sun kept setting—setting—still” is remarkably similar to “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” in several respects. Again, it depicts the moment of death and the speaker is very
clear about what is happening: “'Tis Dying—I am doing” (17). As with “I heard a Fly buzz –
when I died,” the process of dying involves a change is the speaker’s sight:
The Sun kept setting—setting—still
No Hue of Afternoon—
Upon the Village I perceived
From House to House 'twas Noon— (1-4)
Good use of transitional or connective words and phrases in this paragraph. Words like “again,” “as
with,” “in this case,” and “in a similar way” lead the reader through the paragraph’s points
gracefully and easily, indicate the relationships between points, and maintain a sense of movement,
thus creating that elusive quality we call “flow.”
However, in this case, the speaker, while seeing that the sun is setting and that it must, therefore,
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be at least late afternoon, perceives what she sees as noon, implying that she is seeing a
brightness as of the sun right overhead. The next stanza is structured in a similar way to the first:
The dusk kept dropping, dropping still;
No dew upon the grass,
But only on my forehead stopped,
And wandered in my face. (5-8)
A pattern begins to be discernible. The dusk is dropping, the light should be darkening, and there
is no dew on the grass (as there would be in the early morning), yet the speaker is seeing bright
light and has “dew” on her forehead and face. Then other symptoms become apparent to her
although this time she is not perceiving anything beyond herself, meaning, perhaps, that
whatever attack she is having is enveloping her more completely:
My feet kept drowsing, drowsing still,
My fingers were awake;
Yet why so little sound myself
Unto my seeming make? (9-12)
Similar to “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” the poem moves from the speaker’s focus
on the world beyond herself, the room in which she is dying, the village she is looking on, to her
focus on herself. In “I heard a Fly buzz,” although death is expected, the actual moment of death
happens suddenly; the speaker’s sense of sound heightens as the light fails and it is over. In this
poem, the process of dying is heralded by the change in the speaker’s perception of light. The
speaker realizes her perceptions have become unnatural and that something is happening to her,
and then her focus narrows to her body and what is happening to it. By the end of the poem, her
sense of light changes again: “How well I knew the light before! / I could not see it now” (13-
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14). Now, as for the speaker in ”I heard a Fly buzz,” the light has faded, darkness is setting in:
‘T is dying, I am doing; but / I’m not afraid to know” (16). The poems share, as well, a rather
detached, unemotional, matter-of-fact acceptance of death. Death is described neutrally; the
speaker in “the Sun kept setting – setting – still” realizes she is dying and she is not afraid of
what she knows. This poem ends with a period or full stop. As a result, there is less sense of an
ongoing after-death consciousness in this poem than in the previous two although the fact that
most of it is in the past tense suggests that the speaker may be conscious after death to be able to
look back on the process of dying as her past. However, the last two lines are written in the
present tense, which could suggest, on the other hand, that the speaker is speaking at the very
moment of death, looking back on the recent past when she began to die, not from a point
afterwards, looking back on it, as is the case in “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I heard
a Fly buzz - when I died.”
But if those two poems of death at least imply an afterlife or after-consciousness, what
kind is afterlife is it? Is it the Christian kind?
This is an unusual topic sentence as it is a question, followed by another short question. The questions do
indicate what the paragraph’s topic or controlling idea is as they raise questions which the paragraph must
attempt to answer. This variation works here but shouldn’t be overused.
“This World is not Conclusion” does not describe the experience of death or the aftermath of
losing a loved one, but shares the speaker’s musings on what lies beyond “This World” (1):
This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond –
Invisible, as Music –
But positive, as Sound –
It beckons, and it baffles – (1-5)
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The speaker seems to sense or apprehend the “Species” that stands beyond in a similar way to
the way we hear music, which is also invisible. So, the species is invisible but exists as invisible
music exists. We hear music when we sense it through sound, so, in a similar way, this species
can be apprehended, and it is “as positive, as Sound” (4).
Notice how the shorter quotations are interwoven into the writer’s sentences, showing that the
writer’s ideas are firmly grounded in the text.
One of the overtly Christian references in the poem is the word crucifixion: “To gain it [faith],
Men have borne / Contempt of Generations / And Crucifixion” (10-12). This may refer to
Christ’s crucifixion, or it may refer to other Christian martyrs, although the speaker does not
seem to find this kind of thing inspiring. The speaker seems to suggest that when crucifixion is
“shown - / Faith slips -- and laughs, and rallies - / Blushes, if any see -. / Plucks at a twig of
Evidence - / And asks a Vane, the way -” (12-16). If the Vane is a weather vane, which changes
direction with a change in the direction of the wind, the speaker does not see faith as particularly
strong or steadfast. This may be why she implies that “Much Gesture, from the Pulpit - / Strong
Hallelujahs roll” (17-18) are really only “Narcotics” that “cannot still the Tooth / That nibbles at
the soul” (19-20).
So, while “This World is not Conclusion” begins with strong statements, by its end it has
undermined its assertions; ultimately, what is beyond this world seems to “baffle” as much as it
“beckons” (5). In “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died,” those in the room are waiting for “the
King” to take the speaker away into death, and this King may be a reference to God or Christ the
King. But as with the reference to the crucifixion in “This World is not Conclusion,” this equally
may not be a Christian reference. The King may have a closer resemblance to the male Death of
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“Because I could not stop for Death.” So, the question of what this afterlife is like and how much
it is like the Christian idea of heaven remains open.
None of these poems show much fear or horror at death. In “The Sun kept setting—
setting—still,” the speaker knows she is dying and she tells us she is “not afraid to know” (16).
After all, “Because I could not stop for Death” clearly makes the connection between death and
eternity. The allegorical poem “On this wondrous sea” also contains the word eternity, and it is
also about dying and the moment of death. The speaker in the first stanza is sailing on the
“wondrous” (1) sea of life hailing the pilot of a ship: “Ho! Pilot, ho!” (3). According to The
Canadian Oxford Dictionary English Dictionary, a pilot is “a person qualified to take charge of a
ship entering or leaving harbour, moving through dangerous waters, etc.” (“Pilot”).
A dictionary has been consulted to define a quoted word of whose meaning the essay writer was
not sure. Not knowing what a quoted word means or misunderstanding it can undermine an
analysis. Conversely, a thorough understanding of how a word is used in its context can deepen
understanding and help to extend and develop the analysis.
Understanding this allows the reader to better grasp the symbolism of the poem. The poem
suggests that the speaker must be approaching the end of the voyage and is hailing the pilot to
guide her to “the shore / Where no breakers roar, / Where the storm is o’er” (4-6). The speaker
of the second stanza is the pilot, who does know where this shore can be found: “In the silent
west / Many sails at rest, / Their anchors fast” (7-9) and offers to guide the first speaker there:
“Thither I pilot thee” (10). The image the poem offers of this final shore is a place of peace and
rest, a place where “no breakers roar” in “the silent west,” where there are many other “sails at
rest, / their anchors fast.” The last two lines could be spoken by either speaker or both: “Land,
ho! Eternity! / Ashore at last!” (11-12).
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“On this wondrous sea” offers a more appealing image of eternity than that of the
conscious sleep in a grave found in “Because I could not stop for Death.” Eternity can be found
on a distant shore, beyond the wondrous sea and its storms, and it is a silent place of rest and
stability, where the anchors are “fast.” As well, there is a pilot, one who can guide the wanderer
of the seas to her final shore, “at last!” Those two last words strongly suggest that eternity is a
place where one might long to go and feel relief and even happiness at arriving there. This
eternity is appealing and a kind of heaven even if angels and God are not mentioned (although
perhaps the pilot can be interpreted as God).
This concluding paragraph does not just repeat the introduction. It pulls together the main ideas
contained in the entire essay to try to point out their larger significance. Rather than a point-by-point
list, it is a summary of what it all means taken together.
In many ways, “On this wondrous sea” sums up the attitude toward death and eternity
seen in all the poems examined. Death is experienced without fear, and life is shown as leading
up to death and eternity. What exactly this eternity is like is only hinted at in most of these
poems. So, what is beyond continues to “baffle,” but none of the poems present death as
extinction with nothing beyond; rather what is beyond “beckons.”
Using significant, short quotations from the poems in the conclusion is very effective. As these
quotations have already appeared in the essay and been properly cited, they do not need to be cited
again.
Death and eternity are something known, a grave that is a house, a consciousness living on, a
shore to which we come “at last” after a life both stormy and “wondrous.”
You will have noticed that this is not a five-paragraph essay. There is, in fact, no limit on the number of
paragraphs you can or should write in an essay. Instead, this essay supports the thesis by moving from
one poem to another, analyzing each separately while linking back to ones already discussed, in
however many paragraphs are needed to do the job effectively; in this case, the number is eleven.
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The Works Cited list is organized alphabetically and uses a hanging indent. Notice that it is doublespaced throughout. Learn more about MLA referencing in the ASC’s Online Documentation Guide.
Works Cited
Dickinson, Emily. “Because I could not stop for Death.” Poets org: From the Academy of
American Poets, 1997-2013. Web. 5 March 2013.
---. “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died.” Poets org: From the Academy of American Poets. 19972013. Web. 5 March 2013.
---. “On this wondrous sea.” PoemHunter.com, 2003. Web. 5 March 2013.
---. “The Sun kept setting—setting—still.” PoemHunter.com. 2004. Web. 5 March 2013.
---. “This World is not Conclusion.” PoemHunter.com. 2003. Web. 5 March 2013.
“Pilot.” The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. Ed. Katherine Barber. Toronto: Oxford UP, 2001.
Print.
As five poems by Emily Dickinson are listed, there are five entries, one for each poem. The poet’s name is
given in the first entry, and for the other four entries, three un-spaced hyphens and a period are given
instead, followed, in each entry, by the poem’s title in quotation marks. The five Dickinson entries are
alphabetical by poem title.