Nature, God, the afterlife and death in the poems of Emily Dickinson
“It’s all I have to bring today, this and my heart next to it, this and my heart and all the fields, and all the wide meadows” (33). These are the words of Emily Dickinson, a woman revered as one of America’s greatest poets. During her lifetime, she lived a life of seclusion, but in this seclusion she composed over seventeen hundred poems whose excellence few can match. Within her poems, Dickinson crafted a unique writing style, in which she resorted to the use of simplistic language and childlike innocence to convey complex ideas. These complex ideas were expressed through the use of nature, God, eternity, and death. Throughout her poems, Emily Dickinson uses nature, God, the afterlife and death to convey complex messages or ideas as she expresses her thoughts in simple language.
Nature is an element that frequents Dickinson’s poems as a means to transmit messages of life. Through the inclusion of familiar aspects of wildlife, such as bumblebees and flowers, he is able to paint a picture that portrays the hopes and anxieties found throughout everyday life. One such poem begins: “A wounded deer leaps higher, I have heard the hunter say; it is but the ecstasy of death, and then the bridle stops” (62). In this stanza, Dickinson compares the wounded deer to a human being who has been hurt, either emotionally or physically, in their past. The wounded deer, which has been shot or wounded on a previous occasion, jumps higher as a means of ensuring that it will not be wounded a second time. Like the deer, an emotionally or physically hurt human being will also subconsciously deviate to avoid being hurt again.
This fear instilled in damaged humans can play out on many levels, from something as simple and bodily as a broken limb, to something as emotional or spiritual as a broken heart. Dickinson, in the simplest of words and through the eyes of nature, is clearly able to convey the concept of a deep emotional wound. A second poem says: “God made a little gentian; he tried to be a rose and failed, and all summer he laughed” (127). This poem, composed in elementary terms, emphasizes the idea of individuality to the reader. It warns us not to be like the little blue flower, which tries to become something it is not and is mocked by the season around it. Dickinson’s message is clear: people should be comfortable with who and what they are, and not want to be something completely foreign to them. Just as the gentian can only be the gentian, a person can only be who and what they are, and there is nothing wrong with being yourself. In a third poem, Dickinson uses nature to portray life and death. She begins with, “I’ll tell you how the sun came up, – one tape at a time. The steeples were swimming in amethyst, the news ran like squirrels” (104). This first stanza is meant to symbolize birth and the beginning of life. The rising sun is often a common symbol for new life, and Dickinson employs it here along with the sweet innocence that “one tape at a time” conveys. To contrast this stanza, Dickinson writes in a later stanza:
“But how the sun set, I don’t know.
It looked like a purple style
What little yellow boys and girls
they were rising all the time
Until they got to the other side
A domain in gray
Gently put the bars in the evening,
And he took away the flock.” (105)
The setting sun is used in this situation to symbolize death, the end of life here on this earth. This death is further reinforced in the next stanza when the dominie, or clergyman, “gently laid down the bars of evening and led away the flock” (105). Dominion is a direct parallel to God, leading the new recipients of eternal salvation away from earth and toward Heaven.
Another element that can be identified throughout Emily Dickinson’s poems is her combination of traditional and unique views of God and eternity. An excellent example of Dickinson’s individuality and creativity in the field of religion is her poem “Some Keep the Sabbath by Going to Church.” This delightful work explains how, instead of attending a Sunday service, Dickinson keeps the Sabbath holy by staying home. In one stanza, she explains her Sunday by saying, “God preaches, a celebrated clergyman, and the sermon is never long; so instead of getting to heaven at last, I always go!” (110). Using simple language and sophisticated humor, Dickinson explains that the word of God does not have to be preached in a chapel, but can be found in any walk of life. She presents God as a personal and loving being, in contradiction to the God of fire and brimstone that was often preached during the 19th century. She also reveals an internal belief of hers that, contrary to what was believed in her time, going to Heaven is not an arduous task of trying not to sin or being a good person, but rather a journey. “I’m going all the time!” she proclaims with confidence and joy, as if God had told her there is a place for her in her kingdom. This idea of eternity is a regular recurrence in many of Dickinson’s poems. Another piece illustrating Dickinson’s belief in the afterlife says: “This world is not a conclusion; a continuation lies beyond, invisible, like music, but positive, like sound” (135). There is not the slightest feeling of uncertainty anywhere within these lines. “This world is not a conclusion,” Dickinson instills. There is a life after this world, and though it may be invisible, like music to the eyes, it is a definite and positive reality, like sound to the ears.
Similar to earlier poems in which Emily Dickinson affirmed her belief that there was indeed an afterlife, another style found throughout her poems is the questioning of the unknown that comes with the afterlife. death. She displays a childish curiosity about what the afterlife will hold and how it will compare to the earth and soil she has spent her life on. This curiosity becomes more evident in her poem “What is-‘Paradise’-“, which says:
“What is – ‘Paradise’ –
Who lives there –
They are farmers’ –
Do they ‘hoe’ –
Do you know this is ‘Amherst’?
And that I – come – also –
Do they wear ‘new shoes’ – in ‘Eden’ –
Is it always nice – there –
Aren’t they going to scold? – when we are nostalgic –
Or tell God – how angry we are -” (99)
The first verse begins with a general question about what eternity is, which is immediately followed by “Who lives there?” This question triggers a series of other unanswered questions about whether there is work in Heaven. The next question, which says, “Do you know this is ‘Amherst, and that I’m coming too?” refers to the consciousness of souls in heaven. When Heaven is reached, do people realize that they are part of eternal salvation? Are they aware of the world they left behind, and if so, do they know which souls will join them in salvation? With these simple words, most of which are two syllables or less, Dickinson is able to ask complex questions whose answers cannot be deciphered by the human mind. In the second verse, Dickinson introduces the reader to his childish curiosity, which in this case is mixed with his unmistakable humor. She questions whether Heaven will be nice, which is lovely because with the idea of Heaven comes a vision of eternal happiness; to ask such a question about the pleasure of eternal salvation seems ridiculous. Dickinson then follows up this query by wondering if a heavenly body is homesick for its life on Earth. This idea, brimming with childish innocence, adds another dimension to the poem. Once in Heaven, is it possible for a being to want to return to earth? Do members of the heavenly community yearn for the people, places, and things they encountered in their previous lives? These seemingly unanswerable questions are at the heart of Dickinson’s desire to understand the unknown beyond.
Finally, death is a component of Dickinson’s copious poems, ambivalently personified. For example, one of his poems begins like this:
“Because I could not lower myself by death
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage remained but only us
and immortality.
We drove slowly, he didn’t know the rush,
and I had saved
my work, and also my leisure,
For his civility” (151).
In this simple but vivid portrait that Dickinson paints, Death is not portrayed as something ghastly and terrible, but as a suitor gentleman who has just arrived to take her on a date. Continuing with the traditions of this time, the appointment is accompanied by the personification of Immortality. In the next stanza, the carriage is described as driving slowly and unhurriedly. This corresponds to the timeless state of being that accompanies death; the time that was once so precious on Earth loses its meaning as it enters the afterlife. Along with the unimportance of time, Dickinson emphasizes how there is no work and therefore no leisure after life by stating, “And I leave my work, and my leisure too, for your courtesy” (151). So, out of respect for Death, she steps away from her work and leisure and simply enjoys the ride with Death for Immortality. However, the Courtly Death of the last poem is completely unrelated to “I heard the buzz of a fly when I died,” which in one of those stanzas says: “With a blue, uncertain, wobbly buzz, between me and the light; and then the windows failed, and then I couldn’t see” (132). Death in this scenario, while at first glance it may seem peaceful, is actually quite terrifying. Dickinson masterfully employs the fly as a symbol of the gruesome side of death, as flies are frequently depicted as creatures that feed on decaying flesh. As if instinctively drawn to the narrator’s death, the thought of the fly destroying his flesh is the only thing that stands between the end of his life on Earth and salvation from the light.
Emily Dickinson’s poems use simplistic language to express complex ideas through nature, God, the afterlife, and death. This unique style that she created herself has become identical to her name along with her poems. Though very few were shared during her lifetime, Dickinson’s poems today represent a woman who melded her talent and passion for poetry to create some of the greatest work America has ever seen. No one can describe Dickinson’s poetry better than herself, so in conclusion:
“This is my letter to the world,
Who never wrote to me
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty
Your message is compromised
to the hands that I cannot see;
For the love of his sweet compatriots,
Judge me tenderly!” (102).
