Dickinson
herself wants, to know just how he suffered… To know if any Human eyes were
near… To know if He was patient… many questions like these are raised as to the
experiences of the dying. She probes at the implications of leaving the living,
searching for the strength of deaths appeal, and wondering abou the junction of
love that existed during life and love that is to be, after life. Questions are
raised about the person's attachments to the world already known rather than
insights into another world after death. The impossibility of Dickinson to fully
penetrate the mysteries of the afterlife does not allow for insight into this
other world. Since she could not follow the dead beyond her world Dickinson
focused on their effect on the world they left behind. She searched for answers
from the dead as they lay in their resting-places in Safe in their Alabaster
Chambers. Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -- Untouched my Morning And untouched
by Noon -- Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection -- Rafter of satin, And
Roof of stone. Light laughs the breeze In her Castle above them -- Babbles the
Bee in a stolid Ear, Pipe the Sweet Birds in ignorant cadence -- Ah, what
sagacity perished here! The Alabaster chamber, untouched by morning and
untouched by noon, represents the tomb of the dead and their separation from the
world. Dickinson concludes that she finds no answers from the dead because she
is unable to understand their world. However, she knows that they are only
sleeping and will come back when they are resurrected. Spoken from beyond the
grave, Because I could not stop for Death Because I could not stop for Death--
He kindly stopped for me-- The Carriage held but just Ourselves-- and
Immortality. We slowly drove--He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and
my leisure too, For His Civility-- We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess--in the Ring-- We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain-- We passed the
Setting Sun-- Or rather--He passed Us-- The Dews drew quivering and chill-- For
only Gossamer, my Gown-- My Tippet only Tulle We paused before a House that
seemed A Swelling of the Ground-- The Roof was scarcely visible-- The
Cornice--in the Ground-- Since then--'Tis Centuries--and yet Feels shorter than
the Day I first surmised the Horses Heads Were toward Eternity-- has an
imaginary person, not Dickinson who would be looking beyond into death, but
content with the routine of the life, looking back from death into the living
world which she has disappeared from. She had been too busy to stop her work
while she was living so death, kindly stopped, for her.
As she passes the
children, the Gazing Grain and finally the setting sun, we see the stages of
life, childhood, maturity, and old age, respectively. Not only Death has come
for the woman, The Carriage held but just Ourselves and Immortality. Again Emily
focuses on the previous world and on mortality and can not see into death and
immortality. Dickinson represents death's finality by stressing the continued
presence of objects no longer valuable or meaningless, and on the ceasing of
activities that had characterized life. Immobility in death is the best evidence
of death's withdrawal from life because of the respect given to one's actions
during life. The cessation of common and routine activities in life are
represented as idle hands of the dead in Death sets a Thing significant Death
sets a Thing significant The Eye had hurried by Except a perished Creature
Entreat us tenderly To ponder little Workmanships In Crayon, or in Wool, With
This was last Her fingers did -- Industrious until -- The Thimble weighed too
heavy -- The stitches stopped -- by themselves -- And then 'twas put among the
Dust Upon the Closet shelves -- A Book I have -- a friend gave -- Whose Pencil
-- here and there -- Had notched the place that pleased Him -- At Rest -- His
fingers are -- Now -- when I read -- I read not -- For interrupting Tears --
Obliterate the Etchings Too Costly for Repairs. when Dickinson writes, At Rest -
His fingers are. Although these activities are unimportant after death they are
of value and evidence of involvement in the living world. Mentioning the, little
Workmanships, and other insignificant aspects of life, is Dickinson's way of
representing the pettiness and simplicity of life in contrast to her view of
death as a revelation of the conscious, bringing it to a higher level of
understanding. She tries to show how after death things become significant that
weren't while you were living, for her this is part of the grieving process. The
focus on a mundane creature like a fly in I heard a fly buzz when I died I heard
a fly buzz when I died; The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in
the air Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry, And
breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king Be witnessed in
his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away What portion of me Could make
assignable, - and then 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. reminds the reader of the household discomforts and petty
irritabilities in life that are irrelevant in death. A fascination with
immortality is dominant in many of her poems about death.
