Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. The death motif in the poetry of Emily Dickinson
2.1 General characteristics of death
2.2 Reasons for her interest in death 2.3 The relation between time and death
3. Conclusion
References
1. Introduction
This term paper deals with the topic ''The death motif in the poetry of Emily Dickinson'' and is written behind the background of the seminar “Emily Dickinson”.
First of all my ambition will be to bring out the impact of death and why it is so difficult to define. Further explanations will be given in the paragraph “General characteristics of death”.
Death has always been a traditional theme for poetry and therefore it is not surprising that it was important to Emily Dickinson too. Five or six hundred poems, dealing with death , are proof enough for her enormous interest in this theme. Thus, the question arises why death was so important to her. Reasons for that should be constituted in the paragraph ‘Reasons for Emily Dickinson’s interest in death’. However she could not finally answer the question that she had asked herself, because she tried to find the salvation through imagination and in con-trast death is something that one has to experience at least. Moreover, those who actually experienced death are not able to communicate anymore with those who live, so humans can not get any knowledge about death. Therefore one can say that her quest for an answer was doomed to failure from the very beginning.
One problem, she was confronted with while looking for answer, was the difficult time aspect. However, time does not just appear as a reason for her failure, but also as a poetic strategy, a reason for her interest in death and the description of the precise moment of death, which reflects in the central paragraph “The relation between time and death”. In order to point out the importance of time in Emily Dickinson’s poetry about death, my research question will be what different aspects of time affected her poetry and were expressed through her writing. The most difficult thing of the topic will be to relate the time aspects with each other, because they are settled on different levels. Moreover I am going to analyse the poem “A Clock stopped –“ with respect to the time aspect, because it is representative for the importance of time within her death poetry. [...] Finally a conclusion will be drawn in order to summarize my results and to answer my research question.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The death motif in the poetry of Emily Dickinson
2.1 General characteristics of death
2.2 Reasons for her interest in death
2.3 The relation between time and death
3. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Key Topics
This paper examines the central role of the death motif in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, exploring how personal, cultural, and scientific shifts of her era influenced her perspective. The research investigates the intrinsic connection between death, the limitation of the human mind, and the complex relationship between time and finality, with a detailed analysis of the poem "A Clock stopped –".
- The role of biographical experiences in shaping Dickinson's preoccupation with death.
- The clash between traditional Puritan beliefs and the rising scientific worldviews of the 19th century.
- The conceptualization of death as both a physical reality and a metaphysical mystery.
- The integration of "time" as a poetic strategy to address mortality and the limitation of human understanding.
- A structural and thematic analysis of "A Clock stopped –" as a representative example of Dickinson’s death poetry.
Excerpt from the Book
2.3 The relation between time and death
Humans ever had a mind, which allowed them to think about the past and the present and not just to remember things but also to learn from them, and therefore enabled them to draw conclusions for the future.
In order to communicate about happenings in the past, present or future, people invented tenses in order to express time, which is consequentially a system to divide happenings into sequences and to compare them with each other. The division in hours, days, months, seasons and years depends on the return of certain events, like the flourishing spring, hot summer, the fallen leaves in autumn and the coldness of winter,. From this perspective time is similar constructed like death, because we just observe certain signs and by comparing them to distinguishing features we decide whether it is winter, or in the case of death whether someone is already dead or not. Another similarity consists in the return of different natural processes. Dying at last is also just a process from the grownup to death, which reflects in worse hearing and decreasing ability to see for example. Nevertheless these processes differ from each other depending on the individual.
In addition, it is important to mention that time is important to us, because we are aware of the limitation of our life and therefore our personal time. Death sets an end on the time of an individual human being and leaves mourners behind, for whom time actually goes on, which leads to the fact, that death and time are closely connected and cannot been analysed without each other.
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the research topic, the primary interest in Dickinson’s death poetry, and the methodological approach of analyzing her work through biographical and literary lenses.
2. The death motif in the poetry of Emily Dickinson: This main section explores the multifaceted nature of death in Dickinson’s work, analyzing why it was a recurring theme and how she struggled to reconcile physical observations with metaphysical uncertainty.
2.1 General characteristics of death: This subsection defines the difficulties in diagnosing death and the limitations of human perception when faced with the unknown transition from life to afterlife.
2.2 Reasons for her interest in death: This subsection examines the biographical and historical factors, such as her Puritan upbringing, her education, and the frequent losses she experienced, that drove her obsession with mortality.
2.3 The relation between time and death: This subsection analyzes how Dickinson utilizes time as a metaphor and structural device to explore the transition into death and the finality of existence.
3. Conclusion: The concluding chapter synthesizes the main findings, emphasizing that writing about death served as a coping mechanism for the author and that her poetry reflects a lifelong intellectual struggle with the concept of mortality.
Keywords
Emily Dickinson, Death motif, Poetry, Time, Mortality, Puritanism, Metaphysics, A Clock stopped, Mourning, Afterlife, Consciousness, Science, Consolation, Symbolism, Biography.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this academic paper?
The paper focuses on the motif of death in Emily Dickinson's poetry, specifically examining how it serves as a response to both personal experiences and the cultural shifts of her time.
What are the central thematic areas discussed?
The core themes include the definition of death, the intersection of science and religious faith, the role of time as a poetic construct, and the psychological process of coping with loss.
What is the main research question?
The research seeks to identify how different aspects of time affected Dickinson's poetry and how these temporal elements were expressed through her writing regarding death.
Which scientific method is utilized in this study?
The study employs a literary-analytical approach, combining biographical context with textual analysis of selected poems and relevant secondary literary criticism.
What does the main body of the text cover?
The main body covers the physical and metaphysical dimensions of death, the historical context of the 19th century, and an in-depth analysis of "A Clock stopped –".
What characterizes the key terminology of the work?
The work is defined by terms that bridge the gap between religious tradition and modern scientific inquiry, such as "mortality," "metaphysics," and "temporal limitation."
Why is "A Clock stopped –" considered central to this analysis?
It is analyzed because it demonstrates the complex relationship between mechanical, measurable time and the sudden, unpredictable nature of death.
How does the author relate the concept of time to the process of dying in the poems?
The author argues that Dickinson uses the imagery of time to represent the "end of time" for the dying person, contrasting the finality of death with the ongoing nature of time for those who remain.
What conclusion does the author reach regarding Dickinson's quest for answers about death?
The author concludes that Dickinson's quest to define death was ultimately doomed to failure due to the limitations of human knowledge, yet the pursuit itself was a vital coping strategy for her.
- Quote paper
- Miriam Dauben (Author), 2009, “Emily Dickinson” - The death motif in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/145297
