Dickinson's Ghosts and the Experience of Dying

To what extent does the role of the speaker influence to convey a vivid description of

the experience of dying on Emily Dickinson's poems "Twas just this time last year I

died”, "Because I could not stop for death", and "I heard a fly buzz when I died"?

English B Extended Essay

Category 3

WORD COUNT: 3892

 Table of contents

Introduction ...........................................................................................................3

A Living Testimony ...............................................................................................4

Deciphering the Persona ......................................................................................5

'Twas just this time last year I died .......................................................................5

Because I could not stop for death .......................................................................6

I heard a fly buzz when I died...............................................................................7

Speaker's Perspective and the Poem's Content ................................................9

The Way the Persona Speaks ............................................................................ 12

Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 14

References .......................................................................................................... 16

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 Introduction

Emily Dickinson spent most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, which lasted from

1830 to 1886. This context supposed a daily coexistence with death, which

contributed to her absorption with demise. The diseases that are currently treated

with antibiotics (e.g., tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid, dysentery) were terribly lethal,

as were the complications of childbirth. Furthermore, according to the years of

creation assigned by Johnson (1960), these three poems were written between

1862 and 1863, years in which the American Civil War had already begun, and the

deaths were even more considerable, traumatic, and inevitable. We can affirm that

these circumstances, combined with the death of her loved ones, her thoughtful and

observant attitude, the tranquility to think that her gradual isolation gave her, and

her doubts about the afterlife, prompted her to deep reflections, the conclusions of

which were materialized through poetry. Dickinson conveys essential messages

about death in these three poems, and she does so based on her incredible

ingenuity, whose display is in the speakers she introduces.

The speaker is a fundamental part of poetry; it is the mouthpiece whereby the

ideas of the poet reach the reader, the one who guides through the composition,

and the perspective from which we perceive the narrated details. Here, the writing

is itself the story of the persona, and this is one of the characteristics that most

captures the readers' attention and invites them to enter the poem. Hence, this

element has an enormous impact on the literary work and is one of the main

responsible for its effect on the audience; deserving to be analyzed.

Therefore, this work will focus on evaluating the extent to which the speaker in

Dickinson's selected poems influences on how vivid the description of the

experience of dying is. It will center on the identity that we can attribute to it as

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readers and its form of expression. As primary sources, we will draw mainly on

Dickinson's poems published by Johnson (1960) in The Complete Poems of Emily

Dickinson, and Dickinson's letters published in The Atlantic by her "mentor"

Higginson (1891). As secondary sources, we will mention some opinions of

Dickinson's prominent critics and biographers, as well as some papers related to

the speaker's role in literature.

It is necessary to point out that Dickinson never titled her poems, so scholars

usually allude to the first verse or the numbers assigned by T. H. Johnson or H. W.

Franklin. For didactic purposes, this paper will refer to "'Twas just this time last year

I died" as "poem 1", "Because I could not stop for death" as "poem 2", and "I heard

a fly buzz when I died" as "poem 3".

A Living Testimony

The major theme in these three Dickinson's poems is death, as in many other

compositions of her time; however, the poet approaches it rather ingeniously,

bringing the corpses to life so they can narrate their own stories, giving the poem an

experiential and testimonial nature. The fact that Dickinson portrays ghostly

speakers does not directly imply that she believed in the afterlife, most of her

biographers agree that she was somewhat skeptical of Calvinist beliefs.

Furthermore, taking into account that "although deathbed scenes obsessed the

Victorian imagination, they were not generally presented through the eyes of the

one who has already died." (Leiter, 2007), we can state that the use of posthumous

speakers, is mainly a strategy that seeks to provide further strength both to the

description of the experience of dying, which encompasses the entire poem and to

the message behind it; turning the approach of a subject as difficult as death, into a

dynamic narration of a person's experience.

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 The pronoun "I" and some similarities in the poem with Dickinson's life, make it

tempting to assume that the poet is the speaker. However, we must remember what

she emphasized in a letter to her "preceptor" and later editor of her posthumous

poems, Higginson: "When I state myself, as the representative of the verse, it does

not mean me, but a supposed person." (Higginson, 1891). It gives an endorsement

to confer a Dickinson-separated identity to the speakers, based on the clues

provided in each poem. There is a remarkable difference between Dickinson

speaking in the three poems, and each poem being narrated by a different persona.

In the second case, the poems loosen from the restrictions that sticking strictly to

Dickinson's biography can impose; and they become individual and unique

testimonies of the experience of dying. The fact that each poem appears to be

spoken by a different human being gives greater realism and credibility, which, in

the words of Dickinson in a letter to Higginson (1981), makes them look alive as if

they breathe.

Deciphering the Persona

'Twas just this time last year I died

Both Raymond (2003) and Preest (2012) give the speaker the identity of a girl.

The assumption on her age is justifiable, considering how childishly excited she is

with the festivities and her belief in characters like Santa Claus "My stocking hang

too high / For any Santa Claus to reach" (Dickinson, 1960, vv. 18-19).

There are no explicit clues that denote gender. However, it could be assigned

the feminine one for her homely attitude and sentimentality, characteristics that at

that time were attributed to girls. Also, because she only narrates the agricultural

work others did, but does not include herself as a participant, "I thought how yellow

it would look - /When Richard went to mill-" (vv. 5-6).

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 Besides, she seems to be middle class, as she mentions how they celebrated the

holidays in her family: preparing Thanksgiving dinners (fourth stanza) and hanging

socks to receive gifts (fifth stanza), luxuries that lower-class people could not have

given themselves. These celebrations in her family could have a religious

background, related to her affirmation "Themself should come to me" (v. 24) which

suggests that she believes that when her relatives die, they will definitely meet her

in the afterlife; or at least she tries to convince herself of that.

We can affirm that she was really attached to her family because she mentions

them very often and with a high emotional charge. She was sure that they would

miss her a lot "I wondered which would miss me, least, / And when Thanksgiving,

came, / If Father'd multiply the plates- / To make an even Sum -" (vv. 5-8), saying

that he would multiply the plates to make an even sum is an exaggeration, that

seeks to emphasize the hard-to-fill void she left in her family. Reciprocally, she

misses them greatly, and the only consolation she finds is to think she would see

them again "But this sort, grieved myself, / And so, I thought the other way, / How

just this time, some perfect year- / Themself, should come to me -" (vv. 23-24).

Because I could not stop for death

The speaker seems to be an adult woman because of her clothing "For only

Gossamer, my Gown-" (v. 15), and the treat she maintains with the gentleman Death

throughout the poem, for instance, "He kindly stopped for me -/ The Carriage held

but just Ourselves-" (vv. 2-3). The verses "And I had put away / My labor and my

leisure, too" (vv. 6-7), suggest she is an adult because having things to do but also

time to rest is related to that life stage since in childhood and old age practically all

is leisure time; also, mentioning that she put them away proposes that she could

have continued doing them as she did not have the pains and languishment of old

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age. Additionally, she seems to have been a busy woman, "Because I could not

stop for Death" (v. 1), or at least she still had planned things far in advance, so her

death was surprising.

Presumably, she belongs to the middle or upper class, since the vocabulary used

(e.g., civility, scarcely, surmised) denotes education and status; also, the clothing

described in the fourth stanza is probably a burial gown that just affluent families

could afford.

She is detached from material goods; but moderately from the earthly life,

because she gets to feel a vague melancholy when remembering it, and shivers

when realizing that she was leaving forever; it is evidenced in the third stanza when

they pass the school, the fields of ripe grain and the setting sun, an allusion to the

stages of life, and immediately afterward, her tone turns slightly gloomy.

Nevertheless, in general, despite that sensation, it is not so difficult for her to resign.

In the verses "The Carriage held but just Ourselves - / And Immortality" (vv. 3-4)

saying that immortality travels with Death and her, suggests that she believed in the

afterlife, or at least hoped that it existed. Moreover, this allows her to be more

comfortable and calm in the next verses.

Unlike the previous speakers, she never mentions her family, despite leaving this

world forever. We could conjecture that she was not very close to them, or she did

not have to worry about leaving them. In the second case, she probably did not have

children or elderly parents to take care of.

I heard a fly buzz when I died

It is difficult to assign a specific gender to this lyrical speaker. Initially, the little

sentimentality of the voice could be related to the conception of the masculine

gender at that time; for example, when he mentions "The Eyes around- had wrung

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them dry" (v. 5), he reveals the suffering his family members are going through,

without expressing how that makes him feel. Subsequently, we note that this

indifference continues throughout the poem, going from "little sentimentality" to "null

sentimentalism." Which, far from showing a culturally associated characteristic of

gender, or a trait of the speaker's personality; it becomes a representation of the

gradual loss of senses and the distance between the living and the dead.

Considering the verses "I willed my keepsakes - Signed away / What portion of

me be / Assignable" (vv. 9-11) we can affirm that he is probably a serene, mature

and patient older person because he resigns himself to death and abandons the

elements of his earthly life, which could also denote a life well lived and without

leaving unfinished business. If the verses are taken more literally, they would also

refer to his will and inheritance. In that case, all "The eyes around – had wrung them

dry -" (v.5) would be his descendants, attentive to his last moments, and suffering

for his departure because they probably valued and loved him very much.

Regarding his religious beliefs, unlike previous speakers, he does not explicitly

mention that he had faith in the afterlife; however, the verses "For the last Onset -

when the King / Be witnessed - in the Room-" (vv. 7-8) denote that at least, in his

family, the arrival of death was given high importance. Calling King to death refers

to an imposing entity with an unalterable resolution, which must be respected. Some

critics consider these verses to recall the Puritan belief that Jesus Christ would

appear in the last moments of people's lives, which would denote a Christian

speaker. However, it is necessary to consider Dickinson's tendency to personify

death.

When we read a poem, whether we notice it or not, we build a mental image of

its speaker, even when we assume that the speaker is the same author. This image

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is based on the clues that we obtain from the composition, complemented with the

sociocultural context and biography of the poet. The image we create influences our

interpretation of the poem, and our general perception of it. Although the identity

that each reader gives to the speaker of the same poem may vary a bit from one to

another, most interpretations are related, since they are based on the same

material. In the case of the selected poems, there may be multiple characterizations

of the speakers. However, they will coincide with being different individuals sharing

their testimony of death, and they will mostly share the traits previously described.

Speaker's Perspective and the Poem's Content

The poem gets to the reader through the perspective of the speaker, so the

characterization one gives to them is closely related to the interpretation of the

content of the poem and what we experience when reading it; and even more so if

we consider that each poem is the speaker's personal narrative of the experience

of dying. When we relate the previous characterization of the speakers with the

content of the poems, an impressive coherence emerges; not only within the poem,

but it is also consistent with life. It makes the reader feel poetry more real, and

therefore more vivid. Also, this coherence is not just logical but meaningful.

Table 1

Speakers' Traits in Dickinson's Selected Poems

Poem Age Family Belief in Death Resignation

context immortality circumstances
Poem 1 Child Very attached Strong Not Struggles a lot
to her family mentioned

Poem 2 Adult Not attached Moderate Not prepared, Struggles a bit

to her family so busy with
life affairs

Poem 3 Elderly His family Not He was Accepts his

person loves him mentioned prepared and end from the
expectant beginning
Note. This chart is the author's creation based on three selected Dickinson's poems, from Johnson. T. (1960).
The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.

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 From the table 1, we can say that it is understandable that the older adult, after a

life well-lived, and having a peaceful death; feels ready and does not need the

promise of immortality as support, because his life has already ended and he has

accepted it. It also makes sense that it was easy for the adult to resign herself to die

as not having a close family (or not being close to the one she had). However, of

course, her cycle was not yet over, and her death was surprising, so, although hope

in immortality helps her to resign (the first stanza), she still does not feel fully ready

(fourth stanza). The girl, unexpectedly, even after having lived so little, is the one

who remembers and misses the most; especially her family, which is logical since

they are fundamental in the life of a child, and the only thing that helps her feel better

is the belief that she will see them again in the afterlife.

From that, we can identify experiences, ideas, and longings that are well known

to human beings. As an example, thinking about immortality helped the girl and the

woman to resign themselves, something analogous to how the promise of the

afterlife offered by religions allows people to counteract the fear that death naturally

causes us. Besides, readers can empathize with the pain caused by the death of a

loved one, which is represented by the "dry eyes" of "poem 3", and led to hyperbole

with the mourning dead in "poem 1"; as well as with the grief caused by the death

of someone young (the girl "poem 1" and the woman "poem 2") which comes with

the hope that they can continue their life in the hereafter; just as with the yearning

for a peaceful death when older, as presented in "poem 3".

Another interesting connection that we can make in the poems is between the

characterization of the speakers and how they talk about time. In "poem 1", the girl

says "'Twas just this time, last year, I died" (v. 1), the fact that she is so sure of the

exact time and year in which she died implies that her death was very shocking for

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her, and she still cannot get over it. In "poem 2" the adult mentions "Since then - 'tis

Centuries - and yet / Feels shorter than the Day - I first surmised the Horses' Heads

/ Were toward Eternity -" (vv. 21-24), which suggests that she still remembers that

day, but is not as specific with time as the girl in "poem 1", so she probably feels

more resignation than the child does. In "poem 3," the elderly person does not even

bother to mention a hint of time. He only says "I Heard a Fly buzz - when I died -"

(v. 1), which denotes a much higher resignation than the previous speakers faced

with his death. It is related to the aforementioned ideas, those who died prematurely

and enjoyed their lives less, find it more difficult to resign themselves, being the

younger the most hurt.

In all three poems, the speakers seem to have had lived with traits that Dickinson

was familiar with. First, they appear to be of her social class (medium to high) as

previously described for each; from a religious context alike hers (the belief in the

afterlife prevails); to live in places similar to her rural Amherst, as seen in the

descriptions of "poem 2": "We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain" (v. 11), and "poem

1": "When I was carried by the Farms" (v. 3). Moreover, the deathbed scene of

"poem 3" with the entire family gathered around the deceased looking at him closely,

was very common in her space-time context; as well as the carriage rides as

narrated in "poem 2".

However, this does not entail that the message of her poems is limited only to her

life or to people with lives similar to hers. "Death for Emily Dickinson, therefore, was

an uncomfortable lacuna which could in no way be bridged, except by transposing

it into a more homely metaphor." (Larrabee, 2015), that is to say, that as part of her

style, the poet used those simple elements or situations she knew best (and she felt

more comfortable with) to talk about issues as large, complex, and even frightening

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as death; but that the message of her compositions is universal and valuable for any

individual. It should be added that the "homely" traits (through which we can

decipher "homely" speakers) are important because as being more familiar to the

poet, she was able to exploit them to the fullest and create appropriate descriptions,

which make the narration much more convincing, realistic, and vivid.

The Way the Persona Speaks

The speakers in all three poems narrate in the first person singular, except for

some plural verses on "poem 2". If we only focus on the narration of the experience

of dying, an "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died" (v. 1) from "poem 3", is much more

personal, credible and convincing, than a "We heard a Fly buzz when we died," or

a "She heard a Fly buzz when she died," as it refers to the experience and

subjectivity of oneself, giving more credence that what is said is true. However, the

most compelling thing about choosing this pronoun lies in the poem's reading,

"paradoxically, in the lyric this pronoun of self functions inclusively, rather than

exclusively. The reader is invited to identify with the poem's speaker for the brief,

intensified moment of the poem's unfolding." (Leiter, 2007). Thus, the "I" creates a

connection between the lyrical speaker and the reader, coming to combine;

therefore, what is narrated by one, is experienced by both. Hence, this "I" has an

enormous impact on how intensely the reader perceives the narration of the

experience of dying.

It is also important to mention that the lyrical speakers narrate their experience in

the past tense. It is true that if the present tense was used, the narration could be

more vivid since the events would be happening at that precise moment.

Nevertheless, the use of the past tense contributes to the testimonial character,

because the speakers are remembering what they thought and felt when they died

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and telling it as a story; if it were in the present tense, the speaker would not be a

dead person, but a dying person or a very recently dead person narrating what is

happening to them. It would be more emotionally charged, but it would not allow the

narration to be carried out sequentially, with the order and elegance it currently

shows, which contributes to give the reader a better description.

Another relevant aspect is that in the three poems, the speaker is predominantly

dedicated to the narration of the events, and except for certain verses such as "but

this sort, grieved myself," (v. 21) from "poem 1"; the voice does not expose feelings

explicitly, which could limit the emotional intensity of the poem. However, the

composition is full of figurative language and images, which give it realism and life,

and even allow us to infer feelings that the speaker does not directly expose. A good

example of this are the verses "The Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in

the Air- / Between the Heaves of Storm-" (vv. 2-4) and "And Breaths were gathering

firm / For the las Onset – when the King/ Be witnessed in the Room -" (vv. 6-8) of

"poem 3", which illustrate the silence, suspense and expectancy for the arrival of

death; an expectancy that the speaker's family feel and probably the speaker, too.

Regarding the tone, in "poem 3", it remains calm, expectant, and resigned

throughout the entire poem, which shows the resignation and passivity of the dying

person in the face of the inevitability of death. In the case of "poem 2" the tone in

the first three stanzas is calm, cordial, and comfortable, which indicates an initial

acceptance of death and hope in the afterlife; note that in the interval between the

third and the fourth stanza "We passed the Setting Sun / Or rather He passed Us"

(vv. 12-13), the tone becomes somewhat questioning and dismal. It occurs when

she realizes what dying meant and recognizes that she is not ready. The following

two stanzas denote a tone of resignation, although also slightly gloomy. In "poem

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1," the tone is nostalgic and melancholic, and in the last stanza, it becomes more

optimistic and hopeful when she thinks about meeting her family again in the

afterlife. Both "poem 1" and "poem 2" show notorious tone shifts, which resemble

the emotional changes that a genuine person could experience at the moment of

dying, thus contributing to conveying a vivid description.

Conclusion

Dickinson combined her skillful mind and enigmatic personality to conceive a

death-haunted context in the poems "Because I could not stop for death," "Twas just

this time last year I died" and "I heard a fly buzz when I died". She can capture her

reflections on this complex topic through the role of the speaker. The lyrical speaker

is one of the most prominent elements in them. Since it has an enormous influence

in the poem, and to a great extent, makes the narration of the experience of dying,

which encompasses the whole poem, much more vivid for the reader, what

consequently helps to transmit better the message behind it.

Its contribution consists of how the speaker's characterization (from the clues of

the poem, the socio-cultural context, and the author's biography) nourishes the

composition with a testimonial character, humanity, and coherence with real life.

The fact that they have similar characteristics to Dickinson does not decrease the

universality of the message. Besides, how the lyrical subject speaks (tone, person,

and number) creates a secure connection with the reader and reinforces the aspects

as mentioned earlier.

Characteristics associated with their form of expression, such as speaking in the

past tense and dedicating themselves mainly to narrating without expressing

emotions explicitly, contribute to the testimonial narration. However, it can diminish

the intensity of the description of the experience of dying; it is compensated with the

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use of images and symbolism, though, which allows maintaining an adequate

balance between the testimonial narration of past events and the emotional force of

the moment.

The speakers of Dickinson's poems, together with the elements most closely

related to them, make up a reasonably ingenious technique, especially for her time.

Comparable with what we can see today in some literary works, especially crime

fiction or detective novels. It can have a tremendous positive impact on the narrative

and the message, as long as used properly. Therefore, the decomposition of this

technique, its effect, and its implications; can be really useful for anyone who wants

to enrich their literary works and intensify the message for the audience.

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 References

Dickinson, E. (1960). Because I could not stop for death. In Thomas Johnson (Ed.), The

Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (p. 350). Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.

Dickinson, E. (1960). I heard a fly buzz when I died. In Thomas Johnson (Ed.), The

Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (pp. 223 - 224). Boston: Little, Brown, and

Company.

Dickinson, E. (1960). ‘Twas just this time last year I died. In Thomas Johnson (Ed.), The

Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (p. 214). Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.

Higginson, T. H. (1891, October). Emily Dickinson's Letters. Retrieved from The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1891/10/emily-dickinsons-

letters/306524/

Larrabee, A. (2015, August 17). On 712 ("Because I could not stop for Death"). Retrieved

from Modern American Poetry: https://www.modernamericanpoetry.org/criticism/ankey-

larrabee-712-because-i-could-not-stop-death

Leiter, S. (2007). Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life

and Work. New York: Facts on File. pp. 6, 103

Preest, D. (2012). Emily Dickinson Commentary [PDF file]. Retrieved from Emily

Dickinson Poems:

http://www.emilydickinsonpoems.org/Emily_Dickinson_commentary.pdf

Raymond, C. (2003). Emily Dickinson as the Un-named, Buried Child. The Emily

Dickinson Journal. pp. 107-122.

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