An Analysis Of Pain And Ecstasy In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

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Pain/Ecstasy: One of the most impressive aspects of Dickinson 's writing is her philosophical bend and her mystical insight, which she describes as ‘Ecstasy’. The following lines illustrate Dickinson’s quest for eternity and immortality. “Behind - me - dips Eternity - / Before Me - Immortality” In this example, she calls herself the term in between something abstract and indefinable, referring to metaphysical qualities. These words also refer to our temporally limited existence on earth, also referred to as circumference in her poetry (Emily Dickinson’s Handbook). Dickinson uses her poetic license, to let the abstract concepts of mortality and immortality lay in semantic indefiniteness, as they cannot be explained by conventional methods of writing. After great pain a formal feeling comes-- The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs; The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore? And yesterday--or centuries before? The feet, mechanical, go round A wooden way Of ground, or air, or ought, Regardless grown, A quartz contentment, like a stone. This is the hour of lead Remembered if outlived, As freezing persons recollect the snow-- First chill, then stupor, then the letting go. Dickinson wrote of pain, as it plays a necessary …show more content…

The repetitive use of ‘F’ in the poem enforces the fact that pain can never become familiar and it always remains formal. Further, she writes ‘Nerves sit ceremonious like tombs; The stiff heart’ to create the perception of a graveyard, creating an eerie atmosphere, yet portraying the reality of life. She writes this poem in third person’s perspective, without the use of ‘I’. Thus, the reader fails to identify whether Dickinson is speaking of herself or does Dickinson use depersonalization as one of her literary techniques in order to show emotional

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