Emily Dickinson's So Over Horror-It Half Captivates

‘So over Horror – it half Captivates’: Explore how Dickinson presents conflicting ideas about death in two of her poems.

The quote ‘So over Horror- it half Captivates’ immediately reflects the sense of ambiguity that Dickinson presents when trying to fathom the huge theme of death. By reading her poems and looking into this quote, one could infer that Dickinson’s many views of death contradicts each other and this could reflect her changing and developing ideas and emotions relating to the idea of death. These emotions could be both fearful and fascinated about death and these emotions both strengthen and weaken throughout her life and throughout the course of her poetry, they intertwine or one dominates over the other. These views may have

The tone of ‘Safe in their Alabaster Chambers’, is quite airy and upbeat with mention of ‘laughs’, ‘breeze’ and ‘Sweet Birds’ and this evokes a sense of acceptance of death or at least an acceptance of the idea even if the daunting idea is phrased in a softer way with ‘sleep’ rather than something more factual. In her first version of the poem Dickinson uses the word ‘sleep’ to describe the dead. This particular word makes death sound something accepted and a part of natural life instead of something that one may detach them from. However this is contradicted in the same sentence, when Dickinson confirms the idea is only available for ‘members of the Resurrection’. Therefore, meaning that only the elite few can take part in this daily ritual. Although both the poems are contradictory, there is one key idea that runs, without fault, throughout both the poems and this is of the privileges of those ‘elected’; especially when considering death. This contradicts ‘Why- do they shut Me out of Heaven?’. The tone in this poem can be taken in two different ways. The first way is an incredibly fearful and almost desperate plea as to why she cannot secure her own place in Heaven and the fear of what would happen if she wasn’t able to be there. The dashes used in the poem reflect a sense of growing desperation and urgency to understand. ‘Shut’ is a very harsh sounding word and evokes a sense of finality- something that Dickinson probably fears with death. Again, this links back to her upbringing with Calvinism, and the finality of God’s selection. Another interpretation of the tone of the poem in relation to death could be bitter especially when reflecting on the reasons why someone else may be selected for afterlife or security after death over