EMILY DICKINSON Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

EMILY DICKINSON - Essay Example The poem â€Å"Before I got my eyes put out† will be examined first. The poem is discussing how the sort of power found in angels and the heavens is too much for people: â€Å"But were it told to me—Today—/That I might have the sky† (5-6). Having the sky is obviously only something a heavenly creature could possess, though there aren’t any directly mentioned in the text. Regardless, something like this is obviously too much for a person: â€Å"The News would strike me dead† (17). In this poem she is setting up the difference between people and the heavens, though it is important to note that she states that she would die, and she does not say that this is particularly a bad thing. Without a judgment as to whether this would be a positive or negative thing, Dickinson is free to develop her theme as she feels fit. Though it’s not obvious in this particular poem, death as a positive event will be developed and treated as the obvious way o f viewing it. Next, â€Å"I like a look of Agony† discusses how pain and death can be seen in a positive aspect. As Dickinson states that people would not pretend to be in pain because it is not a state that people want to be in, one can assume that a person that does appear to be in pain is actually in pain, and she appreciates the honesty of it. Death, which is â€Å"Impossible to feign† (6), is the ultimate form of honesty, and obviously honesty is always regarded as a positive trait. As pain and agony can often lead to death, the link between agony, death, and honesty is apparent. It might seem at first that the poem is a bit morbid, since it sounds as though the speaker is enjoying the suffering of others if one were to merely glance at the first line, by the end of the poem this interpretation obviously cannot be carried all the way through and must be discarded. The next poem,