Judging from Dickinson’s poetry, what seems to be her attitude toward death? You must explain your thesis through your explanation of the images in her poems. What kind of imagery does she use to make her points? Identify the images and explain them. 

Choose 2 or more poems for this assignment.

REQUIREMENT 350 WORDS! 

With supporting evidence from the text 

NEED DONE AT 9pm Eastern TIME 

EMILY

DICKINSON

1830-1886, United States

Con en Page

Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers

1

Wild Nights Wild Nights! 1

Hope is the Thing ith Feathers

2

There’s a Certain Slant of Light 2

I Felt a Funeral, in m Brain

3

I m Nobod ! Who are You? 3

The Soul Selects Her O n Societ

4

After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes 4

I Heard a Fl Bu When I Died

5

I Started Earl Took m Dog

6

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

7

A Narro Fello in the Grass

8

As Imperceptibl as Grief

9

Safe he A aba e Cha be

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers
Untouched b Morning
And untouched b Noon
Lie the meek members of the Resurrection
Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone!

Grand go the Years in the Crescent – above them
Worlds scoop their Arcs
And Firmaments ro
Diadems drop and Doges surrender
Soundless as dots on a Disc of Sno

. 1861

W d N gh W d N gh !

Wild Nights Wild Nights!
Were I ith thee
Wild Nights should be
Our lu ur !

Futile the Winds
To a Heart in port
Done ith the Compass
Done ith the Chart!

Ro ing in Eden
Ah the Sea!
Might I but moor Tonight
In Thee!

. 1861

1

H e he Th g h Fea he

Hope is the thing ith feathers

That perches in the soul
And sings the tune ithout the ords
And never stops at all

And s eetest in the Gale is heard
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so man arm

I ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest Sea
Yet, never, in E tremit ,
It asked a crumb of Me.

. 1861

The e’ a Ce a S a f L gh

There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes

Heavenl Hurt, it gives us
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are

None ma teach it An
‘Tis the Seal Despair
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air

When it comes, the Landscape listens
Shado s hold their breath
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
On the look of Death

. 1861

2

I Fe a F e a , B a

I felt a Funeral, in m Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading treading till it seemed
That Sense as breaking through

And hen the all ere seated,
A Service, like a Drum
Kept beating beating till I thought
M Mind as going numb

And then I heard them lift a Bo
And creak across m Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space began to toll,

As all the Heavens ere a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitar , here

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped do n, and do n
And hit a World, at ever plunge,
And Finished kno ing then

. 1861

I N b d ! Wh a e ?

I m Nobod ! Who are ou?
Are ou Nobod too?
Then there s a pair of us?
Don t tell! the d advertise ou kno !

Ho drear to be Somebod !
Ho public like a Frog
To tell one s name the livelong June
To an admiring Bog!

. 1861
3

The S Se ec He O S c e

The Soul selects her o n Societ
Then shuts the Door
To her divine Majorit
Present no more

Unmoved she notes the Chariots pausing
At her lo Gate
Unmoved an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat

I’ve kno n her from an ample nation
Choose One
Then close the Valves of her attention
Like Stone

. 1862

Af e G ea Pa , a F a Fee g C e

After great pain, a formal feeling comes
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs
The stiff Heart questions as it He, that bore,
And Yesterda , or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought
A Wooden a
Regardless gro n,
A Quart contentment, like a stone

This is the Hour of Lead
Remembered, if outlived,
As Free ing persons, recollect the Sno
First Chill then Stupor then the letting go

. 1862

4

I Hea d a F B Whe I D ed

I heard a Fl bu hen I died
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air
Bet een the Heaves of Storm

The E es around had rung them dr
And Breaths ere gathering firm
For that last Onset hen the King
Be itnessed in the Room

I illed m Keepsakes Signed a a
What portion of me be
Assignable and then it as
There interposed a Fl

With Blue uncertain stumbling Bu
Bet een the light and me
And then the Windo s failed and then
I could not see to see

. 1862

5

I S a ed Ea T D g

I started Earl Took m Dog
And visited the Sea
The Mermaids in the Basement
Came out to look at me

And Frigates in the Upper Floor
E tended Hempen Hands
Presuming Me to be a Mouse
Aground upon the Sands

But no Man moved Me till the Tide
Went past m simple Shoe
And past m Apron and m Belt
And past m Bodice too

And made as He ould eat me up
As holl as a De
Upon a Dandelion’s Sleeve
And then I started too

And He He follo ed close behind
I felt His Silver Heel
Upon m Ankle Then m Shoes
Would overflo ith Pearl

Until We met the Solid To n
No One He seemed to kno
And bo ing ith a Might look
At me The Sea ithdre

. 1862

6

Beca e I C d N S f Dea h

Because I could not stop for Death
He kindl stopped for me
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortalit .

We slo l drove He kne no haste
And I had put a a
M labor and m leisure too,
For His Civilit

We passed the School, here Children strove
At Recess in the Ring
We passed the Fields of Ga ing Grain
We passed the Setting Sun

Or rather He passed Us
The De s dre quivering and Chill
For onl Gossamer, m Go n
M Tippet onl Tulle

We paused before a House that seemed
A S elling of the Ground
The Roof as scarcel visible
The Cornice in the Ground

Since then ’tis Centuries and et
Feels shorter than the Da
I first surmised the Horses’ Heads
Were to ard Eternit

. 1863

7

A Na Fe he G a

A narro Fello in the Grass
Occasionall rides
You ma have met him Did ou not
His notice sudden is

The Grass divides as ith a Comb
A spotted shaft is seen
And then it closes at our Feet
And opens further on

He likes a Bogg Acre
A Floor too cool for Corn
But hen a Bo , and Barefoot
I more than once at Noon

Have passed, I thought, a Whip Lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It rinkled, and as gone

Several of Nature s People
I kno , and the kno me
I feel for them a transport
Of Cordialit

But never met this Fello
Attended, or alone
Without a tighter breathing
And Zero at the Bone

. 1865

8

A I e ce b a G ef

As imperceptibl as Grief
The Summer lapsed a a
Too imperceptible at last
To seem like Perfid
A Quietness distilled
As T ilight long begun,
Or Nature spending ith herself
Sequestered Afternoon
The Dusk dre earlier in
The Morning foreign shone
A courteous, et harro ing Grace,
As Guest ho ould be gone
And thus, ithout a Wing
Or service of a Keel
Our Summer made her light escape
Into the Beautiful.

. 1865

9