Emily Dickinson The Last Night She Lived
The speaker’s attitude towards the woman’s death can be divided into two sections in “The Last Night that She Lived” by Emily Dickinson. In the beginning (lines 1-20), the reader sees the speaker feeling pain and being aware of the woman’s death. In lines 21- 28 the speaker shows feelings of guilt but also respect. The use of metaphors, similes, caesuras, oxymoron, repetition, and syntax all lead to the overall tone for this poem: despair.
A prominent topic throughout the poem is the inevitability of the woman’s death. Lines 2-4 are a good representation of this. Words such as “common” and “nature” in lines 2 and 4 let the reader know that the speaker understands the death is inevitable and it is all just a part of life. Repetition throughout the poem shows the commonness of death and also the despair they feel over it. Line 5 begins the repetition with “we noticed”. Each repetition found throughout the poem is the pronoun “we” followed by a verb such as “we went” (line 9), “we waited” (line 17), and “we placed” (line 25). The repetition helps to build on the author’s idea of death being common.
The oxymoron in the poem makes the reader think about the harsh time the speaker is going through. Oxymoron also builds on the idea of inevitability or commonness. The oxymoron found in line 7 describes death. The speaker relates death to a “great light”. Death is dark and gloomy instead of being a light. This interprets that the darkness of death can still bring peace to the one dying. The second oxymoron in line 16 is “nearly infinite”. When something is infinite it means it goes on forever. Putting the word “nearly” in front of that contradicts the use of infinite. The use of this oxymoron shows the reader how slowly time seemed to be going for the speaker.
The speaker is also aware that the woman’s time of death is near. In line 5 the speaker mentions that the people notice things that were in the past. Everything begins to seem a little more precious than it used
A prominent topic throughout the poem is the inevitability of the woman’s death. Lines 2-4 are a good representation of this. Words such as “common” and “nature” in lines 2 and 4 let the reader know that the speaker understands the death is inevitable and it is all just a part of life. Repetition throughout the poem shows the commonness of death and also the despair they feel over it. Line 5 begins the repetition with “we noticed”. Each repetition found throughout the poem is the pronoun “we” followed by a verb such as “we went” (line 9), “we waited” (line 17), and “we placed” (line 25). The repetition helps to build on the author’s idea of death being common.
The oxymoron in the poem makes the reader think about the harsh time the speaker is going through. Oxymoron also builds on the idea of inevitability or commonness. The oxymoron found in line 7 describes death. The speaker relates death to a “great light”. Death is dark and gloomy instead of being a light. This interprets that the darkness of death can still bring peace to the one dying. The second oxymoron in line 16 is “nearly infinite”. When something is infinite it means it goes on forever. Putting the word “nearly” in front of that contradicts the use of infinite. The use of this oxymoron shows the reader how slowly time seemed to be going for the speaker.
The speaker is also aware that the woman’s time of death is near. In line 5 the speaker mentions that the people notice things that were in the past. Everything begins to seem a little more precious than it used