EXAM: Emily Dickinson - Segues

Question 1

BECAUSE

Answer 1

In Because, Dickinson probes the persistent inscrutability of death through the conceit of death as a chivalric suitor “kindly” escorting a female speaker on her journey between the mortal and eternal worlds.

Thus, by ending with an anti-closural dash, Dickinson may offer readers some solace in the hope ‘Eternity’ will reverberate out into the rich consolations of a Christian afterlife. Yet, the possible reading of this ending as the speaker’s final break with consciousness is representative of Dickinson’s broader attitude of ambivalence towards death, accepting it as stubbornly indecipherable and enigmatic.

Question 2

FLY

Answer 2

In Fly, Dickinson again scrutinises the Puritan Cult of Death through the comic intrusion of a banal fly into the speaker’s solemn deathbed vigil scene.

Thus, while Dickinson retains hope for a Christian afterlife, the poem’s bathetic conclusion ultimately speaks to the irony of Ars Moriendi, which attempts to create a divine spectacle of an occasion so persistently pedestrian and impersonal, at least from an observer’s perspective.

Question 3

OPPOSITE HOUSE

Answer 3

In Opposite House, the ubiquity of death in Civil War America causes the domestic and gothic to collide when a male speaker reports on a neighbourhood death.

Thus, Dickinson opposes creating a spectacle of death as this promises a false sense of control over its tenacious mystery and fascinating Gothicism.

Question 4

TO KNOW

Answer 4

To Know is an elegiac poem in which a female speaker, possibly a lover, launches an anaphoric inquiry, seeking “to know” the true nature of a soldier’s dying moments.

Therefore, while Dickinson recognises the benefit of religious tenets in providing comfort in life’s most mournful moments, she also accepts life is tragically ephemeral and thus the loss of human connections is an event worth grieving.

Question 5

SOMETHING QUIETER

Answer 5

In Passage _, Dickinson’s speaker struggles against the tenacious mystery of death at a ritualised puritan wake.

Therefore, by exposing the puritan Good Death rituals true aim of eliding the emotional discomfort engendered by death, Dickinson warns of the vulnerability of all people, poets alike, to the trappings of Ars Moriendi and the false sense of control over death it so enticingly offers.

Question 6

FROST

sceptical/char ambiv

Answer 6

In Frost, the speaker, who uses inclusive pronouns to represent all of humanity, attempts to evade death before bitterly accepting its inevitability.

Thus, while Dickinson appears sceptical of Emersion tropes about death due to their its insensitivity to the unique tragedy of mortal life, in that we are born only to perish, she remains characteristically ambivalent about death and despair, accepting only that they are irrevocable and sacred parts of human experience.

Question 7

LOADED GUN

Answer 7

Loaded Gun is a proto-feminist lyrical ballad in which the speaker, metaphorised as a gun, initially relishes in their borrowed freedom before realising the limits of their power under the patriarchy.

Thus, through her characterisation of female identity as a site of latent potential, Dickinson cautions women against acquiescing to systems of patriarchal oppression and instead exhorts them to find true self-actualisation by relinquishing traditional female roles, as she did.

Question 8

FUNERAL

deliberately ambiguous/advocates/acknowledging

Answer 8

In Passage _, Dickinson’s conceit metaphorises the death of the speaker’s sanity in the form of a funeral in their psyche.

Thus, Dickinson’s visceral evocation of the experience of despair, although agonising, may advocate for embracing the process of suffering, acknowledging that periods of hardship can be revelatory.

Question 9

BLANK

Answer 9

In Passage_, Dickinson’s speaker attempts to navigate their way out of the the depths of mental despair, presented through the conceit of a Thesian maze, to discover the power of intuition and imagination.

Thus, just as Funeral, while Dickinson’s deliberately ambiguous final message is indicative of her broader resistance to accepting comforting cliches, it possibly also celebrates the power of imagination to pave a path towards hope.

Question 10

SLANT

T/f while ED’s visceral evocation…., Slant’s sp problematises…

Answer 10

For the speaker in Passage ___, a fading light is cause for despair over their own mortality and the apathy of nature and the divine to their suffering.

Therefore, while Dickinson’s visceral evocation of the experience of despair may provide an opportunity for solidarity between all humankind who inevitably face this inner conflict, Slants’s speaker problematises religious and transcental tendencies to sentimentalise nature in a naïve attempt to conceal the possibility of death being an eternal darkness, rather than a sublime light.

Question 11

SADDEST NOISE

Answer 11

In Passage ___, Dickinson’s speaker grows resentful of riverdi traditions’ naïve assessment of nature as a purely benevolent force and is instead tormented by its seductive hostility, metaphorised by a birdsong.

Therefore, just as in Blank and Funeral, Dickinson embraces the process of despair, acknowledging that the periods of ‘sadness’ and ‘sweetness’ in life ultimately are necessary to develop resilience, authenticity, and human solidarity.

Question 12

BLAZING

Answer 12

In Passage _, Dickinson presents an uncharacteristically optimistic review of nature through the conceit of a jester’s captivating performance as the sun journeys across the sky.

Thus, the poem’s briefness may serve as an invigorating word of encouragement from Dickinson, inspiring readers to engage intensely in the present moment and the power of the natural world. Yet, Blazing is undeniably at odds with Dickinson’s oftentime resentful attitude towards nature - as is the case for the speakers of Slant and Saddest Noise -, and so the poem’s compactness is perhaps a subtle acknowledgement of the tragic transcience of Romantic tenets’ ability to elide death’s emotional burden.

Question 13

TWO BUTTERFLIES

Answer 13

In Passage _, Dickinson’s vate-like poet-speaker exercises their negative capability with the flight of two butterflies forming a conceit for their imagined transcendence beyond the barriers of human perception.

Thus, through her complex tonality, Dickinson exposes the transience of moments of sublime clarity and ultimately presents a characteristically ambivalent assessment of religion, nature, and poetry itself.

Question 14

PUBLICATION

castigatory tone… mutually excl

Answer 14

For the speaker of Publication, the act of commercialising one’s creativity is tantamount to blasphemy.

As such, through her highly castigatory tone, Dickinson appears adamant that true creative integrity is mutually exclusive with publication.

Question 15

HOPE

Answer 15

In Passage _, Dickinson’s speaker celebrates the power of hope to provide solace in the darkest moments of despair.

Thus, through the elliptical conceit of hope as a small but mighty bird, Dickinson urges readers to reclaim hope as a virtue - an inner tenacity with the capacity to still even the most violent throes of despair.

Question 16

NARROW FELLOW

Answer 16

In Passage _, through the personification of a lurking snake disguised congenially as a ‘Narrow Fellow’ Dickinson’s speaker expresses his reservations about Romantic idealisations of nature.

Thus, Dickinson characteristically destabilises the classic American trope of a speaker’s journey into nature, as their discovery of its inherent malevolence contradicts the Emersonian belief that nature is humanity’s sanctuary in which we realise are highest and noblest selves.

Question 17

LIKE RAIN

The subtlety…

A/t at 1st glance… sp’s acknowledgement of…

Answer 17

The subtlety of Dickinson’s poetic features in Passage _ illustrate the vate-like speaker’s experimentation with language in attempt to express an ineffable encounter with nature, ultimately bringing them closer to God.

Thus, although at first glance Like Rain appears oddly celebratory by Dickinsonian standards of both vate-poets and also nature’s destructive extremities, in this case the speaker’s acknowledgement of the limitations of their mortal knowledge in the face of the divine reinforces Dickinson’s characteristic attitude of ambivalence towards all matters of life, death, religion and nature.

Question 18

Death - Because, Opposite House

Answer 18

Across her opus, Emily Dickinson both harnesses and destabilises contemporary cultural and literary motifs to elucidate how the enticing sense of control promised by death rituals is ultimately illusory. For Dickinson, the trappings of Ars Moriendi are limited and potentially dangerous as they fail to prepare mourners for coping with grief in a meaningful way, as is revealed in Because and Opposite House.

Question 19

Despair - Loaded Gun, Hope, Blank, Funeral

Answer 19

Across her opus, Emily Dickinson both harnesses and destabilises literary and cultural tropes to reflect her scepticism about the transcendentalist assurances that her contemporaries find binding and consoling. This is especially true in her exploration of despair, which portrays the experience of internal struggle - as depicted Hope and Blank - as alienating and excruciating, yet ultimately freeing. Meanwhile, external struggle - such as in Loaded Gun and Funeral- exacerbates mental entrapment and anguish.

Question 20

Death & god/nature - Fly, To Know

Answer 20

Across her opus, Emily Dickinson both harnesses and destabilises contemporary cultural and literary motifs to elucidate how the enticing sense of control promised by death rituals is ultimately illusory. For Dickinson, the trappings of Ars Moriendi are limited and potentially dangerous, as they belie death’s abject truth.

Question 21

God & nature - Blazing, Two Butterflies, Like Rain, Narrow Fellow

Answer 21

While certain elements of the verse of Emily Dickinson can be seen to be quintessentially Romantic, the highly compressed meaning within her lyricism resists easy conclusions. As such, whereas some poems amongst Dickinson’s work on nature, such as Blazing, Like Rain, and Two Butterflies, laud nature and religion’s capacity to inspire, others like Narrow Fellow seem haunted by its latent cruelty.

Question 22

All three - Frost, Saddest Noise, Slant

Answer 22

While certain elements of the verse of Emily Dickinson can be seen to be quintessentially Romantic, the highly compressed meaning within her lyricism seems haunted by nature’s latent cruelty. For Dickinson, this anxiety, foregrounded in Frost, Saddest Noise and Slant, seems to be brought upon by nature’s apparent complicity in summoning death, oftentimes acting as a conduit to a callous God - a reality that transcendentalist convictions offer limited consolation for.