Emily Dickinson's Poetry: My Life Closed Before Its Close
Beverly Nau
August 9, 2013
Dickinson’s Relationship with Death
My life closed twice before its close –
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
Emily Dickinson’s poetry explored many themes including love, self, and nature, but she also wrote of death, including her own, resulting in death being the subject in one-fourth of her poems. Her poem “My life closed twice before its close” exemplifies how the combination of her reclusive lifestyle, despair over lost loved ones, and her questioning the beliefs of the Puritan religious culture of that era fostered her fascination with death …show more content…
Dickinson does not specify what the loss is, but for the events to be the equal of the speaker’s life closing, it would have to be something that would cause traumatic bereavement, such as the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship. The “closing” of the speaker’s life is not a physical death, but more of a spiritual one, and the speaker has experienced it twice during his or her lifetime. The final “close” in this line would be the actual physical death of the speaker. Emily Dickinson experienced several traumatic losses during her lifetime, the most prominent being two family members: her mother from a stroke in 1875 and her 8-year-old nephew, Gilbert, in 1883. There is no way of knowing for sure, but it is quite possible that the loss of these two family members are the two closings mentioned in the first line of the …show more content…
Emily Dickinson Museum. Trustees of Amhearst College. 2009. Web. 10 August 2013.
“The International Reception of Emily Dickinson.” Ed. Mitchell, Domhnall and Stuart, Maria. Continuum Reception Studies. (115). 9 July 2009. Web. 10 August 2013.
“The Letters of Emily Dickinson.” Ed. Johnson, Thomas H. and Ward, Theodora. Cambridge, MA. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1958. Web. 10 August 2013.
“My life closed twice before its close” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. 1997 2013. Web. 10 Aug 2013.
Scheurich, N. (2007). “Suffering and Spirituality in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson.” Pastoral Psychology, 56(2), 189-197.
Walker, Kristen. “Emily Dickinson and Her Perspective from Beyond the Grave.” 8 Feb 2007. Yahoo Health and Lifestyles Network. 2013. Web. 10 Aug 2013.
Xiao-chuan, Ren. “Death and Immortality: the Everlasting Themes/LA MORT ET L 'IMMORTALITÉ: UN THÈME ÉTERNE.” Canadian Social Science. 5.5 (2009):
August 9, 2013
Dickinson’s Relationship with Death
My life closed twice before its close –
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
Emily Dickinson’s poetry explored many themes including love, self, and nature, but she also wrote of death, including her own, resulting in death being the subject in one-fourth of her poems. Her poem “My life closed twice before its close” exemplifies how the combination of her reclusive lifestyle, despair over lost loved ones, and her questioning the beliefs of the Puritan religious culture of that era fostered her fascination with death …show more content…
Dickinson does not specify what the loss is, but for the events to be the equal of the speaker’s life closing, it would have to be something that would cause traumatic bereavement, such as the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship. The “closing” of the speaker’s life is not a physical death, but more of a spiritual one, and the speaker has experienced it twice during his or her lifetime. The final “close” in this line would be the actual physical death of the speaker. Emily Dickinson experienced several traumatic losses during her lifetime, the most prominent being two family members: her mother from a stroke in 1875 and her 8-year-old nephew, Gilbert, in 1883. There is no way of knowing for sure, but it is quite possible that the loss of these two family members are the two closings mentioned in the first line of the …show more content…
Emily Dickinson Museum. Trustees of Amhearst College. 2009. Web. 10 August 2013.
“The International Reception of Emily Dickinson.” Ed. Mitchell, Domhnall and Stuart, Maria. Continuum Reception Studies. (115). 9 July 2009. Web. 10 August 2013.
“The Letters of Emily Dickinson.” Ed. Johnson, Thomas H. and Ward, Theodora. Cambridge, MA. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 1958. Web. 10 August 2013.
“My life closed twice before its close” Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. 1997 2013. Web. 10 Aug 2013.
Scheurich, N. (2007). “Suffering and Spirituality in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson.” Pastoral Psychology, 56(2), 189-197.
Walker, Kristen. “Emily Dickinson and Her Perspective from Beyond the Grave.” 8 Feb 2007. Yahoo Health and Lifestyles Network. 2013. Web. 10 Aug 2013.
Xiao-chuan, Ren. “Death and Immortality: the Everlasting Themes/LA MORT ET L 'IMMORTALITÉ: UN THÈME ÉTERNE.” Canadian Social Science. 5.5 (2009):