Dickinson and Hughes Essay Example

out of clay. Clay, in fact, is made up of a reddish-pink material, which could explain Dickinson's choice of diction as she calls dust a "pink stranger". By creating this image, it can be assumed that she is alluding to the people who have not yet been created as well as the mysticism and unanswerable questions that pertain to creation.

Therefore, by saying that she is more acquainted with this unfathomable myth than with the deceased that lay 'horizontal' before her, Dickinson expresses her inability to relate to or understand death. Through her vivid images and specific diction, Emily Dickinson effectively portrays the emotions that are evoked as a result of death in poem # 341. Dickinson begins this poem by stating, "After great pain, a formal feeling comes" (Thomas, 49). The intensity of such emotion tends to dissipate with time, yet often leaves the mourner devoid of sensation or feeling. This emotional numbness is apparent as Dickinson writes, "The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs". By comparing the image of a tomb, which is representative of death, to the nerves, which enable a person to feel, Dickinson seems to be implying this very notion of emotional numbness. After the intense pain evoked by death, a person, like a tomb, is left cold and unfeeling. They are also similar to a stone tomb that holds death by holding memories of the deceased, but they are unable to do anything more than remember.

Dickinson continues by stating, "The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,And Yesterday, or Centuries before?". By utilizing such diction as 'stiff', which is defined as something not moveable, Dickinson could be referencing

to the heart of the deceased that can no longer feel or beat. ...