Dickinson's "I dreaded that first robin so"

Dickinson’s poetry has been interpreted a number of different ways. To some she may come across suicidal, to others depressed, or even philosophical to a number of readers. In her poem number 347 her depression and feelings of inadequacy are clear. In this poem Dickinson is a diva and is like any other person, scared of change; feelings that people typically get over quickly. Dickinson is being drama queen by explaining and lingering upon her depression and feelings of inadequacy by comparing herself unreasonably to and transcending the beautiful structures involved with spring through her uses of allusion, symbolism, and personification. Dickinson shows how she is being a drama queen and unreasonably trying to explain her inadequacy through her allusion to Jesus’ crucifixion when she refers to herself as the “Queen of Calvary” (Line 24). Calvary was the site of Jesus’ crucifixion and is therefore associated with suffering. By alluding to the crucifixion, Dickinson is referring to herself as the queen of suffering. She states, “no blossom stayed away in gentle deference to me” (Line22-23) meaning that she is surprised that someone as despicable and unfavorable as she could experience the season of spring. Just as no flowers would grow in Calvary, an ugly and treacherous site of executions, she believes that no flowers should grow near a person as inadequate as she is. By comparing herself to the queen of suffering her depression is clear in that she is overplaying her faults by comparing herself to a structure as beautiful as the flowers in spring. Dickinson tries to transcend the suffering of Christ, the ultimate suffering, in order to help chide herself from her own feelings of inadequacy caused by nature. Dickinson further tries to explain her exaggerated feelings of inadequacy by personifying the grass. She states that the grass must grow quickly so “when ‘twas time to see- He’d be too tall, the tallest one could stretch to look at me” (Lines 13-15). In