Emily Dickerson's Poetry

Emily Dickerson's poetry often has similar discussion points. In a few of her poems, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," "I Died For Beauty," and "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died," she discusses death.
However, while death would normally be considered a negative subject, she tends to take it from different perspectives. In one instance, Emily Dickerson tends to speak of death as merely another journey. She also speaks of death in a good way as long as the reason is just. And lastly she describes how a person's last few moments living tend to linger on.

In the poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Emily Dickerson discusses how death may happen suddenly whether you are prepared for it or not. Yet although it may be unexpected it is but just another trip, in this case "the carriage held but just ourselves/ and immortality." She discusses how she has to put an end of things done while living, "labor, and my leisure too," and how the world will still go on, with her watching children play. Eventually Emily Dickerson comes to realize that death is everlasting, when she surmises that the horses carrying her on her voyage "were toward eternity."
In "I Died for Beauty" Emily Dickerson discusses how beauty and truth are one.
I believe she means by being true to who you are, and dying with your values intact, then you have lived a full life. By living a full life, you are at peace with yourself and able to rest "Until the moss had reached our [your] lips/ and covered up our [your]
names.

In the poem "I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" Emily Dickerson discusses how it is to live your last moments. She talks about "the stillness round my form," as though she feels her life coming to an end. "The eyes beside had wrung them dry," because the people around her were weeping till they longer had tears. She then prepared herself for death when suddenly she saw a fly. The fly represents her last glimpse of something living, her final deterrent in moving on to the afterlife. Finally "the windows failed" dimming her last glimpses of this world, until she "could not see to see."

While death may be something that people do not look forward to in general, Emily Dickerson does not view it as a terrible end. As long as you have lived a life you are proud of then you can be prepared to move on. Death is not a torturous experience in her mind, just another step necessary to take in life. It may seem like a sad time, which in some aspects it is in that you are no longer able to share in good times with your loved ones, but it is a duty of ours as human beings. In order to have a life, there must be death; it is the price we pay.