Emily Dickinson Dying Literary Devices

Death to a new Beginning All poems have underlined meanings, many are not straightforward, and sometimes what you think is happening, is the exact opposite. Emily Dickinson’s poem “Dying,” is a perfect example of this idea. In her poem she talking about the idea of death and what happened before she died. Obviously she is not dead because she wrote the poem. Here in this poem, she uses the idea of actual death to symbolize rebirth; the ending of old way of living and the struggle of creating a new way to life.
Ironically, the entire poem is a huge metaphor for a different meaning. This is done by the usage of diction, tone, rhythm, meter, and, most important for a metaphor, imagery; all of which are in a way connected. Imagery is
Rising action is the increase in tension and conflict facing the protagonist in the poem. Visual imagery in the second stanza is vital to the undertraining plot line of the poem. Eyes are wrung dry, and breaths are held firm; use these two images remembering the protagonist is about to die. The crying over the soon to be death of the protagonist is over because acceptance of the outcome is present and everyone is trying to appear strong and “firm” while the protagonist is preparing for death or in this case change. The tone is unchanged from being sad and dark from the initial establishment in the first paragraph. Diction during this phase is real deep and slow to build up tension. The lines are long and drawn out with the use of long vowels like “u,” “ou,” and “ea”; and soft consonants like “wr,” “g” and
Diction in these lines shifts from the way words are shaped in the previous lines. Juncture is part of diction and describes the difficulty of saying a word by the variances in the syllables. The way one’s mouth moves to make the sound of each syllable is juncture. The larger the variance in juncture the more difficult the word is to pronounce. Diction is shifted from soft-smooth consonants and vowels to harsh and aggressive consonants. “Onset,” “witnessed,” Keepsake,” “portion,” all of these words have an increased aggressiveness than words used earlier in the poem. From the altering of the diction, the meter begins to change. More aggressive, accented syllables are used. More spondees occur in these four lines. The shift in meter from being casual to aggressive makes the rhythm of the poem less