Emily Dickinson Poem 823 Analysis

Poem 823 declares that humans’ actions will not be the Lord’s test, but their intentions behind the actions will be. The Lord knows that his creation will make mistakes, which is why His son died to forgive humans of their sins. He looks to see that those faults come from a heart with pure intentions and that His people learn from their errors in an attempt to better themselves. The narrator, although unknown, speaks to all of humankind in this poem, including herself. The speaker has likely reached the gates of heaven by this time and spends her days with the Lord. Watching over humanity for all of their lives, the Lord hosts his final assessment when each individual person approaches the gates of heaven. When reading poem 823, one realizes the experience in the speaker’s words. Although it seems like she may be speaking down to the reader, she actually informs the reader about the truths of the Lord’s final examination. The narrator speaks from a perspective as though she already has experienced the test of the Lord and now attempts to educate the people remaining on earth. An appeal to the credibility of the speaker, known as ethos, presents itself through this viewpoint in which the narrator speaks. When the speaker continuously uses the word “We”, she refers to all of creation (1, 3, 4). Emily
Altar Poetry, a pattern made by the lines of a poem, makes it into the shape of an altar, like one sees at church. The use of the Altar Poetry visual pattern draws closer to the importance of God’s examination in the poem. Furthermore, the altar of a church is the spotlight of the mass, where the acts of the sacred rituals occur. By using this visual pattern, Dickinson further relates the poem about God to the altar, which symbolizes His presence in the individual lives of every person. The altar better connects with people, rather than an intangible sacrament of