Analysing Lyric Appeal of Emily Dickinson's Poem

Introduction

'Because I could not stop for Death' explores the inevitability of death and the uncertainties that surround what happens after people die. ‘Death’ is personified as a ‘kindly’ gentleman, who takes the reader on a mysterious journey through time. Unlike most lyric poetry, the poem was given no title by the poet.

Form and Structure

Dickinson incorporates her typical form, using six quatrains with each stanza representing different stages of the speaker’s symbolic journey. The thing that sets her apart from the dominant aesthetic of her time is the way she tends to break away from the pattern. What her contemporaries may have called spasmodic, imperfectly rhymed, and lacking in form, we today consider a skillful interplay of meaning and music. The bulk of the poem continues with this regular meter, although the ABCB rhyme scheme diverges into off-rhymes: ‘me-immortality’, ‘away-Civility’, ‘Ring-Sun’, ‘chill-Tulle’. This deviation creates a tension within the poem that mirrors life's unpredictability (Johnson, 1955; Franklin, 1998).

The Lyric Tradition

In the British tradition, the term ‘lyric’ comes to designate short, intimate poems, often written in the first person and directly expressing the speaker’s thoughts and feelings. Conversely, lyric poetry’s emphasis on interiority and individuality means that it became more and more popular from the Romantic period onward; it is the default mode of ‘modern’ or ‘bourgeois’ poetry. Dickinson’s poems are lyrics, generally defined as short poems with a single speaker, not necessarily the poet, who expresses thought and feeling (Homans, 1984). As in most lyric poetry, the speaker in Dickinson’s poems is often identified in the first person ‘I’. In spite of this, Dickinson reminded a reader that the ‘I’ in her poetry does not necessarily speak for the poet herself: “When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse – it does not mean – me – but a supposed person” (L1045). In this poem, the ‘I’ addresses the reader as ‘you’. Another essential characteristic of lyrical poetry is in the types of moods and emotions expressed. These emotions tend to lean toward extremes in life.

Thematic Exploration

Appropriately, Dickinson centers much of her work around themes like 'Death', who is ‘kind’ and ‘civil’ through personification and allusion. This offers a unique perspective where death is not an enemy but a companion on life's final journey (Gilbert & Gubar, 1979). Dickinson incorporates a sort of humorous irony that although she 'could not stop for death', 'Death' makes time to 'kindly stop' for her. Humor is not traditionally associated with authentic lyric poetry; however, Dickinson’s transcendental humor and irony are some of her deep sources of popularity.

Meter and Musicality

Lyrics tend to follow a formal structure which dictates its form, meter and rhyme scheme. One of the most common meters used in lyric poetry is iambic meter, which Dickinson skillfully incorporates into the poem. The form’s strong rhythmic pattern contributes to the poem’s musicality, depicting a typically lyrical quality.

Conclusion

Overall, without elaborate philosophy yet with irresistible ways of expression, Dickinson’s poems have true lyric appeal because they make abstractions such as love, hope, loneliness, death and immortality seem near, intimate and faithful.

References:

• Franklin, R. W. (1998). The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Cambridge: The Belknap Press.
• Gilbert S.M., & Gubar S. (1979). The Madwoman in The Attic: The Woman Writer and The Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Homans M. (1984). Women Writers and Poetic Identity: Dorothy Wordsworth to Sylvia Plath. Princeton University Press.
• Johnson T.H., ed. (1955). The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Little Brown.