Dickinson Poetry

This week, we began our discussion on Emily Dickinson. There was a variety of poems that we were to read, including “Safe in their alabaster chambers,” “They dropped like flakes,” “It feels a shame to be alive,” and “The name of it – is ‘Autumn.’” Personally, poetry is difficult for me (and I’m sure for a lot of people in the class) to comprehend and understand it’s message at first, but as I learned in class this week, taking a poem line by line makes unraveling it’s meaning easier. These three poems we read and analyzed this week had common themes: death and war. Many of Dickinson’s poems reflected on these themes, and many of them had historical meanings. For example, “The name of it - is ‘Autumn,’” as we decided as a class, represented a battle from the Civil War. Also, “Safe in their alabaster chambers” reflected the soldiers who were now laid to rest in their “alabaster chambers” (coffins).

Different from these two mentioned above were “They dropped like flakes” and “It feels a shame to be alive.” “They dropped like flakes” was a poem about the numerous deaths of the soldiers. The poem gives the idea that there are so many deaths at such a quick pace that its difficult to recognize them (lines 7 and 8 show that it is difficult to identify and keep up with all of the casualties). “It feels a shame to be alive” presents Dickinson’s (or anyone’s) “survivors guilt,” while brave and loyal soldiers are out fighting for their country and losing their lives for freedom and liberty. The poem also shows that people are torn as to what is actually important enough that it would cost a life (is liberty priced higher than human life?). Overall, I really enjoyed reflecting on the meanings of Dickinson’s poetry and appreciated poetry more, having been able to dissect the true representations and messages behind them.