My intial responses to the poem "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" were not of death. I did fathom the notion that the alabaster chambers were coffins, but that led to a series of questions: Why would the coffins be untouched by Morning or Noon as opposed to Evening? Were funerals only held in the evening back then? Is the Resurrection alluding to Christ or zombies? Why is there an exclamation mark after Roof of Stone? It would seem that the tomb at the grave would be the roof of stone, but why is that exclaimed? Maybe its for fear of the zombies.
The 2nd stanza of the 1st version is ultimately what led me astray from the theme of death. The imagery of nature and spring made me think of just the opposite - that of life. But then Dickinson throws a curve ball at you when she uses words like stolid, ignorant and perished. I thought with her being a recluse, she was criticizing the outdoors because she preferred a life of solidarity. I know I'm not the first person to be annoyed by birds waking me up in the morning with their "ignorant cadences." But continued analysis reveals that this intepretation is completely wrong and that death is indeed the theme that can link all the components of this poem together.
I thought that the first stanza of "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" portrayed the theme of death really well. I guess why the coffin was only described as "untouched by morning and untouched by noon" is because a coffin is either buried underground or inside a tomb, which would not be exposed to sunlight. Its surroundings are dark anyways, so being "untouched" by evening would not be relevant to it.
ReplyDeleteYour comment about Emily Dickinson being emo was hilarious. Anyhow, Kelly mentioned that Dickinson had written cute, flowery poems before, so I guess she's not AS emo as we perceive her to be from reading the Civil War poems. I think it's normal for a woman to be emotional to things like the Civil War, given the vast amounts of death and the complicated feelings of having people from the same country fight against each other.
Ty, firstly, I thought it was hillarious how you thought Dickinson would be considered "emo" if she lived in our time period. I agree the way she was described in class- she seemed as thought she was depressive and dark. I am surprised that you didn't get death out of the poem. In my post I described how I got death out of that poem- but in a general sense. I guess that further shows that each person interprets a poem in a different way. Also, I really liked the way you you described your theory on the poem. Dickinson alluded to death, but it could be a possibility that she was not discussing death itself, but maybe life, as you said. I enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do agree that death was one of her common themes. I feel she tries to find the positive of death and the peace it brings to the person. In poems such as "safe in the alabaster chambers", we see her describe death with descriptive details dealing with the beauty. I don't believe is she is actually intending to be dark, I feel she wants the reader to take a look around them in the world they are in, and find the beauty to it. Because according to Ms. Dickinson, when your dead, you don't share the same pleasure.
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