The Lamentations of Emily Dickinson

By utilizing vivid images and specific diction, Emily Dickinson effectively portrays through her poetry the intense and confusing emotions that are evoked as a result of death. In poem # 1527 and poem # 341, Dickinson addresses the inevitability of death and its permanence as well as expresses her personal lamentations towards those she has lost. Such feelings of disbelief and incredulity pertaining to deaths permanence are apparent in Dickinson’s poem # 1527. She begins this poem by stating, “Oh …

…felt is it possible to accept death and its inevitability, as Dickinson describes as the ‘letting go’. Through her vivid images and powerful diction, Emily Dickinson effectively portrays through her poetry the complexity of her lamentations and her difficulties in accepting the permanence and inevitability of death. In poem # 1527 and poem # 341, Dickinson artfully conjures up the distressing and heart wrenching aspects of death that are universally felt by all who have ever loved and lost.