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Emily DickinsonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The poem features five quatrains or five stanzas with four lines. The first and third lines in each stanza mimic iambic tetrameter—they contain roughly four iambic feet for a total of eight syllables. So, for example, Line 17’s meter is: “And then a Plank in Reason, broke.” The second and fourth lines approximate iambic trimeter—they contain three feet for a total of six syllables. Thus, the meter of Line 18 is: “And I dropped down, and down—”.
In the poem, the second and last lines in each stanza rhyme, creating the rhyme scheme ABCB. This sonic resonance gives the poem a harmonious sound that contrasts with the grating noise heard by the speaker. The purposeful, controlled form and meter give the poem a tidiness that clashes with the wrecked, distressed speaker, highlighting the messy feeling of death or trauma.
Repetition is a literary device in which the poet repeats specific words or phrases to emphasize a theme, idea, or feeling. In the poem, Emily Dickinson repeats words to underscore the speaker’s anxiety and distress. For instance, as the mourners are “treading—treading” (Line 3) in the speaker’s brain, the repetition makes their steps appear doubly oppressive.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson
There is no Frigate like a Book
Emily Dickinson