The Concept of Death in Emily Dickinson's One Dignity Delays for All and 'Twas Warm - at First - like Us

Abstract

This study primarily aims to scrutinise the concept of death in Emily Dickinson’s “One Dignity Delays for All” (1859) and “‘Twas Warm – at First – like Us” (1862) in the light of New Criticism. Accordingly, this study also aims to analyse and interpret the similarities and differences between Dickinson’s “One Dignity Delays for All” and “‘Twas Warm – at First – like Us” by closely reading two poems from the New Critical perspective, together with their figurative and literary language including their imageries, symbols, ironies, metaphors, similes, allusions, personification, tone, ambiguities, denotations, and connotations. The Introduction of this study provides a broad outline of the concept of death, Emily Dickinson’s poetry and New Criticism. In this regard, the reality of the inevitability of death is highlighted in both poems even though “One Dignity Delays for All” portrays the funeral procession, and “‘Twas Warm – at First – like Us” displays the physical dying procession of a living body. In Conclusion, this study reveals that these two poems share some similarities despite their particular differences, and as the New Critical perspective illustrates, the meaning of death as a concept in these poems is enriched through repetition, diction, capitalization, punctuation, and literary devices, including figurative language.

Keywords

• Death
• Emily Dickinson
• One Dignity Delays for All
• 'Twas Warm - at First - like Us
• New Criticism

References

1. Cuddon, J. A. (1999). Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory. England: Penguin Books.
2. Dickinson, E. (1960). One Dignity Delays for All. In Johnson, T. H. (Ed.). The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company. 48.
3. Dickinson, E. (1960). ‘Twas Warm – at First – like Us. In Johnson, T. H. (Ed.). The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company. 253-254.
4. Longman (2010). Advanced Dictionary of Contemporary English. England: Pearson Education Limited.
5. Martin, W. (2002). Introduction. In Martin, W. (Ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1-8.
6. McNaughton, R. F. (1949). Emily Dickinson on Death. Prairie Schooner, 23(2). 203-214. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40624107
7. Tyson, L. (2006). Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York and London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.