Sunday, November 20, 2011

Theme of Death: "The last Night that She lived"

The last Night that She lived
It was a Common Night
Except the Dying - this to Us
Made Nature different

We noticed smallest things -
Things overlooked before
By this great light upon our Minds
Italicized - as t'were.

As We went out and in
Between Her final Room
And Rooms where Those to be alive
Tomorrow were, a Blame

That Others could exist
While She must finish quite
A Jealousy for Her arose
So nearly infinite -

We waited while She passed -
It was a narrow time -
Too jostled were Our Souls to speak
At length the notice came.

She mentioned, and forgot -
Then lightly as a Reed
Bent into the Water, struggled scarce -
Consented, and was dead -

And We - We place the Hair -
And drew the Head erect -
And then an awful leisure was
Belief to regulate -

     "The last Night that She lived" contains one of Dickinson's views of death. Dickinson expresses her opinion that death is a common experience but can be devastating to those in personal relation with the dead one. She uses words like "final," "passed," and "infinite" to illustrate death as a ceasing of physical existence, but it is not the end. This poem is written to comfort those who have lost someone. It is as if Dickinson says, "It happens to everyone." People will die and they will be buried by loved ones, just as the dead one in the poem is buried after the funeral.
     The speakers of this poem mention that this funeral takes place on "a common night," or rather, they refer to it as any other night; however, they explain that her passing "made nature different." This sudden occurence feels unnatural to them. As they walk about her house, no words can be spoken for the shock of this travesty overwhelms them all. Some feel that the dead one did not deserve to die.
     Dickinson uses the simile of the reed to decribe the death as graceful, as each of her senses fail. During the burial, each of the speakers feel an "awful leisure." Dickinson uses this oxymoron to describe the speakers's mixed feelings about this death. They feel priveleged to partake in this experience, yet at the same time they are grieved to have ever been affiliated with it. Dickinson suggests here that death is a loss and an opportunity.

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