Abstract:DeathandeternityarethemajorthemesinmostofEmilyDickinson’s poems.“BecauseIcouldnotstopfordeath”isoneofherclassicpoems. Throughtheanalysis,thisessayclarifiesinfiniteconceptionsbythe
dialecticalrelationshipbetweenrealityandimagination,theknownand
theunknown.Andittellswhat’seternityinDickson’seyes.
Keywords:death,eternity,finite,infinite
Introduction
EmilyDickinson（1830-1886）,theAmericanbest-knownfemalepoet，was
oneoftheforemostauthorsinAmericanliterature.EmilyDickinson’s
poems,aswellasWaltWhitman’s,wereconsideredasapartof"American
renaissance";theywereregardedaspioneersofimagism.Bothofthemrejected
customandreceivedwisdomandexperimentedwithpoeticstyle.Shehowever
differsfromWhitmaninavarietyofways.Foronething,Whitmanseems
tokeephiseyeonsocietyatlarge;Dickinsonexplorestheinnerlife
oftheinpidual.WhereasWhitmanis"national"inhisoutlook,Dickinson
is"regional"
EmilyDickinsonwasborninAmherst,Massachusetts,onDecember10,1830.
Shelivedalmostherentirelifeinthesametown(muchofitinthesame
house),traveledinfrequently,nevermarried,andinherlastyearsnever
leftthegroundsofherfamily.Soshewascalled"vestalofAmherst".
Andyetdespitethisnarrow--somemightsay--pathologicallyconstricted-outward
experience,shewasanextremelyintelligent,highlysensitive,anddeeply
passionatepersonwhothroughoutheradultlifewrotepoems(addupto
around2000)thatwerestartlinglyoriginalinbothcontentandtechnique,
poemsthatwouldprofoundlyinfluenceseveralgenerationsofAmericanpoets
andthatwouldwinherasecurepositionasoneofthegreatestpoetsthat
Americahaseverproduced.
Dickinson’ssimplyconstructedyetintenselyfelt,acutelyintellectual
writingstakeastheirsubjectissuesvitaltohumanity:theagoniesand
ecstasiesoflove,sexuality,theunfathomablenatureofdeath,thehorrors
ofwar,Godandreligiousbelief,theimportanceofhumor,andmusings
onthesignificanceofliterature,music,andart.
EmilyDickinsonenjoystheKingJamesVersionoftheBible,aswell
asauthorssuchasEnglishWRTERSWilliamShakespeare,JohnMilton,Charles
Dickens,ElizabethBarrettBrowning,GeorgeEliot,andThomasCarlyle.
