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Emily Dickinson Essay Plans
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- CCEA
The document contains comparisons and contrasts of Emily Dickinson's poetry in preparation for the CCEA A2 exam
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It was not death vs funeralSIMILARITIES DIFFERENCES
VFS ‘Death’ ends in a full stop - bleak ending &
Rhyme; sense of finality whereas ‘Funeral’ ends in dash
Funeral’s rhyme is a uneven, consisting of - endless mental anguish.
ABCB, ‘Brain…fro…seemed…through’. The
mixture of exact and no rhyme (final stanza) Death ends with, ‘to justify- Despair.’ suggests
reflect the speaker’s frenzied thoughts as she that her despair and suffering is not justified,
struggles with mental anguish. The lack of adding to her bleak and helpless tone with no
rhyme within the final stanza epitomises the sign of improvement- may also reference
speaker’s mental anguish as she breaks societal stigma. Ironically the poem defines what
completely. A sense of disordance is created as the speaker was struggling to capture in earlier
the climax of her world falls apart. Not Death stanzas, the speaker finally accepts emptiness.
also contains an uneven rhyme scheme through It suggests that the extremity of her suffering
the mixture of slant and exact rhyme, has caused despair to deny her- completely
‘up…down…bells…noon’ reflecting the desolate. The use of a full stop creates a finality,
speaker’s conflicted feelings and uncertainty solidifying ti the reader that the speaker will not
surrounding why she feels such despair. improve and shall feel this way for what seems
to be eternity.
Rhythm;
Both acquire common metre (8,6,8,6) to convey Funeral’s final line ends in a dash, creating a
the extremity of mental anguish. Within Funeral, despondent tone as the speaker is completely
a hymn-like rhythm is created appropriate for hopeless due to mental anguish, ‘And Finished
the allegory. The strict metre also contrasts with knowing- then-’ ends on an unstressed soft
the reader’s mind furthering the sense of syllable, contrasting from the morid description
disordance, reinforcing the theme of mental of the speaker’s burial. The combination of past
anguish. Within not death, The strict structure tense and lack of rhyme emphasises the
helps to enhance the listing effect, creating a speaker’s despair as she is now broken,
sense of relentlessness as the speaker endlessly suffering from her mental anguish.
struggles to define her experience as she The dashes emphasise the ambiguous ending,
eliminates what isn’t adding to her struggles. exhibiting the captivity of the speaker as she
seemingly will never escape her suffering, a
Voice; sense of irony is created, ‘finished knowing’- she
Anonymous 1st person narration - could be does not know how to get better or what will
Emily Dickinson - experienced mental anguish come next, all she knows is death. Cyclical
structure through ‘Plank in Reason, broke’ and
the idea of a funeral, a coffin- cannot escape
suffering
Both have a blunt, detached, oppressive, 6 quatrains in ‘Death’ whereas 5 quatrains in
isolated tone - mental anguish all in her head ‘Funeral’
funeral - ‘they were all seated’ ‘my mind was
going numb’ ‘i felt’ etc
Anaphora in both - ‘It was not’ (Death) and ‘Death’ is slightly lighter in tone than ‘Funeral’ -
‘And…’ rep (Funeral) - emphasises the mental Death focuses on everything that isn’t death,
anguish in defining the experience. whereas ‘Funeral’ follows a darker turn on a
metaphorical funeral
Within not Death the use of anaphora creates a
sense of relentless torment, reflecting the
speaker’s despair. The first stanza contains
grammatical parallelism capturing the intensity
of mental anguish as the speaker tries to
logically define her experience, ‘It was not
Death, for I stood up, / It was not Night, for all
the Bells’. Anaphora is further employed in
,stanza 4, ‘And fitted to a frame / And could not
breathe…/And ‘twas like midnight’. The
repetition of the simplistic phrase, ‘And’ creates
a narrative tone as the speaker begins to
breakdown, unable to accurately describe her
experience. This reflects the intensity of her
mental anguish as she cannot define anything.
Funeral stanza three becomes more narrative
through the use of anaphora, ‘And then I
heard…/And creak…’ demonstrating the
numbness of the speaker as she eventually
breaks down due to her mental anguish and
torment. The simplistic language contrasts with
the complexity of mental anguish as the speaker
struggles to define what she is going through-
hence the allegory. Exemplifies her torment as
she struggles to accurately define her
experience.
Similes - ‘As if my life were shaven’ (Death) Apophasis (rhetorical strategy of mentioning
and ‘A Service, like a drum -’ (Funeral) - the something to deny its relevance / importance) in
powerlessness of the speaker, creates irony - ‘Death’ - ‘It was not Death’ - denial and
the speaker is not actually dead - extent of the ambiguity - attempting to define the mental
mental anguish anguish
‘As if my life were shaven, / And fitted to a
frame,’ simile suggests the speaker’s life has
ended too soon (her life ended due to metal
anguish? Link to isolation context), presents the
speaker as powerless as her protective layers
are stripped from her leaving her vulnerable.
‘Frame’ is metaphorical for a coffin- mental
anguish is the cause of the speaker’s death,
fricitive alliteration helps to consolidate brutality
and torment. Could also be symbolic of society
and their expectations.
The similie, ‘A service like a Drum- /Kept
beating- beating’ echoes the structure of the
previous stanza adding to the idea of
relentlessness. Societal stigma- her isolation
due to mental anguish. Capitalisation and
dominating auditory imagery present the
speaker as less than, powerless, rep of ‘beating’
ironic as the speaker is supposedly dead,
emphasises her powerlessness
Personification - ‘the Bells Put out their Onomatopoeia in ‘Funeral’ - ‘And creak across
Tongues’ (Death) and ‘And I, and Silence, my Soul’ - eerie quality - invasive nature of the
some strange Race’ (Funeral) - images of mental anguish comparable to a door creak
disrespect and marginalisation felt by the
speaker in their mental anguish - 19th century
attitudes
‘for all the Bells / Put out their Tongues, for
Noon.’ sardonic tone, the personification of the
Bells mock the speaker, laughing at her
, personal struggle, possibly being reflective of
society, capturing her mistreatment. The
monosyllabic phrase further creates a blunt
sense of isolation and lack of empathy.
‘Tongues’ is also a religious allusion, relecting
the speaker’s inability to communicate her
experience- isolation from the church???
‘And Being, but an Ear, / And I, and Silence,
some strange Race.’ The speaker is reduced
to auditory demonstrating her destruction due to
mental anguish. It further comvey’s her passivity
as she can only listen, she is completely numb.
‘Strange Race’ exhibit’s Dickinson’s
maltreatment and marginalisation in society due
to her struggles, showing her complete isolation
as she feels foreign. The sibilance amplifies her
isolation adding to the despairing tone of the
poem.
Dashes - ‘When everything that ticked - has Oxymoron in ‘Funeral’ - ‘Then Space - began
stopped -’ (Death) - 12 dashes in stanzas 5 & 6 to toll,’ - vacancy - dead mentally not physically,
and ‘And Finished knowing - then -’ (Funeral) space in mind filled with mental anguish
both emphasise the unending anguish and
helplessness - inescapable ‘Then Space-began to toll’ creates a sense of
vacancy through the noun, ‘Space’, that is filled
with oppressive ‘toll[ing]’ of bells to symbolise
her brain being filled with mental anguish,
emphasising the speaker’s torment. It may also
allude to the phrase, ‘for whom the bell tolls’
suggesting that death will reach us eventuality,
creating a desperate tone as the speaker’s
conclusion to torment is death.
Auditory - ‘For all the Bells’ (Death) and ‘As all Funeral in ‘Funeral’ - each stanza a different
the Heavens were a Bell,’ (Funeral) - bells are aspect of the funeral - S1 = wake, S2 = service,
a symbol of death - hearing is the last sense S3 = procession, S4 = funeral toll, S5 = burial -
associated with death & the metaphorical death mental anguish is so powerful that the speaker
of mental anguish - extremities of the mental feels a metaphorical death - encompassing and
deterioration follows the entirety of the poem
Funeral, ‘Mourners to and fro/Kept treading-
treading-till it seemed’. Auditory imagery
emphasises the senses that the speaker loses
throughout the poem due to her numbness. The
movement of ‘to and fro’ and repetition of the
diasyllabic word, ‘treading’ creates a sense of
relentlessness suggesting the speaker will never
escape her mental anguish. It may also be
reminiscient of a heartbeat reminding the reader
that the speaker is alive however feels dead and
is mourning her past self, demonstrating the
extremity of her suffering.
The similie, ‘A service like a Drum- /Kept
beating- beating’ echoes the structure of the
previous stanza adding to the idea of
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