It Was Not Death For I Stood Up - Essay Plan on 'Hope'

How does Dickinson present hope in ‘It was not death, for I stood up’ and elsewhere in her work

Introduction

Hope is important to the work of Dickinson. We see this in the poem ‘I heard a Fly buzz’ where her hopes of reaching heaven are cut short but the Fly “interposing” between herself and the light. Hope is also seen in the poem ‘There’s a certain slant of light’ where the character feels “despair” as result of her lost hope as she feels punished my God. However, it is in ‘It was not death, for I stood up’ that we see the most clear depictions of hope in Dickinson’s work. The poem explores how death is portrayed as ultimate hope and the disappointment that comes with being alive as she “stood up”.

Symbol

‘It was not death…’

-          lost hope as a result of capture

-          captured “fitted to a frame” – hiding from society – must change – needs to be normal – lacks the hope to do this as she is not dead

-          “without a key” – no way to get out – wants an end – death is hope

-          “all the dead lie down” – wants to be dead – depressed – ultimate hope and dream 

‘After great pain…’

-          likewise death is ultimate hope

-          “the letting go” – wants this more than anything – she can’t die – hope absent

Structure

‘It was not death…’

-          iambic tetrametre and trimetre

-          solid rhyme – emphasises death is happiness – ultimate wish – “around” “ground” – rhyming of “ground” – emphasises desire to be dead

-          pararhyme – lost hope – “crawl” “cool”

-          regularity of stanzas – no/lack of hope

‘This world is not conclusion’

-          in comparison least regularity of structure means most hope – no stop to poem – scared – don’t want to loose hope

-          hyphens represent no conclusion to any line – afterlife is good – hope for a better future

Other

‘It was not death…’

-          anaphora – repeating words for effect – “And”- panic of not dying – ambition to die

-          last stanza – hyphens – spacing words – getting further apart – losing hope even more – “report of land” – like a boat getting further away from land

‘I felt a funeral…’

-          repetition – “down” – hell – falling into nothing – no happy future – no prospect of death – just lost – in another world – not want she wanted – no hope for her

Conclusion

Ultimately, hope is crucial to Dickinson’s work. However as death is ultimately impossible in many of Dickinson’s poems, hope becomes absent but yet remains an aspiration. Pain and suffering will never end and so the desire of hope becomes unrealistic and a fantasy. It is in ‘It was not death, for I stood up’ that we see the most effective use as the hatred for capture and “stopless” leads to all chance of hope being lost.