One Need Not be A Chamber - Exam Response

Here is a link to an actual examination response on One Need Not Be a Chamber from a student who went on to achieve an A at A2.

This is a good example of how to handle a tricky question.

I heard a Fly Buzz - Example Essay #1

“The Stillness in the Room

            Was like the Stillness in the Air –

            Between the Heaves of Storm – “

Discuss ways in which Dickinson explores transitions in ‘I heard a Fly buzz – when I died’.

Transitions are important to the work of Dickinson. We see this in the poem ‘Because I could not stop for Death’ where the speaker’s failure to die leads her to be reborn and live for “eternity”. Transitions are also seen in the poem ‘What mystery pervades a well’ in which the “water” starts a new life of freedom after escaping from the capturing well. However, it is in ‘I heard a Fly buzz – when I died’ that we see the most clear depiction of transitions in Dickinson’s work. The poem explores how the speaker’s plans to reach heaven and the “King”, but instead finds their life leading to Hell as the “Fly” blocks the way.

In ‘I heard a Fly buzz’, the central symbol is the “Fly” which blocks the speaker’s way to heaven and so they can no longer get there and to see the “King”. The speaker instead goes to hell as a result of the Fly who “interposed”; this is a huge issue for the speaker as God does not appear first as she had hoped but rather is blocked and captured. However, even before this, the speaker is ready for the next stage in their life, facing heaven or hell, as she “Signed away” her belongings and wrote her will. In the end, this next phase is never reached due to the Fly’s interference; as a result the speaker “could not see to see” and ends up in darkness. Due to missing her chance to escape hell, the speaker becomes stuck forever and entrapped in an undesired world. The preparations and thought for the next stage of life are also illustrated in ‘The last Night that She lived’. Here Dickinson uses yonic imagery to convey the speaker returning home as a “Reed” to die; she “Bent to the Water” to achieve the next transition of death.

The poem ‘What mystery pervades a well’ features enjambment and elongation to emphasise the utter freedom achieved as the water is freed from its previous limits; “floorless” is elongated and conveys this achieved satisfaction as the

speaker is no longer trapped by the male “well”. Enjambment is also used in ‘I heard a Fly buzz’, here it is used to quicken the reading and speaking speed, as the speaker is rushing to avoid Satan’s presence and be in hell; but she also becomes breathless as a result and so enjambment provides breathing space. The speaker is so eager to reach the next stage in life that they become stressed and anxious; as a result the punctuation is chaotic. Throughout the poem there is chaos in terms of punctuation reflected stress and panic as the speaker becomes desperate to reach the next phase of their life. Deification is emphasised on “Stillness in the Air” as there is little stillness but rather fear and a constant inability for the speaker to think.

Throughout Dickinson’s poetry there is a recurring symbol of eyes that are also portrayed in ‘I heard a Fly buzz’. The “Eyes” are deified which emphasises the lack of emotional connection between the speaker and those looking at her. The deification also serves the purpose of creating a religious tone, such that the eyes are the ultimate judgment before she dies; they are “dry” and so happy she is dead as it is deserving, and also portrays the speaker passing judgment. The poem is also foreshadowing, “Heaves of Storm” represent the doom coming and convey the calm before the storm; through “Heaves” appearing to look like heaven it has a mocking effect that the speaker will not reach this but rather the next transition in life will be hell. Transitions of time are reflected in ‘After great pain a formal feeling comes’ where the stages of the headache are described. The aftermath is addressed as the “hour of lead”, and though the pain remains heavy, it is the next stage in being free from the pain as the speaker’s emotions change in response to it.

Ultimately, transitions are crucial to Dickinson’s work. In many poems, the next stage of life is rebirth despite the desires to die, as seen in ‘Because I could not stop for Death’ where “immortality” is inevitable. However, it is in ‘I heard a Fly buzz – before I died’ that we see the most effective use of transitions as the speaker prepares to reach heaven but the “Fly” prevents all aspirations from being achieved, not even eternity can save the speaker as they become captured in hell.

I heard a Fly Buzz - Essay Plan

‘I heard a Fly buzz – when I died’

Useful Link: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/fly.html

Terror / Death / Entrapment / Hope and Hopelessness / Afterlife / Isolation  

Introduction

-          (Terror) ‘Corridors‘ in ‘The brain’ in One need not be a Chamber – to be Haunted - conveys the horror inside a person – the hidden and scary places in a mind are more dangerous than ‘external ghosts’

-          (Entrapment) The last night that she lived where she expresses the pain of being trapped in the world that is ‘awful’ to her.  She sees being ‘dead’ as a way to escape from the pain

-          ‘Despair’ in It was not death, for I stood up that shows the image of her drifting away from hope

-          ‘The Fellow’ as a phallic symbol of danger in A narrow Fellow in the Grass

Central Symbol

-          ‘Fly’ is a common symbol for corruption or a demonic presence (like Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies)

-          The speaker juxtaposes two disparate elements

o   The trivial occurrence of hearing the ‘fly’

o   Death, an important of a person’s life:  ‘when I died’

-          The fly appears in her death, as a negative figure

-          It ‘interposes’ the silence in the scene: This creates a sense of bathos as the ‘buzz’ of a fly distracts the dying figure. 

-          It is perhaps that the fly becomes the central figure of the poem – much of the final stanza is dominated by the fly.  Rather than the rituals of death, attention is focused on the fly. 

-          Dickinson’s use of symbolism foregrounds the power of the fly and immediately foreshadows the doom in the poem – The Fly comes between ‘light’ and the speaker

-          It is possible that the light represents eternal life: The speaker who hopes to escape from the sufferings in her current life is blocked by the Fly in her final reach to the ‘King’ (reference to Christ of God)

-          This conveys the pain in entrapment: The speaker is trapped by the ‘buzz’ of a Fly, only a trivial problem

-          This is further emphasized in the final line where she ‘could not see to see’.

-          As physical sight recedes the speaker could be suggesting a failure of perception – the inability to see through to the glory of the next life

-          Hopeless -> cant go to heaven / trapped in present life

It was not death, for I stood up where she depicts the nearing of the end ‘when everything that ticked has stopped’ with the metaphor of ‘grisly frosts’.  She is afraid of the ending where she will be drifted away in a boat ‘without’ a ‘report of land’

Techniques

-          The poem is a typical hymn metre with pararhyme on lines 2 and 4 until the final stanza

-          The use of hymn structure perhaps alludes the poem to the criticism of religion

-          The speaker’s message to the ‘King’ who failed to save her from pain, the ‘storm’

-          The speaker conveys incompletely due to the fact that she is trapped between her life and heaven.  This idea is enhanced by the use of pararhymes like ‘Room’ and ‘Storm’.  This indicates the fear inside her to forbids her to construct normally. 

-          She is broken and damage inside and this is clearly reflected in her rhyme scheme.  We see her attempt to search for order in her stable quatrains; however, she has failed to do so as the constant use of parahyme still reflects chaos and distress. 

-          Yet, after constant half rhyme, a full rhyme of ‘me’ and ‘see’ is found in the last stanza, providing a strong sense of conclusion.  Has she found a solution? Perhaps not, the speaker suggests that ‘the Windows failed’ and she ‘could not see to see –‘.  This maybe the implication of the speaker’s surrender.  We sense no hope in the final line of the poem. 

Similar to What mystery pervades a well, a pararhyme of ‘glass’ and ‘face’ suggests Dickinson’s fear of the ‘abyss’s face’ and the invisible entrapment of the ‘lid’

Others: the idea of unfamiliarity

-          Only ‘eyes around’, not relatives, nor friends

-          This suggests her lack of connection towards her current life – she is isolated

-          This might emphasise her fears as she intensifies her want of a better life after her current one which she does not have any connection to

-          She implikes that the ‘eyes’ have ‘wrung dry’ when she died, conveying that she has no more emotion to the people around her. 

-          This idea is furthermore elaborated as she ‘[wills]’ her ‘keepsakes’ and claims them as ‘patrons’ of her, displaying her confused state of mine due to her fear – she oddly weights objects over human beings. 

-          This sense of unfamiliarity there shows her difficulty to survive in a world by herself with no one to depend on but her ‘keepsakes’.

Likewise, in Because I could not stop for Death where she has more attachment towards the figure of ‘Death’ than the people, the ‘children’, the fields of grazing grain’ and the ‘setting sun’ in the world.  This conveys her sense of unfamiliarity.  She suggests that ‘the day’, her last day of life is fearful and ‘centuries’ in her grave ‘fears shorter than the day’. 

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Notes #2

	Pain	Senses	Constriction/entrapment	Heaviness
AO1-Quotations to use	“After a great pain a formal feeling comes” “nerves sit ceremonious like tombs” “hour of lead” “yesterday or centuries before” “after”-the great in which he is unable to speak of.	“a great pain” “nerves sit ceremonious like tombs” “stiff heart” “yesterday-or centuries before” “hour of lead” “the feet mechanical go round” “of ground, or air, or ought” “Remember if outlived” “As freezing persons recollect the snow”	“the nerves sit...like tombs” “yesterday or centuries before” “the feet, mechanical, go round”  “like a stone” “this is the hour of lead” “the freezing persons…first chill, then stupor, then the letting go.”	“the nerves sit ceremonious like tombs” “stiff heart” “mechanical go round A wooden way” “quartz contentment, like a stone.” “this is the hour of lead”
Symbolism	The great pain can be the symbolism- there is no “I” in the poem, there is only the presence of pain which is unidentifiable or unnamed giving it a blurred uncertain state in contrast to the “tombs” and “lead” “Quartz” “Stone” which seem to be much more certain and solid. The pain is also shown through the numbness in the poem, she is so consumed in this “pain” that the poems uncomfortable to read, the feeling of NUMBNESS.	The senses themselves are symbolic, they reinforce her inability to express her pain through words (she in unable to write poetry because of this pain) the “nerves ceremonious like tombs” displays the physical embodiment of the pain crushing her body, like the pain of tomb stones crushing her at a funeral. “stiff heart” shows how in death she is still in pain.”The feet mechanical” resemble the tiresome, relentless, pain she feels.	Entrapment can be shown through the physicality of the “tombs” “lead”  “quartz” and “stone” conveying to the audience her construction through the solidity of these objects. Another symbol is time, “yesterday or centuries before” shows her entrapment is eternal and constant “hour of lead”. She is trapped by time itself, and by the pain she is unable to write poetry.	Within this poem you get the physical heaviness like the “tombs” and “lead” show the weight and depth of this poem. These symbolize her feeling of being tied down, unable to move, with the “tombs” sitting on her “stiff heart”
Structure	The Rhyme scheme is in couplets-they go –then return to show the relentless intensity of this “pain”. It is constantly switching from tetrameter, trimeter to pentameter reflecting these outburst of pain she feels. (however could it be said that this pain is a constant feeling of numbness,  in the regular pattern of quatrains)	There is no “I”, the only thing present in the poem is the “formal feeling”. The poem is literally uncomfortable to read-as the rhyme scheme switches from tetrameter  trimeter and pentameter reflecting the none speakers pain.	You could say that her entrapment is clearly shown through the regular quatrain stanza’s in which they are the boundaries in which she has written.  You could also say she is trapped at the end of the poem by the full stop which contradicts the “letting go” “.”	The “d” in “lead” phonetically weighs down the word as you read it.
Other features	“The nerves” “The stiff” are definite articles for this “pain”. “freezing persons” metaphor for  the unchangeable numbness pain she feels. A poem exploring existential despair.	This feeling of numbness is linked to the constant references to being cold or frozen, “stiff heart” “freezing persons” “first chill”. She also references the suffering of Jesus and compares it to herself “was it He that bore?”.

After a Great pain a formal feeling comes

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Example Essay #3

“This is the Hour of Lead”

Discuss the ways in which Dickinson presents intense emotion in “After great pain, a formal feeling comes”

Throughout Dickinson’s collection of poems we see how she is constantly feeling intense emotions, where this is intense fear, like in “I heard a fly buzz,” in which we see how her fear of the fly is all consuming, which is reflected in the structure of the poem. We then see her intense joy and sense of belonging in, “My life had stood a loaded gun,” In which we see how she feels a sense of satisfaction in the knowing that she is protecting the gentleman in the poem, but the poem in which we most clearly see her over whelming emotions is in “After a great pain a formal feeling comes--“ In this particular poem we see how she feels many different emotions, which include her fear of the recurring pain within her life, which takes form in this poem as a headache. We see how she is terrified of this pain and how her life is almost like a merry-go-round that she is stuck on, and every time she passes the pain it will only be a matter of time before it comes again, and the only way for her to break this vicious cycle is death.

The central cycle of “After great pain, a formal feeling comes” is that of the intense pain Dickinson is feeling and how she will never be able to escape the pain, as she has the inability to die and so is trapped forever on the merry-go-round that is her life. “The feet, mechanical, go round,” this shows how the pain that she is experiencing is never ending, just as one section of the pain ends, and other is just insight and she will again feel the intense pain. We see how she wants to get off the “wooden way” that is her life, but she is unable, as she cannot die. We also see how she describes herself as separate from her, “The stiff Heart”, we see how her heart is unable to love anything, her heart is cold and stiff and in turn means that she is cold and stiff with the inability to love another. This could also, due to the non possessive language, be an indication that she has no control over her body, as if she is just the mind within the body that she is trapped in that is controlling her, and forcing her to continue on with her life. This again shown in “My life stood- a loaded gun” in which we see she takes the form of a gun and her “owner” is the only one that has the ability to take her out of the corner and use her. Even though in this poem we see how she is over joyed that she has the ability to protect and be used by the man, we can still see that she has no real control over her life and in turn has to be control for her to reach her full potential in life.

We see how the intense emotion of fear that she is feeling is reflected in the structure of her poem. We see how there is the general break down of standard English, an indication that the fear is impairing her ability to think straight and in correct English, “The stiff Heart” It is also clear in the words in which she uses in the second stanza, that she is in great pain, this is shown in words such as, “ought”, and “grown” which are words that have the “ow” like sound, which is again an expression of her pain and the constant discomfort that the headache is bringing to her. The use of iambic tetra and trimeter, gives the poem a lost quality as if there is something missing from the poem, as there is something missing from her life, but it could also be a indication that seeing as she has the inability to control her body and indeed her own life, that she is trying to exert power and take control over the only thing that she can, the structure, which would give an explanation for the ridged and structure of the poem. The use of enjambment in stanza three, “This is the hour of lead/ Remembered if outlived,” the lack of punctuation causes the word “lead” to become elongated and gives it a heavy quality as if it is weighing down the line. (Link back to other poem)  

It is also clear at many points during this poem that Dickinson has a fear of being trapped, “A quartz contentment, like a stone,” which gives the image of her effectively being a robot or the tin man, she is trapped by a hard exterior and she is non organic. This also reiterates her inability to die, as her mechanical existence will never be able to come to a close, she will never cease to exist. One of the other ways in which we see that Dickinson is in pain is in the way that she separates herself from the rest of her body, “The stiff Heart” Even though it is her heart that she is discussing, we see how there is a degree of separation, which could be an indication that she is trying to separate herself, her mind and her soul, away from the body that is having the pain inflicted upon it. This is also shown in the second line, “The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;” in which we see again how she is watching her own body from afar.  We again see the reoccurring image of Dickinson’s fear of her inability to die in the line, “Remembered if outlived,” we see how she does not want to outlive this, she does not want to outlive the pain, she wants to die so that she will never have to experience the pain again, she does not want to survive pain that she describes as being similar to the pain that Jesus bore, “was it He that bore?” 

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Example Essay #2

“This is the Hour of Lead”

Discuss the ways in which Dickinson presents intense emotion in “After great pain, a formal feeling comes!”

Without reserve, Dickinson’s poems are submerged in the depths of intense emotion – from the profound depression  “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” to the vulnerability that derives from entrapment in ‘a jar’, she has invariably expressed her desperation for “Death.” Intense emotions are recurring motifs within “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died-“, “Because I could not stop for Death” and “My life had stood – a Loaded Gun”. However, it is in “After great pain a formal feeling comes” where intense emotions are prominently infused within the poem – it is the depiction of an essentially paradoxical state of mind in which one is alive but yet numb to life, both a living organism and a frozen form.

Were the “great pain” at the beginning of the poem to be considered as a means for Dickinson to present the torment she is experiencing, assuredly its inclusion of striking imageries throughout the poem would be more conspicuous. These imageries intensify the atmosphere of tremendous despondency, which is, unequivocally, found in most of her poems. The choice of word “after” implies to the readers how the poet retrieves her “formal feeling” after the ceaseless anguish; nevertheless, there is the ambiguity for the existence of “formal feeling” – it could be the delusion that is induced by abrupt demise of the previous perpetual pain. The metaphorical depiction of “nerves” as “tombs” constitutes an atmosphere of formality, as if her life is under scrutiny, even upon death. The use of the adjective, “ceremonious” connotes the idea of how every part of her, inclusive of the “nerves”, are expected to live under societal expectations; the helplessness and agony demonstrated within highlights the frustration that the society’s restraint has exerted upon her. In other way, there is also a subtle implication of how Dickinson employs the simile to signify a certain extent of self-defence. The continual agony has compelled her to alienate herself from the society and being reluctant to express any emotion as a result. Although the poem is presented in such a lack of emotions and insensibility, without reserve, the preceding intense distress that the poet has endured would be the chief determinant. Such self-estrangement and desensitisation in sentiment are accentuated through the imageries of “the stiff heart”, “the mechanical feet” and the “ stone-like quartz”, which highlight the numbness of mental and spiritual detachment. Her paradoxical mental state is revealed by the contradictive description of the “stiff heart” being able to “question”, the personification of “quartz” with “contentment” and in addition, the “mechanical feet” which epitomises the disengagement between her mind and body. These imageries are characterized by the possession of a common quality, the quality of “stiff” lifelessness; the insistence on this type of imagery is substantial in confirming the sense of numbed consciousness which is made more explicit by the statement that the feet move “mechanical(ly)” and are "regardless" of where they go. Compatibly, in my ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –“, Dickinson has dehumanised herself into a mechanical weapon, which beholds the “power to kill”, but  “without—the power to die—“, which reinforces the idea that the defence mechanism within our body allows us to carry on daily activities without conscious effort.

Within the poem, the lines are bound together, not only by the incessant reference of the imagery to the impact of melancholy, but also the fact that the poet is stating in series what happens to parts of the body: from “nerves” to “heart” to “feet”. Instead of the iambic tetrameter that is usually employed within her poem, Dickinson judiciously applies the iambic pentameter to embody the constant headache she is enduring, and thereby, hinders her from constructing proper sentence structures.  The lingering of “great pain” within herself has lead to such suppression on her emotions that the act of restraining her speech is a manifestation of confining one’s own lifestyle.  Ironically, the unconventional composition of rhyming couplets – “comes”, “tombs”, “bore”, “before” allude to the fact that the ability of self-constraint within Dickinson has been disparaged to such severity that which only agony could repress her recalcitrance. Opposing this use of rhyming patterns, in “It was not death, for I stood up”, the use of pararhyme as “down”, “noon” epitomises the disharmony in the world that which she is entrapped within, whereas “seen” and “mine” serve as a pair of regular rhyme insinuating that the solidity of rhyme is to be attained once the poet is undergoing the symbolic joy of “Death”. The prolonged stanza in the middle evinces a sense of ponderosity that is provoked by the burden of “stone” acting upon the line; the elongation in this stanza denotes the poet’s sombre mentality invigorating the faltering of speech. Moreover, the adoption of assonance with ‘ought’, ‘stone’ mimic the resonance one would predominantly affiliate with the sheer intensity of pain. Throughout the poem, the disposition of hyphenation symbolises the stuttering tone of speech and the entrapment of sensibility so as to evade from further affliction. At the end of the poem, the poet employs the simile of hypothermia to depict the stages of one’s combat with depression; “Chill” precedes the poem, whereas the "Stupor--" preoccupies it; subsequently "the letting go--" exists on the far side of its ending.

Should the deification of ‘Heart’ resemble the anamorphic state of her rationality, incontestably, the sense of detachment that is entailed within would be considered more salient. Such rupture is reiterated through the metaphorical link between the heart and “quartz”, suggesting the inorganic facet of the poet, in which no cessation can be detected, but only with the recurrent forthcoming of suffering. Reinstating this unremitting experience, Dickinson illustrates the circular movement of “the feet” “going round” and thereby typifying the lack of control in her life, even upon the notion of time. The poet’s mentality is immersed in such paralysis that the disparity between “yesterday” and “centuries” is obsolete to her. Similarly, in ‘Because I could not stop for Death”, the loss of sense of time is presented as well, yet, the difference is that the loss of rationality is caused due to the relish she experiences with “Death” - “Since then ‘tis centuries, and yet each/ Feels shorter than the day” would be the prime manifestation for this. With the employment of the definite article – “The” in coalescence with “nerves”, “heart” and “feet”, accentuate the sense of severance that which the poet holds from her organs. Correspondingly, in “I heard a Fly buzz - when I died”, “The Eyes” are deified to demonstrate a certain extent of emotional detachment; not only does it show the poet’s intimidation from people’s judgement but also her ironic capacity to affiliate more with what is objectified than people. Such apathy towards life is revealed through “ought”; she is engrossed by the omnipresent pain in which the deception of being condemned to the realms of the inferno is engendered.  “This is the hour of lead” – without question, with the symbolic imagery of “lead” being poisonous and heavy, the poet is not only highlighting her headache and its aftermath, but also emphasising the existing era that transcends the norm. The ‘chill’ that which precedes the ‘letting go’ but disconnected by the ‘stupor’ standing in the midst of such a current state of liminality, would seek to allow one to infer correlation with the reference of hypothermia from the simile ‘as freezing persons recollect the snow’ – such equates the emotionless notion of death to that of surrendering to reality.

After all, the desensitisation is nothing but merely a veil “to justify despair”.

After Great Pain A Formal Feeling Comes - Example Essay #1

“The feet, mechanical, go round”

How does Dickinson display a lack of freedom?

Throughout Dickinson’s poems we can see the recurring motif of entrapment and her lack of freedom, an example of this would be in ‘What mystery pervades a well’, in which we see the entrapment of the yonic water, by the phallic well. It is also seen in certain lines such as, ‘shaven a fitted to a frame’, in which we see how parts of her soul have been shaven away so that she can be what society wants of her, and so that she is respectable so people can watch and judge her. However the image of her lack of freedom is most clearly shown in ‘After great pain a formal feeling comes’, in which the reader see how the speaker as almost stuck on a merry-go-round, symbolic of her life, a never ending ride that she is desperate to get off of, the only escape being death.

One of the techniques that Dickinson uses to illustrate her lack of freedom is in the separation of various body parts, an example being in stanza one where we see how she refers to her heart as being, ‘The stiff Heart’. An indication that her heart is unable to love due to the fact that it is so cold, and lifeless, also due to the fact that it is identified as being separate from her we see how she has no control over it, again showing her lack of freedom and power even over her own life.  Also the way in which she is separate from her heart could also be an indication of how she has the inability to love another person and so therefore her lack of love does not allow her to interact with others around her, so she loses freedom because she cannot interact with others. We also see the separation of her body parts later on in the poem on the line, ‘The feet, mechanical, go round’. This again is an indication of how her body parts are not her own, we see how they are the ones that are in control and are forcing her to follow a path that she clearly does not want to be on. This image of the feet as mechanical also could be related to almost like a wind-up toy, they themselves really have no idea where they are going, so she is being lead to pain for no really reason, similar in ‘I heard a fly buzz’ where she is being lead to pain even though the fly itself does not really feel she needs to go to hell, the fly is referred to as ‘stumbling, between the light and me,’ a hesitant movement with no real motive behind it.

The image of her life as a ‘mechanical’ also gives the reader the image of her life as almost like a merry-go-round, she is on a continuous cycle where, as soon as one pain leaves her she knows that it is only a matter of time before the next pain comes along. This again shows how she has not control over her life, she is unable to move from the cyclical nature of her life, and so therefore must endure the pain repeatedly. This again is a reflection of her lack of power and freedom she is unable to get of the ride that is her life; she is unable to die so that she no longer endures the pain.  We also see the image later on in the poem of her being a mechanical being, ‘A quarts contentment, like a stone’. This gives the image of her as effectively a robot, a tin man, who is again unable to have any really control over her body. We also get the sense that there is someone above her controlling her every move, to make sure that she is a respectable member of the society in which she is forced to live in. We also see how she is a not organic substance, again reflecting her ‘stiff Heart’ and there is no end to the mechanical existence that she is currently livening. The image of her lack of freedom due to the her inability to die is also shown in ‘The last night that she lived’, in this poem, as well as seeing the small amount of sadness at the fact that her friend has passed, we see the large amounts of jealousy that Dickinson feels, as she is the one that wants to die, but is completely unable due to her lack of freedom to do as she wishes with her life.

The structure of the poem also reflects her lack of freedom, an example of this is the use of iambic tetra and trimeter. This strict structure reflects how she is even contained by the verses of her poetry, and also shows how she has a lack of freedom to express herself fully and be free in her writing. The way in which it is written is so regimented that she is unable, even when she is trying to express herself, to fully be free from the rules and images that society have made for her. Also we can see in her choice of words that she again has a lack of freedom, an example of this would be ‘Remembered if outlived’ we see how she longs not to survive this, she wants to break free from the merry-go-round that is her life but she is unable to due to her lack of freedom and control over her own life.  We can also see how she refers to the pain that she feels as something that should kill you, there is a large chance that you would die while experiencing it, this again shows how she feels that her pain is more that any person has felt before, how the pain that she feels should have killed her and all of this should be over, but due to the fact that she cannot die she must endure it over and over again. The use of enjambment also plays a big part in ensuring that the reader can fully see how elongated and painful her life is, ‘go round/ A wooden way’. This shows how the wooden way has been long and is never ending, shown by the unbroken sentence.

Dickinson also uses religious images to illustrate how she is trapped, we see in stanza one how she refers to the pain that she feels as equal to the pain that ‘He that bore?’ This image connects that pain she feels to the pain that Jesus felt on the cross, reflecting how, similar to Jesus, she is unable to get down of her own accord, her life is in the hands of people around her, and she has lost all control. This also gives the image of how people are willing to stand and watch her suffering, and therefore allow her suffering to continue.