Question: Comment on Theme of Immortality in Dickinson’s Poetry. Theme of Immortality Dickinson
Introduction
Dickinson (1830-1884) is well known as a unique poet in the history of English literature. She’s unparalleled in respect to the theme of immortality in more than five hundred poems.
Theme of Immortality in Dickinsons Poetry
Life is a Journey
According to Emily Dickinson, our life is racing to the eternal life that is from the materialistic world to death. She asserts that our life is a circle which is running like a horse. Our born signifies the fact that we must die. We are passing our childhood, youth, and old age that pulls us towards death. So, she says,
“I heard a Fly buzz—when I died”
Thus, she proves the term “Life is a Journey”.
Love is an Enduring Entity
According to Dickinson, man can be immortal through love. This love is not sensational love. It is spiritual love and love for God, love for universality. She says:
Unable are the loved to die,
For love is immortality.
The poet has claimed spiritual love in the poem “Wild Nights Wild Nights”. She declares that if she can spend a sweet night with her beloved, she can make a spiritual love with him.
Immortality is the earthly vision of haunting reality
This term is perfectly sketched in the poem “I taste a liquor never brewed”. The poet has told that gaining the everlasting life of human beings is a haunting reality. Because human beings devote their life to money, wealth, and power. This picture is the reflection of the contemporary time of Dickinson when America was corrupted, drug-addicted, unsocial, and attracted by sexual abuse. But they could get immortality through the closest relation with nature. Because nature is the only way to reach to god in this corrupted world. Their persuasion after worldly things is called haunting reality.
Firm Faith in Immortality of Soul
In the poem “I felt a Funeral in My Brain”, the poet asserts about the immortality of the soul. After the death, human beings can see the mourners and their movement which is meditated by the poet in this poem. They can see because any soul either good or bad never dies. So, the poet here suggests the spiritual development or regeneration for human beings and a firm belief in the immortality of the human soul.
Conclusion
It is clear that Dickinson represents sundry themes to meet his concept of immortality.
