The dramatic sentences in the poem move forward slowly under the guidance of dashes, like a rest, which makes people hold their breath, cause suspense in emotion, and make people feel unfinished. The words and punctuation are subtly intertwined, attracting people step by step. The whole poem has three sections, four lines and one section, and the iambic four-step three-step alternation, with occasional rhyming.
The opening of the poem directly shows that "I" died of beauty. Just lying in the grave, I met a neighbor. "He" died for the truth, and both of them devoted themselves to pursuing something of value. The "beauty" here refers to Dickinson's devotion to nature and the beauty presented by various changes in life, as well as the beauty of nature itself. However, it seems difficult to see the meaning of "truth" from the poem. The poet only vaguely said that beauty and truth are "one", which can not help but remind people of Keats' famous saying: "Beauty is truth, truth is beauty", but even with this association, it is still difficult to get truth.
The second part describes the dialogue between two dead people. "We are Brothers" illustrates symbolically that they had the same religious beliefs before their death, because only people with the same religious beliefs can be called brothers, and through the expression of "We are brothers", "I" is vaguely turned into a male, avoiding Puritan ethics.
The last section states that "I" and "He" have something in common emotionally. They talk endlessly until their bodies turn to dust and their names are forgotten. "Like a relative" uses metaphor, and the poet compares the dialogue between two dead people to the narrative between two fellow villagers, thus better expressing the feelings between the dead. The word "room" is alluded to "tomb". Here, the poet compares the grave to a house. The terrible sight of a person from birth to death, from person to grave, is as natural and relaxed as a person going from one place to another, from day to night, saying goodbye to old friends and making new friends. The last two sentences of the short poem "Until the moss grows on our lips-overshadowing our names-"are even more reminiscent of the passage of time and lead to infinite reverie. "Moss" is actually a weed full of graves. As a pun here, in addition to the original meaning, it has been given a new meaning: "death", lips refer to the entrance to the grave, and the last name mentioned is a tombstone engraved with the name of the deceased. When the moss spread to the upper lip and was forgotten in death, the poet still pursued it unremittingly.
The tone of the whole poem is arrogant and solemn, and there is also an atmosphere of loss. Because the poet praised the two heroics with a proud and solemn style, and realized that beauty and truth are not eternal. "Death" itself is a metaphor for the poet's retirement. Dickinson, who is bent on getting her poems recognized, is incompatible with tradition and secularism. After struggling, she gave up because she had her own aesthetic principles for poetry.
Because of Dickinson's unique lifestyle, some critics interpret this poem as Dickinson's spiritual pursuit of love. "He" in the poem is a congenial lover that the poet yearns for. He lives next to Dickinson in the moral category and emotional acceptance range that Dickinson can accept (they are separated by a wall in their poems), from which we can see that Dickinson pursues more platonic love.