Readers generally believe that this poem reflects the poet Emily Dickinson's view of death, that is, to accept death calmly and the human mind will gain eternal life. However, unlike other poets' poems with the theme of death, this poem personifies death and immortality. In particular, Dickinson compared death to a gentle gentleman, which is contrary to the traditional hatred of death. This poem is of far-reaching significance, and even Dickinson herself may not be fully aware of the subconscious mind revealed by written information. As Jung said, "He was overwhelmed by thoughts and images, which he never intended to create, and can never be realized by his own will. Despite this, he has to admit that this is his own self-expression, and his own inner nature is showing himself and expressing what he will not take the initiative to say at any time. " Dickinson can't help but open the floodgate of the subconscious when she concentrates on her creation. This poem shows the following three meanings.
First, death = love: brevity is eternity.
Because I can't stop waiting for death. It's more like a woman's inner monologue than a poem. In this poem, readers seem to see Dickinson. Dickinson had the same romantic feelings as ordinary people in her girlhood, but in the late 1950s, she began to show a closed tendency, and finally developed into a secluded boudoir and never got married. Poet-a slightly shy but stubborn New England woman, intelligent, knowledgeable, witty and humorous, kept her full of talent and enthusiasm in her father's yard. Day after day, she "bakes bread for her father and sends water and food to her sick mother". The poem "I also give up my work and/or leisure to pay for it" seems to imply Dickinson's hard work in taking care of her family's daily life. The "death" here seems to be related to several love experiences in her life, suggesting the poet's love. Perhaps it is because of the gentleness and gentleness of "Death" that love sprouts in my heart. "Death" and "true love" in the poem blend together: on the one hand, although the poet's several loves can be said to be unforgettable, they all ended in failure, and "death" just expressed such a complicated mood here; Moreover, in the eyes of poets, "love" can be as beautiful as "death": short, but eternal; Finally, in New England, where poets lived in the19th century, there was still a strong religious tradition, and women were imprisoned under various strict moral etiquette norms. Under such a religious and social background, poets are inevitably deeply influenced. Although she didn't expect her poems to be read by the world after her death, she still implicitly expressed her inner desire for love in the process of writing. "Death" has become a tool for poets to vent their passion. On the surface, this tool doesn't seem to make anyone feel that it is related to love. The opening of the poem: "Because I can't stop to wait for death" is logical for most readers, because no one with normal rational thinking will take the initiative to die; However, it is a little too simple to understand poetry in this way, and at the same time, it is impossible to interpret the poet's inner contradictions and pains, as well as her complex psychology of failure and longing for love and marriage. From this perspective, the opening sentence "because I can't stop waiting for death" actually contains "why". Because the "death" at this time is more "true love", at the same time, the key point to understand this poem is: because I can't stop and wait for "love", I choose to be single all my life. "Death" and "love" are like conjoined babies, but Dickinson consciously chose to be a hermit and never got married. The flower of love once bloomed in the poet's life, so sincere and unforgettable.
Second, death = eternity: give up and have.
Dickinson almost never left home as an adult, and was single all her life. She was called "Sister Emminster" by the world. She has had several love experiences in her life, but none of them succeeded. However, her desire for love is not inferior to that of any woman in the world. In her poems, there are both naive and eager expectations for love, as well as melancholy and lament. The female image depicted in this poem is completely different from the weak woman who is bound by deep-rooted traditional ideas and eager to break the shackles of personality through marriage described by Amy Lowell in her works. The "I" in the poem expresses the optimistic love view that "giving up is also a kind of beauty" and is a romantic feeling that "I don't care about eternity, but only care about what I once had". The "I" in the poem has the opportunity to ride in a carriage with the "He" I admire and admire. Although I feel very tired, I am also very happy. He is such a gentleman. "He stopped to help me politely .../We walked slowly, and he knew there was no need to hurry ..." It seems that this silent "he" is still in line with his ideal lover image. "I" and "He" are riding slowly in a carriage (wedding car), and "I" appreciate the tenderness of "He". "I" seems to be sipping the fragrance of love, feeling calm and happy, but because of women's reserve, "I" does not show much happiness. I also gave up my work and leisure to repay his courtesy. Although "we" treat each other with courtesy, love seems to have sprouted in my heart. This kind of love is simple, clean, pure and sincere, and this kind of "eternal" love just expresses the woman's yearning for love in the poem. Even if the lover in "he"-"I" is silent, but can sit side by side with him, that kind of love atmosphere is a kind of "eternity". The "he" here should be the fusion of several "love" prototypes that the poetess once had. Although I can't "hold your hand and grow old with my son", I still long to be with my beloved "him" one day, even if it is only one day, and then even if I die immediately, I have no regrets. "We passed the school, which happened to be between classes-/The children were making noise, on the playground-/We passed the rice fields we were gazing at-/We passed the sunset-/." Xiao, a famous critic, pointed out that the school, crops and sunset glow in the poem "symbolize the three stages of life": the school symbolizes childhood, the crops symbolize people's youth, and the sunset glow represents old age. Others think that the choice of "school" in the poem is a special yearning that the poet deliberately wants to express. Dickinson likes children very much. She often plays with her brother and the children next door. The description of school children here, on the one hand, expresses my yearning for carefree innocence and happiness in childhood, on the other hand, it does not rule out that the poet wants to express his maternal desire through the woman in the poem: as a woman, she yearns for love, marriage and children, the crystallization of love. Therefore, the "school" and "children" here should be the softest call of the poet as a woman. The whole poem has four lines and one section, and the alternating form of iambic four steps and three steps expresses the unique graceful feelings of women. The "I" in the poem is like the protagonist in Woolf's works: my thoughts are flying and I dream of being alone with my beloved, even if it is only for one day, even if I am relatively silent.
At the end of the poem, "From then on, several centuries have passed-/but it seems that the time of that day is shorter-",and this bland statement seems to contain all the happiness and acidity of "I", and the reader seems to see the tears of happiness in "I" eyes ... "That day, I guessed for the first time/the horse's head went to eternity-/",and then I can draw a conclusion. The journey of love is still very long ... but the "I" in the poem longs for love, but understands that love can't wait, and I don't want to regard love as the only thing in life, and I don't want to stop because of love. "We passed through the sunset-/perhaps it should be said that he passed through us-"The seemingly unintentional repetition here is actually the author's intentional expression: the destination of his love trip this day-the grave (death). It seems that "I" seems to be nostalgic for such a sunset, and my nostalgia is the center of the poem: because I can't stop waiting for death (which is also the fusion of love), death is not the end of love, but the beginning of a new cycle of love, and death is the road to eternal love.
Third, death = rebirth: missing is looking for.
Emily Dickinson's poems have different views because of the loss of many materials and the unique images in her poems. Higginson called Dickinson "a talented poet with a unique style", and her poems "are like uprooted plants, with the fragrance of rain and dew and earth, giving people a sense of freshness that cannot be conveyed". John Lanson believes that Dickinson's creative inspiration comes from her love experience. Without love experience, many of Dickinson's poems could not have achieved such achievements, and love is the way and catalyst for her to realize female self. John Cody believes that Dickinson cannot live in an era of love between men and women that is not prohibited by social norms. He emphasized that the psychological pressure caused by gender dysphoria, Oedipus complex and homosexual tendency in the poet's subconscious is her real creative source. However, feminist critics such as Sandra Gill and Susan Cuba tend to regard Dickinson as a poet with a certain female consciousness, and think that her poems are inspired by the "author identity anxiety" faced by female writers in a patriarchal society. In the poem Because I Can't Stop to Die, most critics tend to think that the poet yearns for death. "The grim image of death has become a polite gentleman. The tone of the whole poem has changed from the sadness of traditional death poems to natural relaxation. " However, a close reading reveals that the poet's attitude towards death is actually uncertain, and there are many uncertainties and hesitations in the poem. From this, we can understand the inner contradiction of the poetess: nostalgia for life and helplessness for death. The rich images in Dickinson's poems make readers have to sigh the extraordinary inner world hidden under Dickinson's seemingly ordinary appearance. "I can neither shape my life according to the model, nor can I shape my life into anyone's model. Not only that, I am more likely to arrange my life in my own way, regardless of the consequences. " This sentence seems to be a true portrayal of the poetess. The key to her success is not that she deliberately reveals the absolute truth and mystery of death, but that she captures this feeling from a completely unique perspective with her own life experience and unique insight into women, and objectively expresses it through profound images. Her extraordinary ability to combine emotion with thought, image with words established her unparalleled position in the history of American literature. When reading her works, readers can't simply understand the superficial meaning of words, but need to "sail silently in this wonderful ocean", cross the dark empire of hades, and then "land, hi! Always/finally landed! "