The Way Emily Dickinson Constructs Symbols in Her Death Poems

B. The Way Emily Dickinson Constructs Symbols in Her Death Poems

This second sub chapteragain analyzes the uses of symbols in Emily Semiotics of Poetry . However, the difference is that the first sub chapter applies the theory directly to find the kinds of symbols inside the poems, while this second sub chapter explainsthe constructions of symbols which are created by the poet inside the poem to build the unity of meaning.

In Semiotics of Poetry , the first stage is how the poet delivers the meaning inside the poemto the readers from the very first time when they read the poem. This is commonly kn

. It occurs in the heuristic reading level.

Dickinson is a poet in the era of romanticism to realism.In her poems, she maximally usesindirect expressions, implicit explanations and sequence of images and symbols. Her poems lead the r

beauty . Moreover, her style ca high language which represents poetry as something beautiful and abstract to understand.

Dickinson expressions constant theory which states that poetry expresses indirection. Indirection is produced by displacing, distorting and creating meaning poems.It relates to connotative language which needs a deeper contemplation and imagination in creating it. In fact, Dickinson did not totally show the conventional understanding on poetry which states that something should have a deep meaning. Instead, she added something meaningless and even the real condition of her personal life into her poems.

poem Because I could not stop fo

For example,

is used in

BECAUSE I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility.

The because I could not stop for death/he kin are personification which becomes one of the techniques

. It can

be seen that not all the readers will easily understand her intention through those lines. The readers will think about two things. First, death emerges as a man. Second, death has kind and courtly manner.

Dickinson is a radical individualist. In her poems, she wants to break the old style and repetitive thought which are used by the poets in the previous era. She emphasizes that death is not always identical with sad and gloomy circumstances, but death could have interchangeable relation with love. Therefore, she could make a death poem with intimate romantic sense that in the same time expresses her real love story.

The second stage is how the poet transforms signs to reach the complete arrangement of semiotic system. This is commonly known as

s which occurs in hermeneutic level. In this case, there are two concepts that can be analyzed, there are: sign production and

. In fact, sign is the basic

. It is created by the poet and hidden inside the text.

s of symbols in the level of sign production.

As if my life were shaven And fitted to a frame, And could not breathe without a key; And 't was like midnight, some,

When everything that ticked has stopped, And space stares, all around, Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns, Repeal the beating ground.

shows the occurrence of alliteration. This is the sign fact, the repeated consonant sound in the implies the sound of mourning that cannot be ignored by the readers.

has two meanings: the satisfaction of harvest in summer and the coming of death in winter (Ferber, 2007, p. 17). A

autu

in the ode by John Keats can be analyzed as the comparison example of this case.These are the first stanza and the third stanza of John

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

- in the third stanz

Keats describes

mellow fruitfulness

as the time when all of things seem ready and ripe but end up with death

as the title of his ode which tends to represent death it

mellow fruitfulness in the first line of his ode supports the general understanding which

symbolizes death and mourning.

Moreover, it is a form of conventional symbol. Then, a question occurs in relation to Dick

of symbol: Why Dickinson

itself is enough to represent death and mourning?

It style in making poem and constructing symbol. She seems to make something unordinary and to escape from repetition that is used by the poets in the previous era. Hence, she creates her own symbol with particular meaning.According to the researcher, Dickinson sees that the strongest sense of

but it refers to the mourning but it refers to the mourning

other poets from the previous era in the way they perceive readers ability in reading poetry. Dickinson may create poetry with an extraordinary beautiful language and even abstract meaning, but sometimes she sees poetry as something universal and

She sometimes created a poem by describing the real condition in people daily life.

In her poem entitled T , Dickinson shows several evidences that verify her description which states that the event of For example, s

dark

as one of the evidence.

And then the milliner, and the man Of the appalling trade, To take the measure of the house.

Of tassels and of coaches soon; The intuition of the news

In just a country town. is easyto understand.

can be seen as t which identical with deat

illustrates the scene of funeral when illustrates the scene of funeral when

Furthermore, the color in a death poems not only occurs as a form of

cliché but also a symbol. In A Dictionary of Literary Symbols, the color already stated as a symbol of death which rel

is the color of death and mourning which is adopted by Christians in the whole world (Ferber, 2007, p. 28). Therefore, many people in several places believe that black becomes one of the proper mourning attires.

This is how Dickinson shows poetry as something universal and conventional. is a conventional symbol which is conventionally understood by most of people. Therefore, it can be s

as a symbol of death in her poem.

totally supports the core message of her poem

that the event of death is something common, continuous and noticeable in p daily life. In this case, it can be seen that Dickinson does not expect the readers who enjoy and understand her poemsshould have high intelligence and intellectual. She sees that everybody canenjoy and understand her poems by analyzing their environs.

, the uses of customs become interesting in the process of constructing symbols. In fact, Dickinson , the uses of customs become interesting in the process of constructing symbols. In fact, Dickinson

As lately as today.

I know it by the numb look Such houses have always.

The neighbours rustle in and out, The doctor drives away.

A window opens like a pod, Abrupt, mechanically;

In this poem, Dickinson shows the uses of death customs in line neighbo

. In the past, a simple funeral which is organized by families, friends and neighbors was popular in also represent the way people show their respect and care for t is a form of death customs. It is because people usually open the windows in the house of the deceased. They believe that this ritual will allow the spirit to escape and to keep away from its house, families and friends. It can be seen that this explanation relates to the meaning of window in symbolism. Since the shape of window consists of apertures, they imply the meaning of distance (Cirlot, 2001, p.

Dickinson constructs symbols in her death poems in the level of text production.

We passed the school, where children strove At recess, in the ring; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun.

This is the example of the uses of repetition. As the simplest form of expansion,

fact, repetition is not the main focus in this part, but she combines repetition and symbols. It can be seen that repetition leads and controls

enlightenment.

From this example, there are three kinds of conventional symbols which relate to nature: the children, the gazing grain and the setting sun. Those symbols are not used by the poet without certain reason. Although each symbol has their own meaning, but they will deliver a new meaning when they emerge in order and combine with repetition. In fact, the new meaning of those series of symbols helps the

The children symbolize start of life and the view of the future (Cirlot, 2001, p. 45). The grain is a symbol of the life itself and represents maturity (Ferber, 2007, p. 35). Since the setting sun consists of sunrise and sunset, it causes complex meaning.

or death (Ferber, 2007, p. 209). In conclusion, those symbols represent the stage of life which consists of birth, life (mature) and death.

A poet deals with many aspects in their writing process. The existence of other poets can be seen as one of important aspects. Eliot (1982

when we praise a poet, upon those aspects of his work in which he least resembles anyone (p. 36). In this case, the emergence of influencesor other poets have an important role in the process of constructing symbols.

I died for beauty but . It reminds the reader to the created by John Keats.

For example, Dickinso

that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. As has been explained in the previous sub chapter, this phrase is the conclusion of

shows that John Keats and his works influence Dickinson. It can be seen that John

t also

is considered as the hypogram.

I , Dickinson creates a conversation between two speakers who talk about the reason of their deaths, they are .

He questioned softly why I failed?

the two are one;

The ide beauty and truth become the speak . It can be seen that beauty and truth become the representation of art. The conversation of this poem is the model which describes the eternity of art.Dickinson

which

the same. Dickinson agrees with Keats in seeing art as something great an eternal. Furthermore, this case can be considered as a confirmation of the principle of intertextuality. In fact, poetry cannot exist in the emptiness of culture. However, Dickinson appears as a radical individualist who rejects conventional and repetitive style from the previous era, but this case shows the role of influence in her poems.

Dickinson is famous with her extra interest in the elements of nature. She loves nature and finds indefinitely inspiration from animals, plants and the series of Dickinson is famous with her extra interest in the elements of nature. She loves nature and finds indefinitely inspiration from animals, plants and the series of

Buzz the dull flies on the chamber window; Brave shines the sun through the freckled pane; Fearless the cobweb swings from the ceiling Indolent Housewife, in Daisies lain!

Moreover, those objects are used by Dickinson to create the circumstance of death in

IF I should die, And you should live, And time should gurgle on, And morn should beam, And noon should burn, As it has usual done; If birds should build as early, And bees as bustling go,-- One might depart at option From enterprise below!

When we with daisies lie, That commerce will continue, And trades as briskly fly. It makes the parting tranquil And keeps the soul serene, That gentlemen so sprightly Conduct the pleasing scene!

daisy can be seen as conventional symbols. Fly symbolizes something unpleasant, disease-ridden and evil (Ferber, 2007, p. 78). However daisy as the name of flower symbolizes the character of woman, both good and bad (Ferber, 2007, p. 50). In fact, fly is one of arthropods which regularly

fly fly

If those I love

This is how Dickinson creates her person and daisy are regularly used in her poems, especially in her death poems. Therefore, the readers could find particular meaning of those symbols. From her poems, the readers can conclude that fly is the symbol of death which relates to the decomposition process of organism. However, daisy emerges as graveyard flower. poems, daisy doesnot only symbolize the character of a woman but also the death of

a woman.

In conclusion, the way Dickinson constructs symbols in her death poems is divided into three major ways. First, she employs indirection in her poetry. It is in

(displacing, distorting, and creating meaning).It is considered as the basic way to cat

in the process of understanding the poem. Second,she uses cliché, customs and the role of influence or any characteristics of the conventional poems to

interpretation. Third, she creates personal symbols into two ways.First, she modifies conventional symbols into personal symbols, for example in the form of alliteration. Second, she regularly uses the symbols of nature (fly and daisy) and modifies the meaning. Therefore, the readers will recognize those objects as her personal symbols not conventional symbols.

However, anotherimportant thing is that Dickins way to construct symbols in her death poems causes a contradiction. Since symbols are conventional, stable and fixed in meaning, the construction of symbols creates clearer meaning for the poem. In contrast, it is possible for each symbolto havelayers of meaning that is broader and more ambiguous. In fact, it may As the most important things,

are unconventional, it is against conventional death poems which are identical with sadness and despair.