Natalie Davis
26 January 2013
AP Literature Poetry
26 January 2013
AP Literature Poetry
The Nothing that Is.
The topic of ‘nothing’ is considered abstruse because of it’s lack of definition. Emily Dickinson
and Wallace Stevens discuss the role that the realm of ‘nothingness’ plays in our world in the poems “I
Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” and “The Snow Man”. The two poems question the existence of an
afterlife, and the alternative to the afterlife and what happens to the existing when they do not exist
anymore. The nothing mentioned in these poems is a vacuum of emptiness, and is caused by the
absence of meaning or life. ‘Nothing’ is an endless concept because it is not bound by any definition,
acting like a black hole in our lives replacing emotion, faith and determination with apathy.
The two poems both approach the topic of the presence of nothingness. Emily Dickinson talks about the last moment before death closed in, and all she recalls is the nothingness that blocked her from her window to heaven. The focus of this poem is the faith or drive that she has at the end of her life, which is replaced by an engulfing presence of nothingness. She mentions, “I willed my KeepsakesSigned away”, “Keepsakes” is capitalized, referring to an innuendo of greater significance than solely the topic of her material possessions. Her keepsakes that she signed away represent the place that she believes her soul will go, hypothetically signed away to God.
However, in the end there is no dictation of where the soul goes, only the faith or hope that it will go somewhere resembling paradise. She mentions seeing the “King”, which represents God, but is distracted by a fly buzzing. This distraction can represent her apathy that she has towards faith as well as the distractions in her life that keep her from being at peace with God. The things that are in the way
The two poems both approach the topic of the presence of nothingness. Emily Dickinson talks about the last moment before death closed in, and all she recalls is the nothingness that blocked her from her window to heaven. The focus of this poem is the faith or drive that she has at the end of her life, which is replaced by an engulfing presence of nothingness. She mentions, “I willed my KeepsakesSigned away”, “Keepsakes” is capitalized, referring to an innuendo of greater significance than solely the topic of her material possessions. Her keepsakes that she signed away represent the place that she believes her soul will go, hypothetically signed away to God.
However, in the end there is no dictation of where the soul goes, only the faith or hope that it will go somewhere resembling paradise. She mentions seeing the “King”, which represents God, but is distracted by a fly buzzing. This distraction can represent her apathy that she has towards faith as well as the distractions in her life that keep her from being at peace with God. The things that are in the way
of her and God push her into a state of nothingness, as she has lost sight of the “window”, she loses
connection with her transition into the realm of eternity.
The title “The Snow Man” is a manipulation of the syntax that causes ambiguity in the subject of the poem. The space between snow and man can represent the change of context; this poem can be referring to a man that is associated with the snow, whether literally or metaphorically. To have a “mind of winter” can symbolize a mind that is cold like death, or at peace. Certain moments of complete bliss are found in the quiet, and undisturbed elements in the snow, because all the surroundings are dead or asleep. Winter symbolizes the end of the cycle of life, the death of the vegetation, and the hibernation of the animals until the new cycle begins in the spring.
Both “The Snow Man” and “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” are associated with the cycle of life, more closely with death. He digresses to talking about “Pine trees crusted with snow;”which can represent the cold and lifeless wasteland he sees, covered in snow. The “junipers” and “spruces” are also mentioned to be “shagged with ice” and “rough in the distant glitter”, and this gives the effect of the “snow” a negative connotation. The words “shagged”, “crusted” and “rough” are all associated with the relationship between the snow and the vegetation, implying that the snow is harming all life by its envelopment of all who inhabit the land. The snow’s ability to cover the land creates the illusion of the land being a “bare place”, but under the snow are the remains of what once lived in this land, suffocated by the absence of warmth.
He concludes, “For the listener, who listens in the snow,/And, nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and nothing that is”. All that is left of the land is the memory of the life that was once there and has left, and the nothing that compensates for the space that the life once encompassed. The
The title “The Snow Man” is a manipulation of the syntax that causes ambiguity in the subject of the poem. The space between snow and man can represent the change of context; this poem can be referring to a man that is associated with the snow, whether literally or metaphorically. To have a “mind of winter” can symbolize a mind that is cold like death, or at peace. Certain moments of complete bliss are found in the quiet, and undisturbed elements in the snow, because all the surroundings are dead or asleep. Winter symbolizes the end of the cycle of life, the death of the vegetation, and the hibernation of the animals until the new cycle begins in the spring.
Both “The Snow Man” and “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” are associated with the cycle of life, more closely with death. He digresses to talking about “Pine trees crusted with snow;”which can represent the cold and lifeless wasteland he sees, covered in snow. The “junipers” and “spruces” are also mentioned to be “shagged with ice” and “rough in the distant glitter”, and this gives the effect of the “snow” a negative connotation. The words “shagged”, “crusted” and “rough” are all associated with the relationship between the snow and the vegetation, implying that the snow is harming all life by its envelopment of all who inhabit the land. The snow’s ability to cover the land creates the illusion of the land being a “bare place”, but under the snow are the remains of what once lived in this land, suffocated by the absence of warmth.
He concludes, “For the listener, who listens in the snow,/And, nothing himself, beholds/ Nothing that is not there and nothing that is”. All that is left of the land is the memory of the life that was once there and has left, and the nothing that compensates for the space that the life once encompassed. The
nothingness in these two poems is caused by the absence of life, or meaning, furthering the
contemplation of the role that nothing plays in our lives. The death that is experienced in our lives is the
source of nothingness, whether it is a death of a relationship or of life. This source of nothingness
derives from the apathy in our hearts, or the loss of drive, causing anything that has meaning in our lives
to slip into insignificance.
The two poems deliberate the typical transition from life to death, and the question of what happens to the soul after death. Dickinson and Stevens both have this concept that if afterlife (heaven) doesn’t exist, the life that once ‘was’ is now nothing. Dickinson paints this vision that the life is swallowed by this nothingness, as the last stanza leaves the readers hanging by its abrupt stop in the middle of the sentence. This belief that the afterlife doesn’t exist leaves the impression that all there is to look forward to after death is the peaceful relief into the state of nothingness. The apathy toward death is very depressing in these poems, making the person dying feel unimportant and already forgotten as
the belief that the soul would carry on through eternity is demolished. The soul represents hope and helped those in transition to death with the acceptance of it, because they had faith that this was not the end, but the beginning of eternity.
The two poems deliberate the typical transition from life to death, and the question of what happens to the soul after death. Dickinson and Stevens both have this concept that if afterlife (heaven) doesn’t exist, the life that once ‘was’ is now nothing. Dickinson paints this vision that the life is swallowed by this nothingness, as the last stanza leaves the readers hanging by its abrupt stop in the middle of the sentence. This belief that the afterlife doesn’t exist leaves the impression that all there is to look forward to after death is the peaceful relief into the state of nothingness. The apathy toward death is very depressing in these poems, making the person dying feel unimportant and already forgotten as
the belief that the soul would carry on through eternity is demolished. The soul represents hope and helped those in transition to death with the acceptance of it, because they had faith that this was not the end, but the beginning of eternity.
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