WattMag: Spooky November Issue

On Dickinson and Death

Title: On Dickinson and Death

Topic/ Featured Poem: If I Should Die by Emily Dickinson

Written by: LexGarcia

On Dickinson and Death

Emily Dickinson’s poems prove deeply into our major life’s experiences—love, faith, and death. The poem “If I Should Die” is one of my favorites and as the title suggests, it’s a poem about death. Death is a universal theme that often connotes pessimism. So what should we expect on a poem like this?

In the poem, she declares that if she dies, life goes on. She wants those she left behind to continue their lives for it’ll relieve her. To experience life, as this poem describes, is a very beautiful thing. I adore the sincerity and the positivity in her dictions (use of words). She used lucid yet beautiful words that we’ll find luxurious to our ears. To think that this is a poem about death; it doesn’t depress the readers.

To experience her explosive power for your selves, here’s the transcript of the poem:

If I Should Die

by Emily Dickinson

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!

‘Tis sweet to know that stocks will stand

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!