This is my April 1 Work! Warmest Regards, Amanda Miller

In poem 528 “Tis not that Dying hurts us so –” (240) and poem 552 “There is a Languor of the Life” (250), Dickinson addresses feelings of grief. However, poem 552 addresses the “…Languor of the Life /” that comes after “…the Soul / Has suffered all it can- //” and poem 528 describes the pain that occurs prior to the onset of numbness. Poem 528 asserts that “Tis not that Dying hurts us so- /” but that “…Living – hurts us more – / “. Dickinson uses common meter in both poems, although I had a bit of trouble scanning stanza two of poem 552. I came up with a syllable pattern of 7, 6, 6 and 8 for those four lines and I am not sure if it might be in the way I am reading it, or if it is a catalexis in the first line and then an inversion of lines 3 and 4. Any one more experienced with meter want to help me on that one?

Poem 528 stanza two uses a bird metaphor to describe the feeling of being left alive after someone has died. “The Southern Custom – of the Bird – / That ere the Frosts are due – / Accepts a better Latitude – /” describes birds flying south or the people who have left for another place. This is a common metaphor for Dickinson, not necessarily the flying south part, but the idea of the bird leaving, or the soul as a bird leaving the body. The next line, “We – are the Birds – that stay.” describes the birds that do not migrate south in the winter, or the birds that hang around on Earth after the summer birds have left. Or the people who have not gone when they were supposed to. The end-stopped line is final. Full stop. Those birds are just there waiting. And I see them as a little bit stunned. Grief requires a full stop, a moment of reflection.

But poem 552 takes the reader past the point of the full stop of grief and into “Pain’s Successor…” which in the first two lines of stanza two the speaker describes as “A Drowsiness” that “diffuses – / A Dimness like a fog /”. There is some comfort here, a relief from the constant pain that grief brings. But there is also a loss as the numbness “Envelopes Consciousness – / As Mists – obliterate a Crag. /” I went searching for the meaning of the word “crag” in the OED and found that it was a steep cliff or a rock face. With another end-stopped line giving the reader a feeling of finality, the speaker seems to be warning that if reader indulges too much in the numbness, they might have to stay there like the birds that did not fly south in poem 528.

Stanza three of poem 528 finds “The Shiverers round Farmer’s doors –”, or in other words, hanging out by the barn door…freezing. That is a bleak image, filled with sadness. I cannot get the image of a cold grave side service out of my mind, where the mourners are standing in the cemetery freezing. The second line has the birds waiting for the farmer’s “…reluctant Crumb – /” and I connect that with the freezing mourners as well. The people just waiting to hear some words of comfort from the person conducting the service. Or perhaps the heartbroken people left grieving after a death just looking for some bits of life to sustain them. But in the end the “…pitying Snows / Persuade our Feathers Home /”. Dickinson uses snow as a metaphor for death in other poems as well and sticks with her bird metaphor in this line with “Feathers”. The birds are headed south, or the people are finally moving on to a better place. That could be death, or it could be moving past the pain of grief.

The final two stanzas of poem 552 talk about death from the prospective of “The Surgeon…” who “does not blanch – at pain –”. The speaker is giving a warning regarding that fog or numbness that people experience after pain. The speaker warns that if you “…tell him [the surgeon] that it ceased to feel – / The Creature lying there – //” that “…he will tell you – Skill is late – /”, meaning the surgeon does not have the ability to save the patient. No one can pull the reader back from the “Crag” if they wander to far into the mist. Just like the birds that ultimately flew south in poem 552, the patient has “…no Vitality”.