Emily Dickinson - The Feet Of People Walking Home :: essays research papers fc

One of Emily Dickinsons poems, formally titled The feet of mountain walking home, is of some recreate in its own merit. Unlike some of Dickinsons other poems, such as the ones that exist among other versions due to a few dissimilarities, this poem is duplicated verbatim. To the ferocious eye, this triviality would often be overlooked, were it not for the f come that Emily Dickinson had not intended on publishing many of her poems. Why, then, did she duplicate this poem? Perhaps a more(prenominal) in-depth analysis of the poem, as well as the current events in Dickinsons life, would answer this query. Estimated to have been written in the year 1858, the poem begins its first stanza by conveying the emotions of gaiety and joyfulness, which are associated with passage to heaven. A much more somber note pervades the second stanza, in which Dickinson uses metaphors to compare the entrance to heaven with the act of theft. The third stanza combines the previous two by hinting at the th eory that those who are already in heaven do not want more people entering heavens gates, because that would diminish the high status that heaven and angels hold. The tone in the first stanza is of joyousness and excitement, as people make their authority to heaven. Dickinson uses the words gayer, hallelujah, and singing to emphasize the uplifting feeling here. It could be argued that this is the point in the humans lives (or deaths, or afterlives, depending on how one looks at it) when they reach the stature of happiness, for they have finally entered heaven. The humans, now dead, would then acquire wings, immortality, and an angelic status that rises far above that of humans. Much like Dickinsons other poems, this one uses metaphors to render similar things, such as home, which represents heaven, snow, which represents the clouds on which heaven resides, and vassals, which represents the angels who serve God. The second stanza shares a relation to the first, but it could be des cribed as being alone opposite in tone. Dickinson uses the words extorted, larceny, and death to emphasize the crime that is personified here. Dickinson uses more metaphors in this stanza to compare the onrush of people entering heaven to divers who betroth pearls from the sea. In both cases, a sense of value is diminished, or perhaps even lost. Referring back to the first stanza, Dickinson subtly states that the status of angels would no longer be as honorable or magnificent as it is now if everyone were to acquire wings, achieve immortality, and enter heaven.