My life closed twice before its close, Emily Dickinson

My life closed twice before its close— 
It yet remains to see 
If Immortality unveil 
A third event to me 

So huge, so hopeless to conceive 
As these that twice befell. 
Parting is all we know of heaven, 
And all we need of hell.

Dickinson starts this poem off with a very powerful first line, "My life closed twice before its close." This starts the reader off with a question about the speaker; does he/she really have any control over their life or death? As the poem continues, it is obvious that this is not about a physical death, but yet a spiritual death. Dickinson says in the end of the first stanza that her only third option between heaven and hell would be immortality, which is impossible as a human on this Earth. In the first line of the second stanza, the poet uses two different adjectives to describe trying to understand the Parting of Heaven and emerging into Hell; Huge and Hopeless. Dickinson is saying that being being apart from God on the Earth will lead to an eternal death of hell by saying that the Parting is all we need of hell and all we know of heaven. Dickinson uses the pause after the first line in the first stanza to just simply emphasize it. She uses the enjambment between the first and second stanza to keep the mood rolling so the reader didn't lose the powerful meaning that Dickinson is conveying in the poem. She intentionally ends the poem with the word hell, because people usually associate hell with an eternal death, and by doing so leave a clear, dominant ending to the poem. 

The Bustle in a House, Emily Dickinson

The Bustle in a House

The Morning after Death

Is solemnest of industries

Enacted opon Earth –

The Sweeping up the Heart

And putting Love away

We shall not want to use again

Until Eternity.

This is yet another poem by Dickinson about death. Her focus is not on ones personal death, but the death of a loved one. Again in this poem, she capitalizes certain words to give them emphasis on the overall meaning. In the first line, the word Bustle is capitalized to really show the high energy in people after the death of a close loved one. She also capitalizes House to represent the connection of the people involved. In the second line, she capitalizes two words; Morning and Death. Morning can have a double meaning in this particular poem. One is the actual words meaning, the beginning of the day, and the other is the word Mourning, which is lamenting over the loss of someone. Dickinson's recognizable diction in the third line sets the mood of the poem by detailing to the reader the solemness of the death and even compares it to an industry, which gives the situation a distinct ritual that needs to be followed. In the second stanza of the poem Dickinson begins with saying, "The Sweeping up the Heart." This is a powerful line by the poet, because it forms a connection between anyone who has felt a pain like this and the poet. Dickinson realizes how important love is and doesn't neglect it in this second stanza. In the second through fourth line, she continues on with the sweeping of the heart to putting the love away, and having no need with it again until eternity. Dickinson is relaying that even though death may come with a very deep impact, we shouldn't mourn over a death for a long time, and just sweep up the broken pieces and save our love and emotions for that person until our eternity, death. Dickinson uses the pause between the first and second stanza as a shift, turning from the shock of death, to the emotion of lost love. 

The Heart asks Pleasure----first, Emily Dickinson

THE HEART asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering;
And then, to go to sleep;	5
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.

This poem by Dickinson can be read in two ways; both a literal way and a much more intellectual way. In the first line Dickinson intentionally capitalizes the words Heart and Pleasure to give the words life in the poem. In the second line, she also capitalizes Pain to emphasize the importance of the emotions of the Heart. Dickinson capitalizes Anodynes in the third line to show how the Heart relies on these pain relievers to remove its suffering. This is satirical to the society today because this represents how people often times will turn to other things to relieve personal sufferings in their life. The punctuated pauses used throughout the poem are there to bring attention to the shifts in time from one emotion to the other, and the effect that each one has on the Heart. Dickinson wrote this poem using the central character, the Heart, to represent a person and how people will do anything they can to keep from feeling pain; even if it does mean death.