Capturing a Person’s Soul
Emily Dickinson “personified death and breathed so much complexity and power of character into him that he became one of American literature’s protean figures” ( "This Mortal Life" 41-42). Dickinson has suffered a lot of pain and heartache throughout her life and has had to handle multiple deaths involving her friends and family. As a result, even the thought of death makes Dickinson angry and confused towards life. Dickinson began writing poetry as a teenager, but her poetry career really began in the mid 1800’s. Dickinson’s writings do not consist of short stories or novels because Dickinson strictly wrote poetry. Dickinson wrote her poetry towards the end of the Romanticism period, and towards the beginning of the…show more content… In this poem, the speaker describes the fact the dying does not happen quickly. In line 2, the phrase “a fundamental process” (“Crumbling” 1.2) means a necessary pause that is taken in life. In line 3, the phrase “dilapidation’s processes“(“Crumbling” 1.3) explains how the destructive process of dying takes place. This phrase describes how all of the things in life break a person down little by little and bring destruction to people’s lives. In the 2nd stanza, line 5 says “tis first the Cobweb on the Soul” (“Crumbling” 2.5) to create a relationship between a cobweb and a soul. The speaker could be making a reference that the soul is being trapped by the cobweb and is unable to get out. The speaker could also be referencing the devil. For example, the devil could be implied by capturing a person’s soul inside of its web and trapping it to keep it for its own pleasure. In line 6, “a cuticle of dust” (“Crumbling” 2.6) represents a surrounding layer of dust that has been created from a lack of movement or change. This phrase could represent the inactivity of the soul due to the cobweb trapping the soul unable to escape. In stanza 3, the speaker uses the vocabulary “consecutive and slow” (“Crumbling” 3.10) to back up the first line, “crumbling is not an instant’s act.” In line 11, the speaker also re-emphasizes the slow destructive process of life by saying, “fail in an instant, no man did” (“Crumbling” 3.11). The speaker is certain that every man is currently going through a slow destructive process which the speaker calls “slipping” (“Crumbling” 3.12). The speaker uses the word “slipping” to show that destruction takes more time than an instant or immediate
