Question

Discuss at least one theme of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Dying.”

Answer 1

Emily Dickinson represents her realist views about death through her poem “Dying.” She uses an emotionless, matter-of-fact tone to describe the death of the speaker and its aftermath. She talks about the light, the final onset, and the king to express her spiritual beliefs. She explores the relationship between nature and human beings by describing the appearance and movements of a fly as the speaker lays dying. Death, according to Dickinson, is not always peaceful, and the movement of the fly represents the turbulence in the journey toward the end.

Step-by-step explanation:

directly from edmentum :)

Answer 2

In the second stanza, the author describes the people present at the deathbed. They are also quiet, exhausted from their watch and preparing now for the final loss.

"The eyes beside had wrung them dry,

And breaths were gathering sure

For that last onset, when the king

Be witnessed in his power."

She uses one literary device called synecdoche, meaning a part of something refers to the whole. In this case, when the author talks about "the eyes", she means the mourners, the people next to her deathbed crying. She also uses comparison as she compares the eyes to the clouds in a storm, asking us readers to imagine each mourner as having a storm of grief in themselves.