Blog Post 5.5

3. “Poets often withhold certitude, which can at the same time empower readers to think creatively.”
Consider the works of at least two poets you have studied in which ambiguity has enabled readers
to reach their own conclusions about meaning and implications.


591
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -
Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset - when the King
Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then it was
There interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -
Between the light - and me -
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see -

340

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

Emily Dickinson wrote both of 340 and 591 to describe a scene of death. No doubt she is conveying strong emotions in these poems. However, the emotion is not stated in any particular word. She did not clearly indicate if the death is dreary, tranquil, or depressing.

Dickinson did not use any specific words, but she describes scenes vividly in her lines to convey certain emotion. For example, she used simile to certify the atmosphere: "The Stillness in the Room/ Was like the Stillness in the Air -/ Between the Heaves of Storm -"(591) and "A Service, like a Drum -/ Kept beating - beating -." Comparing stillness in the room to stillness between storms is not only to make the readers to feel a stillness in a better circumstance, but is also to imply the readers the stillness in the room is the stillness before a devastating storm. Similarly, comparing a service to a drum connects the service to an annoying drum beat, getting louder and louder, uncomfortably. Dickinson choose to withhold certainty by dropping clear clue of specific words, but in returns, she provides scenery descriptions to put the readers into intended environments, encouraging them to emerge in their imagination to experience emotion. Because one's experience in imaginary environments Dickinson portrays cannot be replicated, the outcome, emotion, cannot be the same.

The endings of these poems hold the most ambiguity. It ends suddenly, leaving an unfinished taste. Perhaps this is the author's take to provide a feeling for death. However, according to the previous materials, it is leave to the audience's interpretation that weather the sudden ends symbolize a lifeless void or eternal peace, or even just a pure astonishment of what the speakers see. It is possible for readers to conclude that void is what is left in the poem 591. After all, the line "I could not see to see" suggests the speaker has delivered it's last conscious. However, one might interpret that the speaker can still hear, or as the omniscient outsiders, we can see how the quite crowd has gone mad for the inheritance. When the speaker dies, the "storm" has break off all the quite air. On this stand point, the death does seem peaceful and relieving. On the other hand, the speaker in poem 340 is not dead at the end (perhaps). The sudden end of the poem might suggest a sudden end of imagination. A door slam might happened, or for someone the speaker sees something different and appealing so it stops talking. The poem might also suggests the speaker is trying to find a real place for tranquility, not Heaven even. And at the end, the speaker might find it, or not. These opening endings thus provoke the readers to ponder "what happens next?" By imagining and finding clues themselves, Dickinson encourages the readers to dig more into the words before and to form their own explanations.

In my opinion, Emily Dickinson withholds certitude to actually increase the accuracy of emotion that she is trying to convey, and she is trying to make the emotion personal. If she used certain words to state the emotion of what she is feeling, not every audience will understand. While some thought death is peaceful, other would think it is fearful, and they would not understand each other because they had different experience that influenced their opinions. This is why the ambiguity is introduced: so that everyone can feel the empathy and apply to their lives differently.