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.
My life closed twice before its close —
Analysis, meaning and summary of Emily Dickinson's poem My life closed twice before its close —
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Dickinson obviously has experienced death before it has happened to her physically. She feels as if she has died twice emotionally, and she is waiting for another tragic event to occur. In Lines 2-4:
“It yet remains to see
If Immortality unviel
A third event to me”
Those lines expresses how she is tired of going through emotional struggles, as she tried to understand why her loved ones have passed away. So she is just waiting for God to give her the chance to be with them again. Dickinson also reveals that she feels God play an important role in the deaths she has experienced, because she capitalizes “Immortality” in line 2.
I think this poem was Dickinson’s way of expression her confusion of death and the lasting affect on those left behind. I love her statement, “Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell.” It is powerful and true. I think by saying ” My life closed twice before its close”, Dickinson meant that she lost two important people in her life, which took her life emotionally so it was closed before she died. It is an amazing and powerful poem
The message Dickinson is trying to get across is the feeling a near death experience can leave you with. As life flashes before your eyes, you get a glimpse of Heaven and one of Hell. She says “it yet remains to see if immortality unveil a third event to me” which leads readers to believe that she has conquered death twice already and hopes to stay immoral should it face her again. It really reaches me emotionally because of the truth I find in the saying “one does not truly live until they have faced death.” A person doesn’t see how precious, truly precious life is until they see how fast it can be taken away from them.
My idea of Emily’s message for “My life closed twice before its close” is that she’s just trying to cope with the lose of two special people to her. It seems that she is slightly confused, and is questioning God “If Immortality unveil.” It seems that Emily grasps the whole Heaven and Hell concept in the after life sense. However she also pulls in the hell on earth vibe with the lines ,”Parting is all we know of heaven,And all we need of hell.” So, Emily pulls of a sense of understanding and utter confusion in a few powerful lines.
Emily Dickinson Conveys that part of her has already died before death. When a loved one is lost such pain is felt is like you feel like there isn’t much left of you anymore. Severe emotional pain can hurt just as bad as physical pain. In the line “If Immortality unveil A third event to me” shows she has already died and one more event can’t do too much more damage. Her usage of “heaven” and “hell” shows where one will go after death.
yes, just like many of the commenters, i do relate this poem to death. but to me it epitomizes the feeling we recieve after we have lost a loved one. When Dickenson says “My life closed twice before its close —
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me”, she is probably referring to two times in her life that she has felt lost. just like one of the commentors said, she had lost her father and the love of her life. these may have been the two times her life may have closed. so the third closure would probably be her own death. she knows like many of us that she will eventually die.the phrase “If immortality unveil” helps me to see how she feels about life. it seems to me that she sees that she will eventually die and the thinking of living forever in our prime will soon be unveiled.
this poems theme surrounds around death and parting with those that we love. and though many view heaven as a place to go after death, this poem describes it as something realted to sorrow. this is because it is a time of parting form someone that we love.
yes, just like many of the commenters, i do relate this poem to death. but to me it epitomizes the feeling we recieve after we have lost a loved one. When Dickenson says “My life closed twice before its close —
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me”, she is probably referring to two times in her life that she has felt lost. just like one of the commentors said, she had lost her father and the love of her life. these may have been the two times her life may have closed. so the third closure would probably be her own death. she knows like many of us that she will eventually die.the phrase “If immortality unveil” helps me to see how she feels about life. it seems to me that she sees that she will eventually die and the thinking of living forever in our prime will soon be unveiled.
this poems theme surrounds around death and parting with those that we love. and though many view heaven as a place to go after death, this poem describes it as something realted to sorrow. this is because it is a time of parting form someone that we love.
This poem deeper than it seems, in that it expresses the hardships of death in one’s life. And how it effects your mental state. Dickinson experienced two deaths in her own life as well as internally. She shows all of that emotion in this poem.
The message Dickinson is saying in this poem is that she had a life that ended twice before it ‘closed:’ in other words, she died. Very moving to see that she saw death in her life twice before she was taken as well. When she said,
“So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.”
That is when I was moved because, she is saying that she will not forget the two death experiences, no matter how hard she tries to forget. Also, when she says that,
“Parting is all we know of heaven.
And all we need of hell.”
It means that the monent you die is when you know everything about heaven, and everything you can take from hell. Death is truely the worst experience in life.
This poem is very emotional. Death is a horrible experience.
This poem has nothing to do with losing her father or lover. Dickinson had two near death experiences before writing this poem. That is what altered her prespective of life.
To me it seems that she is relating to a great loss, so great it is measurable only against death by words. My personal belief is that it was the death of her father, and the loss of her literary companion and love Charles Wadsworth. The loss of a love, a great and powerful love, is the only thing I think would measure against the pain of death. I think that the third awaited loss is in reference either to her own death, or perhaps that of another love, such as the colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson. It is open-ended. She is waiting for “immortality” or a god-like figure, to bring the end again. The end of another life, or relationship. She see’s it now as inevitable as it is, and knows that it will come. I think that that is the pain through which she wrote this.
I think that it is important to remember that while many of Dickenson’s poems reflect her experiences, they are not meant as exclusively about her life. Although this poem most likely stems from the death of her father and the loss of a man she loved, it is not clear that she refers to these two men, nor that the “close” means a death, becuase she does not mean to narrow it down to such a specific. There are so many different types of losses in the world, and she means not to eliminate any of them. It refers to any event which could cause the reader to feel the same. In this same vein, the third loss does not mean death specifically, just as none of the other closures meant death specifically, just any sort of event that invoked emotion similar to what Dickenson thought.
I’m currently doing a report on this poem and if someone could figure out at least six of the literary elements that would be great. Just repost them and ill check back for them tomorrow or something. thanks
I don’t know that much about Emily Dickinson, but the poem doesn’t HAVE to do with a death in her life. It could be being raped. She could have been beaten. Who knows? There is a wonderful book called Rena’s Promise about a Holocaust survivor. On page 152 in the last sentence of the first paragraph, you can totally relate to this poem. Just though you guys would like to know that and check the book out!
In this poem, Emily Dickinson expresses how greatly depressed she is. she speaks of two great losses in her life, losses so terrible that death is the only symbolism to describe it.Emily was a gorrophobic, she was afraid of open spaces,this phobia made it complicated for her to venture out into society and to express love.In knowing this, the loss of her father and an end to a love relationship that she had with the men she wrote to, would be a great loss.This creates her own personal hell, and her only chance of happiness would be thru heaven.
This poem to me says, how this person lost two important things in their life and is curious on whether she will be next. This poem expresses sorrow and sadness about the death of someone close to you. and the meaning “my life closed twice before its close” means her life ended before she died.
This poem has a lot to do with life. Events that happened in her life she overlooked them. She wasn’t paying any attention to them. As her life was changeing drastic things were happening. She finally realized that her life would come to a end. She was dealing with heaven and hell.
This poem is about how she lost two important things in her life. There was three imortant things in her life and thats what her life was about. There were two things and her own death that were most important to her. The other two closed in her life before her own life came to an end. Once she had lost everything important to her, the only thing she had left was her own death.
This poem mentions three main events in just about everyone’s life: experiencing life, experiecing a death, and then experiencing your own death. Each of these events cause pain and suffering. Even though these things are part of life and death, they must be expericened at some point and time to make life complete. With death comes sorrow and grieving and Dickinson shows that in her poem. She seems somewhat frustrated with the fact that certain things must be experienced in a life time, but she comes to the terms that she must deal with it. Her way of getting through it was by writing a poem about.