465. It is helpful in reading this poem to be aware of two aspects of the Puritan tradition that
persisted through Dickinson's day. First, keeping watch at a deathbed was standard practice.
Close scrutiny of the process of dying, and of the corpse, was considered a perfectly natural
and healthy activity that would advance the spiritual state of the spectator. Second, in
Dickinson's time there were many popular poems describing death sentimentally and
devotionally as a difficult but ultimately redemptive passage to heaven. For example, here
is a description of a dying eye from "The Lost Sister" by Dickinson's popular contemporary
Lydia Sigourney:
It's gathered film
Kindled one moment with a sudden glow
Of tearless agony,--and fearful pangs,
Racking the rigid features, told how strong
A mother's love doth root itself. One cry
Of bitter anguish, blent with fervent prayer,
Went up to Heaven,--and, as it cadence sank
Her spirit entered there.
Quoted in Barton Levi St. Armand, Emily Dickinson and Her Culture: The Soul's Society
(Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984) 58.
How is Dickinson's poem similar to Sigourney's? How is it markedly different?
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