EMILY DICKINSON

In the modern society, people value lives differently due to a varites of culture and
aspect. Despite the fact that technology is playing a significant role in lives, the strong
believes towards religions are still the same. Emily dickinson, the author of many unique
style and popular poems such as Some keep the Sabbath going to Church (236), A Bird
came down the Walk (328), and I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280) has become one of
American greatest influential poet of the century. Her works are very difficult and
complicated which are about her experiences about feelings that naturally occur during her
lifetime. She devoted her life into writing poems that are creativite and original. Her poem
recorded her thoughts and feelings towars her creation of work. She portrayed her views
toward the religion by writing poems because she felt disunited and isolated. The three poems
mentioned above have the connections to religion isolations, discomforts, and contradicting
thoughts toward religions. In the poems of Dickinson, she uses mood, rhyme, and symbolism
to expresses religious isolation.
In poems Some keep the Sabbath going to Church (236), and A bird came down
the Walk,(328) Dickinson portrayed her religious isolation by using peaceful and tranquil
mood. The beginning of the poem Some keep the Sabbath going to Church pointed out
about the routine of people who belive in god. As Dickinson mentioned in the poem, Some
keep the Sabbath going to Church - I keep it, staying at home,(1-2) it implied that people
who are Christians usually go to church to pray to god in every Sunday. However, she felt
different from them, because she had a strong belief that people can pray to god anywhere if
their hearts and bodies are willing to do so. This creates the feeling of peaceful and united
mind. The light of belief does exist to narrator, but she feels by staying at home. She
believes that god will lead her to heaven at last. She writes another poem which is A Bird

came down to Walk (328). She portrays her view about the isolation of religion by using a
bird as a representative to illustrate the mood. The bird in this poem is the narrator who feel
discomfort about religion. As stated in the poem, I offered him a Crumb/ and he unrolled his
feathers/ rowed him softer home(14-16) portrays the word Crumb as a religion and a bird
as narrator. The Crumb is alike the religion conformity that gather everyone who has the
same religion together in one place. However, the narrator feel uncomfortable to join so she
uses bird to represent herself, which bird flys away when crumb is being fed. In this poem,
the narrator which is being demonstrates as bird fly away because she feels uncomfort,
frightening and disunited about the religion.
In the poem of Dickinsons I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (280) and Some keep the
Sabbath going to Church, (236) she expresses the feeling of isolation and discomfort about
religion by using symbolism. Her perception about religion is carried along with isolation
because she cannot fit to an ambience around her. In the beginning of the poem I felt a
Funeral, in my Brain,(280) she demonstates her views about religion by saying And I, and
silene, some strange Race/ Wreacked, solitaly, here-. (15-16) The word silence is used as
a symbolism in this poem to describe her feeling of abandon and isolated, Although the
church is supposed to bring a sense of community into peopleslife, she feels isolated and
disunited. The narrator feels physical sensation which is numb all across her body. Some
keep the sabbath going to church (236) uses symbolism to potray her thought about the
isolation and discomfort through religion. In the poem, With a Bobolink for a chorister,(3)
implys the word Bobolink as a symbolism of disunited and uncomforts situation. The
birds in this poem is being describes as chorister that need to harmonize their voice together.
She interpret the bird in this poem to make a comparsion between staying at home or visiting
the church. She has experienced on visitng the church before. Therefore, she demonstrates

how lonely she is by imagine the bobolink as the chorister that sings in the church to make
she feel relieves from the isolation of religion. She indicates that the bird is similar to the
chorister, so she will feel better and relieve from the pain because she feels isolated and
discomfort when she visits the church.
In the poems Some keep the Sabbath going to Church(236) and I felt a Funeral, in
my Brain,(280) Dickinson uses rhyme to demonstate religious isolation. According to
Dickinsons poem, she makes a clarification on the poem Some keep the Sabbath going to
Church(236) by using rhyme in this poem. Numbers of her work are a liitle sarcastic
because she has a contrast idea with others; the others go to church because they want to be
united and community, but narrator doesnt like to visit the church because she recieves the
feeling of isolated and disunited when going to church. As it stated in the poem, I just wear
my Wings - And instead of tolling the bell, for church/ Our little Sexton - sings, (6-8) the
word Wings and sings are being repitition as a similar end sound, owing to her purpose
that she wants to make reader understand about we dont have to go to church to pray or sing
to the god. Narrator uses this device to clinch and repeat the information that she informs in
both poems since her tactic is well known and unique.
Together with the poem I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,(280) that she uses a rhyme to
clarify her contradicting ideas on religion. The religion keep invading her space and she
outrage to the ceremony. In the poem And mouners to and fro/ kept treading - treading - till
it seemed/ That Sense was breaking through,(2-5) the two words that being used in this
poem is fro and through. She can feel the mouners backward and forward; they keep
walking and walking till death arrives. The word Sense in this poem is used to express the
sentence to make it clearler on the narrator feeling about the mouner and religion that keep
tracking her space. Moreover, The way she points this poem out is baffling, but unique.

She does feel uncomfortable through religion, so what she recieves from the religion is pain
and abandonment.
In conclusion, Emily Dickinson portrays her view about religion by using many
techniques and devices such as mood and tone, rhyme, and symbolism. Her poems which are
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church (236), A Bird cam down the Walk (328), and I
felt a Funeral, in my brain (280) has been written clearly by using a very unqiue and
outstanding syle. All of these three poem have connection on the religion isolation which is
pointed out to peoples who believes in god. The reasons of believing about religion in her
point of view are clarified to herself by using poem as the representative of herself to imply
her contradicitng ideas toward religion and why she feels uncomfortable to it. Her works has
shown clearly about the another side of death and the isolation of religion which it is one of
the important structure to her work.