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  • Essay / The Concept of Ambiguity in Emily Dickinson's Poems

    Emily Dickinson, in most of her poetry, is found to cherish ambiguity. Some of his poems can be perceived in many different ways, none of which are right or wrong. Depending on how the reader sees and interprets the poem, the meaning is distorted to fit their point of view. The ambiguity in his writings relates to the idea that human beings cannot say what the world means, but they try to understand it anyway. Dickinson offers explanations and answers in a way that does not state them as facts, but offers them as possibilities. In her poems "I Heard a Fly Buzzing - When I Died" and "I Died for Beauty - But I Was Rare", Dickinson uses ambiguity to suggest that there are many different ways of seeing the mysteries of the world. Say no to plagiarism. . Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get an original essay In the poem “I heard a fly buzzing – when I died –”, Dickinson offers answers to the question of existence of divinity in the world. The narrator is dead and lingers, with other people, awaiting the presence of the “King” (“I heard the buzz of a fly” line 7). The “King,” in this usage, is God. They want to witness a sign that there is divinity in the world around them. However, the only sign of anything in the room is a fly. The ambiguity of the poem comes into play with two different readings, one negative and the other positive. In the negative reading, the poem tells the story of the anti-climax in belief in divinity. People wait their whole lives looking for a sign from God or a deity. In death, they hope to see a hint of what they believe, but instead there is only a fly buzzing around. In this reading, humans never experience God, despite their lifelong beliefs. In the positive reading, on the other hand, humans ultimately see that everything is divine, including the fly. This interpretation suggests that the fly could be God, and while there is no way to be sure, there are subtle clues. The fly is described as "blue", which is a color associated with the Virgin Mary and divinity ("I heard a fly buzz" line 13), and it appears between the light and the narrator, which leaves hearing that light is a representation of understanding or heaven (“I heard a buzz of a fly” line 14). This reading proposes that even though there never seem to be signs of true divinity in their lifetime, humans will eventually come to understand that everything they saw was divine. The two distinct ways of interpreting this poem were deliberately designed by Dickinson as offerings to the question of divinity to which humans will never know the answer. The ambiguity of this poem can lead readers in either direction, changing the meaning and response they see. The poem “I Died for Beauty – But I Was Rare” tells the story of two deceased people. One lived for beauty and the other for truth. The two talked through the night until the growing moss covered their lips and their names. This poem offers readings in the same way as the poem “I heard a fly buzz – when I died –”. The negative reading suggests that death and nature ultimately destroy all noble pursuits of things like truth and beauty. These noble pursuits are worthless as death approaches. The names of truth and beauty, as well as the names of people who have devoted their lives to these virtues, are hidden by the growth of nature and seem forgotten. There.