My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 29 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close.

My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Criticism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 29 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close.
This section contains 229 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Study Guide

" My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close" has been viewed by many critics as a poem about the act, by God or man, of revealing something surprising and not known before. The critic Martha Hale Shack-ford, writing in the Atlantic Monthly, sees the poem's speaker as a "voice of tragic revelation." Shackford explains that Dickinson was not so much a philosopher as she was an observer of life, gifted with the ability to express profound emotions.

Another critic, Conrad Aiken, offers an interesting interpretation of the poem in his book Collected Criticism. He points out Dickinson's obsession with death, noting it as a persistent theme in her poetry. He writes, "she seems to have thought of it constantly—she died all her life, she probed death daily." Aiken goes on to explain how the theme of death is present in some of her "sharpest" work, noting...

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This section contains 229 words
(approx. 1 page at 400 words per page)
Buy the My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close Study Guide
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