Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What do you think is the speaker's attitude toward death? Angry? Resigned? Somewhere in between? What makes you say so?
- How does this poem stack up against other poems that use nature and flower imagery? Come on, we bet you know a few…
- How does the poem's use of ballad meter jibe with the theme of religion? (Hint: it has to do with hymns.)
- How does the use of consonance in the poem affect its overall tone?
- No doubt Dickinson had a thing for death. How does this poem stack up against some of her other death poems like "Because I could not stop for Death" and "I head a Fly buzz —when I died —"?