The living room in Emily's House

Marxist View

A DOOR just opened on a street
I, lost, was passing by;
An instants width of warmth disclosed,
And wealth, and company

The door as sudden shut, and I,
I, lost, was passing by,
Lost doubly, but by contrast most,
Enlightening misery

The Marxist approach to this poem is about class and society. This poem shows how class and society play a huge role in this poem. The first stanza talks about a person walking on the street and how someone’s door opens. Inside through this door are warmth, wealth, and company. These three words describe how people who have money, love and joy in their lives live. This is all seen from someone on the outside looking in. The second stanza is about how all of this hope is shut out from them as this door closes. As this door is shut in their face they realize that they do not have what those people had and that is the love and money that makes people happy in a Marxist point of view. This poem shows the class difference between people who are well off and have money to the people who are poor and don’t have much in their lives. The poor people do not have a nice warm home to go to at the end of the day; they have shelters or the street. They do not have money like the rich people and that is shown through “joy” as Emily describes it as. This poem shows the different classes through the opening of a door and the closing of a door, how two different lives are so opposite just through the way they live.

Another view of the living room

The Feminist View

I cannot live with You –
It would be Life –
And Life is over there –
Behind the Shelf

The Sexton keeps the Key to –
Putting up
Our Life – His Porcelain –
Like a Cup –

Discarded of the Housewife –
Quaint – or Broke –
A newer Sevres pleases –
Old Ones crack –

I could not die – with You –
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down –
You – could not –

And I – could I stand by
And see You – freeze –
Without my Right of Frost –
Death's privilege?

Nor could I rise – with You –
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus' –
That New Grace

Glow plain – and foreign
On my homesick Eye –
Except that You than He
Shone closer by –

They'd judge Us – How –
For You – served Heaven – You know,
Or sought to –
I could not –

Because You saturated Sight –
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be –
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame –

And were You – saved –
And I – condemned to be
Where You were not –
That self – were Hell to Me –

So We must meet apart –
You there – I – here –
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are – and Prayer –
And that White Sustenance –

Despair –

This is one of Emily Dickinson’s greatest love poems. The poem talks about a lover but goes against love. Feminist approach can be seen in this poem because women are seen as foolish in love but Emily is talking about resisting love even though it is powerful. The first stanza talks about love as a possession and how life with this man is not possible. The second stanza talks about how she cannot die with him which shows the man’s power over her. The third is about why she cannot rise with him and the fourth is why she cannot fall with him. Love holds a power over her. It controls her choices in all aspects of life and death. The final stanza gives the woman power by saying love is impossible when controlled by a powerful force like a man. Being a housewife brings no passion into her life and she is imagines an alternative to living with this person. This poem shows the impossibility of loving someone when she says she will die without her love yet she cannot live with him either. This poem is seen through the feminist lens by saying the man holds the power over her by consuming every aspect of her life.

Emily's closet doors in her room

The Formalism View

IF I should die,
And you should live,
And time should gurgle on,
And morn should beam,
And noon should burn,

As it has usual done;
If birds should build as early,
And bees as bustling go,—
One might depart at option
From enterprise below!

’T is sweet to know that stocks will stand
When we with daisies lie,
That commerce will continue,
And trades as briskly fly.
It makes the parting tranquil

And keeps the soul serene,
That gentlemen so sprightly
Conduct the pleasing scene!

Taking a Formalism approach to this poem shows that Emily Dickinson uses many different poetry techniques. Emily only has one stanza in this poem which is not normal because many poems have multiple stanzas, but Emily does use rhythm and rhyme throughout the poem multiple times. This poem flows very naturally and is not choppy unlike many of her poems. The use of assonance is very prominent in this poems such as “go and below” and “lie and fly”. The use of alliteration is used a lot in this poem. In the first five lines she uses the word “should” in every line and that is a definite use of alliteration. She also uses alliteration at the end of the poem with the words “soul and serene” and “commerce and continue”. Emily makes great use of these literary techniques and it is shown through the tone of this poem and the vivid imaginary details she uses. Over all this poem definitely fits a formalism approach, but that does not necessarily mean that ALL of her poems fit a formalism approach.