Emily Dickinson Poetry Analysis Logan Flanigan

Emily Dickinson’s poem “My Life Has Closed Twice Before its Close” is about her life that men

left her and it makes her feel as if she has died on the inside . The poem tells of the tough times in her

life that makes her fill as if she has died twice before her death.

The speaker to me is a young female who is sad and lonely from her many failed attempts at

love. The setting is most likely in her soul and is addressing many who have felt the same as she has. the

conflict of the poem is that she cannot find love and it makes her feel as if no one cares for her and that

it is killing her on the inside. The catalyst is someone that she loved but they did not love her.

In the poem there are two stanzas and the shift occurs at line five. Transitional words in the

poem are: life, immortality, befell, heaven, hell, and hopelessness. In lines one thru two tells about how

she fills and how it fills like she is dying from two different failed attempts at love and shows she is

grieving a lot. Lines three thru four shows that she thinks another event like these won’t occur again

before her actual death. Lines five and six show that she thinks that her grief is huge, overwhelming, and

sad of her prier two misfortunes at love. Lines seven thru eight state that she can only be helped by

dying and going to heaven or hell.