Emily Dickinson's 'Lift The Hasps Of Steel !'

Poems are often obscure at first because of the many ways they may be interpreted. Whether it be short, rhythmic and easy to understand, or long and convoluted, they still have the same purpose. Poems evoke emotions. The words which seem so effortlessly crafted by the author were purposely made to feel so. An author whose words seem effortless, yet whose poems hold a level of ambiguity is Emily Dickinson. They often need a few readings to find a single interpretation but open further inspection, other conclusions could be drawn about her poems. An example is one of her famous poems, How many times these low feet staggered. After close reading of the poem, it obviously tells the story of death but the story is so much more than that. Upon …show more content…
As stated within the first line of the poem, “How many times these low feet staggered-”. This line has an observant tone, asking how long a sick individual had been working. The last line of the first stanza, “Try- can you lift the hasps of steel!”, seems to further solidify that the person in the poem is sickly to the point of no longer being able to work. The second stanza confirms a death with the following statement: “Lift- it you care- the listless hair-”. Dead bodies are often described as listless from head to toe and even down to hair. The final stanza begins with, “Buzz the dull flies- on the chamber window-”. Now the poem is showing the true magnitude of the death. The “listless” body has been dead for so long that there are now flies within the vicinity. The final line of the poem, is the “ultimate” reveal, which states, “Indolent Housewife- in daisies- lain!”. Though the reader knew that someone had died, the ending confirmed that it was the woman of the house who died. The description of “indolent”, in her case meant dead and no longer able to work instead of lazy, and avoiding to do …show more content…
Dickinson was able to make death sound as if it were a release to a freedom after a long life of work. For this reason, the poem is beautiful. It tells a story and gives an alternate view of death. The last stanza which states that flies are in the window chamber is an example of how peaceful death can be. Instead of a grotesque imagery of maggots and flies surrounding a dead body, the flies remain in one spot buzzing. The dull sound they make seems to imply a sense of calm or peace. Also stated in the last stanza is, “Brave- shines the sun through the freckled pane- Fearless- the cobweb swings from the ceiling-”. These natural occurrences normalize the situation as well as add a sense of