Is Emily Dickinson On Drugs?? Essay, Research Paper

4/26/98Is Emily Dickinson on Drugs? Emily Dickinson’s poems often make me ponder her mental stability. Sometimes I wonder if she was psychotic or on some kind of mind-altering drugs. In Dickinson’s poems “I felt a funeral in my brain,” “My life closed twice before its close,” and “Because I could not stop for Death,” we shall see whether or not Mr. J’s theory of her insanity stands true. In the piece “I felt a funeral in my brain,” she views her own funeral in her head. At one point she thought, “My mind was going numb;” now I strongly believe that one has to be on “crack” to write a line like this. “Then Space-began to toll;” I don’t believe Emily Dickinson graduated from the D.A.R.E. program because normal, non-drug using people do not normally space out and see their funerals in their heads. “And I dropped down, and down,” in other words, Emily just passed out. Not only was Emily passed out, she was also having near-death experiences according to the poem “My life closed twice before its close.” Maybe she was trying to kick the habit and became depressed. “It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me” means that she is worried about dying and she wondered if there is anything for her after this life.

Once again, in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” Dickinson is writing about her death, only she’s talking in the past tense like she’s already dead. Depression? Withdrawal? Crack? Will someone please tell me what the hell is wrong with this woman? This lady is obsessed with her own death; my suggestion to her is to get a life before she really does die. Obviously Emily is on some kind of mind-altering drugs. Otherwise, she would not be constantly writing about her own death; she would be writing about trees and birds, love and happiness.