“The sun kept setting, setting still” by Emily Dickinson
You may remember my piece from a few months back on Emily Dickinson’s famous poem, “Because I could not stop for death.” Well, this week I’ve chosen another Dickinson work: “The sun kept setting, setting still.” This poem also uses first-person narration to describe the author’s take on what it’s like to die:
The sun kept setting, setting still;
No hue of afternoon
Upon the village I perceived, —
From house to house ‘t was noon.The dusk kept dropping, dropping still;
No dew upon the grass,
But only on my forehead stopped,
And wandered in my face.My feet kept drowsing, drowsing still,
My fingers were awake;
Yet why so little sound myself
Unto my seeming make?How well I knew the light before!
I could not see it now.
‘T is dying, I am doing; but
I’m not afraid to know.
| In Dickinson’s imagining of dying, everything is positive, rather than negative. She shows this opposition in the opening stanza with the familiar contrast of light and dark. Dickinson explains how, although it is supposed to be getting darker around her, as the sun is “setting, setting still” (1), it remains bright around her: “From house to house ‘t was noon” (4).
Conversely, in the second stanza, the poet is the only one among everyone that is able to feel the dew; it doesn’t bother anyone else. She states, “No dew upon the grass,/But only on my forehead stopped” (6-7). Dickinson sets up more differences with “drowsing” (9) “feet” (9) and “awake” (10) “fingers” (10). She wonders why she is not more concerned about these odd happenings; but the fact is, she is completely at peace with what is going on. When she sees that it really is getting dark around her (“How well I knew the light before!/I could not see it now” [13-14]), she realizes that she is dying: “’T is dying, I am doing” (15). But, as she states, “I’m not afraid to know” (16). She calmly accepts her fate without any fear. Throughout the entire process she remains tranquil, not frenzied. And at the very end, when she fully comprehends what she is going through, she is at her calmest. This is an admirable attitude to have, and one that we should all maintain. Death doesn’t have to be a scary process; as long as we face it with understanding, it can be the easiest thing in the world. |
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