Stylistically, the poem has a tightly structured form, consisting of three stanzas, with four lines each. The rhyme scheme is in the typical style of Dickinson, following an ‘abcb’ pattern. The rhythm too is carefully constructed with the first, second and fourth lines of the first and second stanza containing five syllables each, and the third line containing six. The third stanza changes in pace with the first and third lines having six syllables and the second and fourth having five. The tone is at first quite matter-of-fact, describing death as an insect, but it later becomes imploring and almost

pleading with the change in the rhythm. The poem is about death, and the speaker, whom one can assume is Dickinson, is beggin

Although throughout most of the poem Dickinson implores the hearer not to give up, and to fight death, in the last stanza she concedes that under certain circumstances, there is nothing that can be done, and one should just accept their fate and give in to death. “Then, if it have burrowed out of reach of skill, ring the tree and leave it, - ‘t is the vermin’s will” (9-12). Here she refers to the act of killing a tree, after an insect has damaged it, by cutting a ring into its bark and poisoning it, basically leaving it to die. The word “skill” (10) here could mean medicinal skill, or the skill to avoid death in the ways she mentioned in the second stanza, once again portraying her belief that

What is interesting about this poem is the fact that Dickinson uses the metaphor of the insect. In many of her poems about death, she uses this symbolic image of insects, such as the fly, either to represent death, or the coming of death; or others, such as the bee, as symbols of life. Examples of these poems are ones such as: “LXXX Except to heaven” (p229) or “XLVI Dying” (p211). In Death is like an insect, Dickinson also compares life, or the human body to a tree; and, just as a tree can be destroyed by an insect, so can a person by this personified form of death.

Some topics in this essay:
Emily Dickinson, , death insect, heaven” p229 “xlvi, “lxxx heaven” p229, “xlvi dying” p211, dickinson’s stylistic thematic, poem dickinson, p229 “xlvi dying”, rhyme scheme, p229 “xlvi, poem death, heaven” p229, “lxxx heaven”, “xlvi dying”, avoid death, dickinson’s stylistic,