Abstract

    Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is the most famous poetess in the history of the American literature and the pioneer of Britain and America’s modernist poems. Although Dickinson lived her life alone and away from people, this preeminently intelligent poetess had a colorful inner world and she constantly explored the true meaning of life, nature, death and immortality. Hence, she wrote a large amount of poems about death. Among the 1775 poems she wrote, more than 600 poems focus on death or talk about death. Most of her death poems do not reflect fear, anger, pessimism and disappointment. On the contrary, they reveal surprise, love, expectation and imperturbation faced with death.
    This paper discusses the death theme of Emily Dickinson’s poems. Chapter one starts with a brief introduction to her life, her poetic creation and influence, the themes and features of her poems, and present research status. Chapter two, the main body of the paper, selects three classic death poems and analyzes the death theme through the perspectives of death image, death consciousness, death and immortality, etc. Chapter three analyzes Dickinson’s attitude to death and reasons for it. Finally, a conclusion is made.

Keywords:  Emily Dickinson  poems  death theme

摘要

    美国19世纪女诗人艾米丽·狄金森（1830-1886）是美国文学史上最负盛名的一位女诗人，英美现代派诗歌的先驱。尽管狄金森一生离群索居远离尘嚣，但她的内心世界却丰富多彩。她一直不停地在探索人生、自然、死亡和永生的真正含义，因此，她创作了大量的有关死亡的诗歌。在她创作的1775首诗歌中，有600多首是以死亡为题材，或与死亡有关。她的大部分死亡诗并不是反映恐惧、气愤、悲观和失望，恰恰相反，它们反映的主要是惊喜、爱情、期望以及面对死亡沉着冷静。
本文主要围绕狄金森诗歌的死亡主题展开讨论。第一章论文将简要介绍狄金森的生平、文学地位和影响、诗歌的主题、特色及研究现状。第二章为论文的主题部分，将选取狄金森的三首代表性的死亡诗，从死亡意象、死亡意识、死亡与永生等几方面探讨诗歌中的死亡主题。第三章分析诗人对死亡的态度及原因。最后对论文进行总结。

关键词: 狄金森；诗歌；死亡主题

1.1 Emily Dickinson
    Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) is the most famous poetess in the history of the American literature and the pioneer of Britain and America’s modernist poems. Born in Amherst, Dickinson is not only one of the most prolific poets in American literature, but also an independent genius and an innovative talent with pioneering insight far ahead of her time. When she was young, she led a financially comfortable life in a well-respected family who believed in Calvinism in New England community, which had once been the earliest settlement for the Puritans. Even today, its influence in politics and culture can still be sensed by the whole nation. As a poetess living in the transitional period when American traditional religion and thoughts were undergoing great changes, Dickinson strongly expressed her own idea about the world, her doubt to herself and to the culture that had cultivated her. “Calvinism with its doctrine of predestination and its pessimism pressured her during her childhood and adolescence and colored her work so that her basic tone was tragic.”(Chang Yaoxin, 2008: 135) She kept unmarried, secluded her life to her father’s home, focused on the art of poetry, produced 1775 poems, and led a life full of self-awareness.