After her death in 1886, Her sister Lavina found hundreds of her poems in her bedroom, the

poems were written on scraps over paper, like on the back of letters, used envelopes, chocolate
wrappers, pieces of the newspaper. Also, hundreds of other poems were found as letters given
to Susan Gilbert Dickinson, her best friend and brother Austin’s wife. Lavina gave all of the
poems to Susan to be edited and then they were all published. So in total, Emily wrote over
1800 poems, only 10 of which were published in her lifetime.

In current times, Emily is viewed as one of the most important figures in American poetry. She
stands out because of her unusual life. And especially because of her poetry, Many of her
poems deal with themes of death, immortality, gender, family, and societal constraints. Even her
writing style was unique, she used a lot of dashes, dots, and random unconventional
capitalization. And vivid imagery. She influenced many women through her poetry to break
boundaries, personally and creatively. Many female poets were influenced by her and looked up
to her like Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath. And some Male poets like Charles Wright.

the main theme of this poem is depression, the theme statement is…
So what is depression, its a term that is thrown around and is a lot more serious than it looks.
Depression is a common and medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you
think and how you act. It is treatable, but untreated, It can lead to a variety of emotional and
physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home. It can get so
bad that it causes suicidal thoughts, and commiting suicide.

The concept of depression has changed over time. As society changes its view of depression.
In the past, depression was considered more of a spiritual issue. So, if you had the mental
illness, people thought you were possessed by a demon or some evil spirit. Because of that
belief, it was often treated with methods such as beatings, physical restraint, and starvation in
an attempt to drive the demons out.

During Emily's time depression was viewed as a weakness in temperament that was inherited
and could not be changed. The result of these beliefs was that people with this condition should
be shunned and/or locked up.

But, thankfully, today’s view of depression is no longer that, now it is viewed as a mood disorder
characterized by feelings of emptiness and sadness. There, a deeper, more comprehensive
understanding of depression which needs a more in-depth look at how this condition has
developed over time. There are better treatments that actually work for this illness nowadays,
there's different types of therapy, medication.

There is an adaptation of Emily's life, in which this poem is displayed. Before you see it, heres a
bit of context of what happens in the previous episodes. So, Emily’s family dynamic is
complicated, her mother plays very much into the gender roles and hates that Emily does not,
they're always at odds because of this. She constantly attempts to get Emily married. Her
relationship with her father is usually shown to be very healthy and loving, but he doesn't let her
write poems and publish them because he doesn't believe a woman should. Which causes a
huge strain in their relationship. It is also revealed in later episodes that he used to beat her
when she was younger. Her relationship with her brother isn’t very good, they're always arguing.
In the episode before this, a lover of hers died and she is currently in mourning. Also she is very
imaginative and is obsessed with heath, and the show during this episode.

ANALYSIS:

Repetition: Emily’s use of repetition on these specific words helps to set the tone of the stanzas
that come after. In the first 2 stanzas, the words ‘treading’ and ‘beating’ are both repeated,
which gives the beginning of the poem a heavy tone. The repetition gives it a never ending
feeling, if it wasn't there for example, Kept treading till it seemed, it does not have as much of an
impact as Kept treading - treading - till it seemed does. These lines represent the unrest going
on in her mind, the mourner, which I believe represent negative thoughts going back and forth to
the point where she believes her mind and sense is going to break. And the drum that keeps
beating creates so much noise to the point where it's overwhelming and her mind goes numb.
These are very common experiences for someone who is going through depression, they are
usually hidden signs of depression and since a lot of people don’t notice, they consider the
people are just being lazy and usually blame them for feeling low and unmotivated.

Simile: Services usually contain a speech, but in the line the service doesn't contain any words.
Instead, Emily can only make out a drum-like noise like mentioned before And the drum that
keeps beating makes so much noise that it's unbearable and her mind starts going numb. This
isn’t the usual type of simile, it's comparing a concept, the metaphorical service with a sensory
issue. But all the same mind numbness is a serious issue that can result from severe stress,
fatigue. Since it's a coping mechanism, people consider it more of a perk than an issue, which
can lead to it getting worse.

Enjambment: Enjambment is used throughout the poem quite often, some of these pauses are
random and this represents how Emily's mind is going through a breakdown, it causes the tone
to feel a little bit unhinged and mad. The enjambments give suspense in the syntax, since you
need to read the next line to understand the one before. Enjambment allows readers to follow
the Emilys thought as it moves from stanza to stanza and shows how difficult the movement is.
Emily could drop into silence at any time and lose her train of thought. And in the end, it is what
happens. Since the last line of the poem there is no ending, just an enjambment, it leaves us
wondering what happened next, and it adds to the tension, that should be resolved at the end of
the poem but it isn't. This feeling of madness highlights how someone who is struggling with
depression feels like, and if society took more notice and took it more seriously the depression
rates would be far much lower instead of increasing further as it is right now.