2. The Isle ofThe Isle of
the Deaththe Death
EmilyEmily
DickinsonDickinson
AnalysisAnalysis
of wordsof words
Behind Me -Behind Me -
Dips eternityDips eternity
Meaning ofMeaning of
the poemthe poem
3. Dietro di Me - sprofonda l'Eternità -
Davanti a Me - l'Immortalità -
Io - il Confine fra le due -
La Morte solo il Fluire di Grigio d'Oriente,
Che si dissolve in Aurora,
Prima che l'Ovest appaia -
C'è un Regno - dopo - dicono -
In perfetta - ininterrotta Monarchia -
Il cui Principe - di nessuno è Figlio -
Lui stesso - la Sua Dinastia Senza Tempo -
Sé - da Sé diversifica -
In Duplicato divino -
È Miracolo davanti a Me - allora -
È Miracolo dietro - in mezzo -
Una Falce di Luna nel Mare -
Con Mezzanotte al Suo Nord -
E Mezzanotte al Suo Sud -
E il vortice - nel Cielo -
Behind Me - dips Eternity -
Before Me - Immortality -
Myself - the Term between -
Death but the Drift of Eastern Gray,
Dissolving into Dawn away,
Before the West begin -
'Tis Kingdoms - afterward - they say -
In perfect - pauseless Monarchy -
Whose Prince - is Son of none -
Himself - His Dateless Dynasty -
Himself - Himself diversify -
In Duplicate divine -
'Tis Miracle before Me - then -
'Tis Miracle behind - between -
A Crescent in the Sea -
With Midnight to the North of Her -
And Midnight to the South of Her -
And Maelstrom - in the Sky -
BEHIND ME- DIPS ETERNITY
4. ANALYSIS OF
WORDS
The title “Behind Me-Dips Eternity” symbolized the desire of the end of the pain for the
speaker; this is an unlikely hope, intact the pain continues as a sort of loupe and she find
in death the only way to escape the suffering.
The central symbol of the poem is the MAELSTROM which reflect the existence of the
speaker into the storm and how he keeps inside it with no more hope and with a bleak
future.
The girl is trapped in time, she can’t escape, as her past gave her eternity her future gave
her immortality.
She described herself as a CRESCENT IN THE SEA, this symbolize that she has lost her
sense of hope when she realized that there’s no way to go on in this life and she’s drifting
in the sea to no destination as a boat.
MIDNIGHT and the darkness nature background emphasises her unease; the speaker is
positive for the future because she think it’s the only way to escape her soul’s ache.
5. MEANING OF THE POEM
In the poem are used some Hypens which emphasizes chaos and they slow down the
poem and make it thoughtful in contrast with the dispair of the speaker.
“The term between” is captured by hyphens and it seems to entrapping the speaker
between eternity and immortality.
When she says “Dissolving into Dawn” the speaker is giving false hope of a new beginning
and start; she reflects on the things she missed out in her life and feels sad of not having
children and a lover.
The speaker says that there would be a heaven in “Behind me-Dips eternity” and she
repeats the word “Miracle” to mock its existence in reality.
“Son of none” suggest that the speaker has lost hope of God saving her away from the
Maelstrom where she find herself trapped in.
6. The Isle of the Death
The Isle of the Dead, the most famous painting by the Basel
Arnold Böcklin is a small rocky island in an unknown location.
Between 1880 and 1886 Böcklin performed five versions of the
painting. These are now in the Kunstmuseum in Basel, at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Alte
Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Museum der bildenden Künste
Leipzig. The missing painting, the fourth version painted in
1884, was destroyed in Berlin during the Second World War.
All versions of the common theme is an oarsman and a figure
dressed in white in a small boat that slips into this mysterious
island. Adolf Hitler, fond of occultism, bought at auction the
third version of the series in 1936 and exhibited in his studio in
Berlin.
From time to time the island has been identified with the Greek
island of Pontikonissi, Capri, Ischia, and the island San Giorgio,
opposite the coast of Montenegro. Böcklin never said if it were a
real place or one of his inventions. Apparently that was inspired
to paint the cemetery where he was buried his daughter.
Nor was he who gave the painting the name of Isle of the Dead.
It was so named by the dealer Fritz Gurrlit which in 1884
exposed him to Berlin.
7. And it is the thought of death that , in the end ,
helps to live .
– Umberto Saba
