Reflection- Emily Dickinson I meant to find her

The poem I read was "I Meant to Find Her" by Emily Dickinson. It reminded me a lot of the Spoon River Anthology because the main theme in the book was death. Dickinson was trying to get to a dying friend, but it was too late. "I meant to find her when I came;
Death had the same design" (Dickinson). The rest of the poem talks about how she wishes she would of got to her, and that now the person who has died was nothing more than a memory. This just reminds me of the anthology because every single poem in the set of poems common theme was death, because it was all written in the form of people who had died. The way I think people of this writing period look at things is like when someone dies they become one with nature. I definitely think that Emerson and Thoreau feels this way. Characteristics of both writers were that they learned things through communing with nature (Quinn). They believed a lot that a lot of things came from nature, so I feel that when a person dies they become one with nature. You can also look at it a little different way like that nature was punishing the person who died for doing something wrong. This is like the story we read last week titled "To Build A Fire" because this person died because he did stupid things with nature. He was punished because he was being stupid and was not respecting nature like he was supposed to. So then he died and that was the end of it. It definitely was not a happy ending and neither was this Emily Dickinson poem, but it did have meaning. I feel sorry for Emily Dickinson because she lost someone close to her to death when she was trying to reach her at the same time. If only that person could of got a little more time, then maybe Dickinson could of had a good bye.

Dickinson, Emily. Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Quinn, Edward. "Transcendentalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= DLLT1007&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2012)