One thing I noticed about Emily Dickinson’s poems was that they were very dark. A lot of the poems contained the theme of loss. Looking at her biography, it was not difficult to understand why. Dickinson had to suffer through the death of many family and friends throughout her life.

I couldn’t find the publication date for the poem “I Never Lost as Much but Twice”, but I thought it could have been written around the point where Dickinson had lost two people in her life. I thought this was a very striking poem. The line, “Twice have I stood a beggar before the door of God” perfectly describes the way one would feel at the brink of losing a loved one. When a person is desperate, they beg before a higher being to help them. However, their wish is not always granted. “Burglar, banker, father” is what she must have thought of God. I read some opinions that stated that this poem was influenced by the story of Job from the Bible. Job was the only figure in the Bible to have everything taken from him when he did nothing wrong. I think the comparisons were drawn because this is what Dickinson must have felt about the loss of her loved ones.

“Success is Counted Sweetest” is also one of the poems I liked. The poem was written in 1859, and I thought it was interesting that it used war imagery. Dickinson explains the importance of success in the form of a soldier dying in battle. This imagery was probably influenced by the Civil War. I thought this poem represented well the way people think. We tend to value more the things that are out of our reach. When we gain them, it is “sweet”, as Dickinson describes it. I can recall times in my life when I failed multiple times before achieving what I wanted. Those felt more valuable than when success just came to me easily. On the other hand, I was also saddened for the soldier in the poem. He realizes just how valuable victory is because he is dying as a result of his army’s defeat. His failure cost him his life and he will never get the chance to achieve success. However, unlike most people, who get a chance to bounce back, his life will end with his failure. For Dickinson, even a poem that reflects on a life lesson ends on a depressing note, death. From her writings, I can easily guess how the death of her loved ones affected her.