18 pages 36 minutes read

This World is not Conclusion

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1862

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Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Like many of Dickinson’s poems, “This World is not Conclusion” possesses an inconsistent meter and rhyme scheme. The poem consists of 20 lines of varying syllabic lengths divided into five quatrains (four-line stanzas). While the majority of lines are either six or seven syllables, there are several eight-syllable lines. However, although there is no set pattern, the first and third stanzas follow an alternating pattern of 7-6-7-6 syllables.

The poem also does not consistently use rhyme. Though most of the stanzas follow an ABCB rhyme scheme, the fourth stanza forgoes rhyming altogether. Furthermore, even the stanzas that do adhere to the ABCB rhyme scheme often do so through slant rhymes, or near rhymes. For instance, Dickinson rhymes “beyond” with “Sound” (Lines 2, 4) and “borne” with “shown” (Lines 10, 12).

Alliteration

Alliteration is a recurring literary device throughout “This World is not Conclusion.” Frequently used in poetry, alliteration is the deliberate repetition of a sound at the beginning of two or more words in proximity. This has the effect of linguistically connecting and emphasizing these words, transferring some of the firm stability of the word “stand” to “species” (Line 2) and linking the appealing mystery of the eternal with its unsolvability through the repeating b sound of “beckons” and “baffles” (Line 5). Later alliteration connects people’s attempts “to guess” (Line 9) at and their desire “to gain” (Line 10) eternity; those willing to suffer to publicly display their faith undergo the alliterative torments of “contempt” (Line 11) and “Crucifixion” (Line 12), stressing the lengths people have gone to understand eternity and to become worthy of obtaining eternal life.

Simile

Similes are figures of speech that directly compare two different things or ideas, and they are typically signaled by the comparative words “like” and “as.” In “This World is not Conclusion,” Dickinson uses two similes to describe the world “beyond” (Line 2) her own. She describes that world as being “Invisible, as Music” (Line 3) and “positive, as Sound” (Line 4). These two similes confirm the “positive” and definite existence of the next world, as well as its intangibility. Dickinson ultimately uses these similes for the purpose of demonstrating how difficult it is to understand or perceive hidden things like eternity while believing them to be real. The best she can do is compare them to auditory phenomena, which we cannot see or touch but nevertheless register as existing.

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