16. "Apparently with no surprise / To any happy Flower / The Frost ______ it at its play / In accidental power"
From Quiz Emily Dickinson Quotations
Answer:
beheads
"Apparently with no Surprise" (# 1624): The first Dickinson poem I ever read, this is a dear one to my heart. Written in 1884, near the end of Dickinson's life, this piece of verse was another of those published relatively early, in 1890.
In this poem, the message seems simply to be that "life goes on". This message is strongly conveyed throughout the poem through its simple story, and is strengthened by the author's use of personification, as well as through the mood and the tone.
The story of Dickinson's poem creates the basis of what she is trying to say. This story is that a flower is killed by a frost, and is about how nothing seems to be affected by this death; everything continues as if the flower had never lived at all. This latter part is, in itself, the bare message of the poem. Dickinson reminds the reader that no matter how much death and suffering there is in the world, always "The Sun proceeds unmoved". It is a fact that neither the sun nor the moon ever stops to mourn death, and Dickinson wonders what it is that compels people to do so. Her point is further emphasised when she tells the reader that the sun continues "To measure off another day/For an approving God". Dickinson notes that not even God changes the course of life because of someone's death. The story sets a solid base from which Dickinson can better express her ideas.
Another of the contributing factors to Dickinson's message that life does go on, and also a characteristic of many of her poems, is her strong use of personification. For example, the killer frost in her poem becomes a "blonde Assassin". By giving the frost human features, the reader's focus moves from the death of a flower to the death, or even the murder of, a person, making this poem an effective extended metaphor. Also contributing to this refocus of the reader's attention are the frost's actions. It "beheads" the flower. The image of one person beheading another has much more impact than that of a flower dying in a frost. These new images allow for a much more potent articulation of the message that life goes on than would be possible without Dickinson's powerful use of personification.
Also extremely important to this poem's central message and the conviction with which it is put forth are the tone and the changing mood of the poem. In its first few lines, "Apparently with no surprise/To any happy Flower", the poem introduces some very nice images. At this point, the mood is a pleasant one, but that changes in the very next line. Suddenly, much to the surprise of the reader, "The frost beheads it [the flower] at its play". In only one line, the mood turns in a completely different direction. The only element that keeps the mood from becoming unbearably morbid is the tone that is applied to the rest of the poem. Dickinson expresses a very strong message, and does so from an 'outside-looking-in' point of view. There can be no holes found in the logic of the idea that there is really no sense in someone putting their own life on hold because someone else's has ended. Without the use of such an indifferent tone, the cold logic of the message would be somewhat obscured.
There is no doubt that Emily Dickinson has very successfully and very forcefully communicated her message to her readers. She is well known for her use of metaphor and personification to get her point across, and this poem makes a wonderful example for both. With a story of the smallest scale she has expressed an idea of great magnitude. Even her choice of tone and her use of atmosphere and mood further enhance her expression. It is almost as if every word of her poem echoes with the concept of living, no matter what.
= Top 5% Rated Quiz,
Top 10% Rated Quiz,
Top 20% Rated Quiz,
A Well Rated Quiz
=
added recently, 
= Editor's Pick
= FunTrivia Editor 
= Gold Member