Could you please help me with a quick analysis of Emily Dickinson's following poem...?

Question

Part Five: The Single Hound

XXIV


THE DIFFERENCE between despair
And fear, is like the one
Between the instant of a wreck,
And when the wreck has been.

The mind is smooth,—no motion— 5
Contented as the eye
Upon the forehead of a Bust,
That knows it cannot see.



** is there any site i could find a FREE analysis of the poem?

Answer 1

Literal reading:
The difference between despair and awe is likened to the desperate condition when a sailor's ship wrecks (dispair) and aweful fear that overwhelms when he survives the the calamity.
The mind becomes blank and no movement not even of eye blinks can be noticed since the eyes appear as toy plastic fixed on the forhead of a lifeless physical body/trunk that seems to know that there wont be any visual perception.


Critics of Dickinson’s verse generally note that the poems incorporate one or more of the follow-
ing themes: death, love, religion, nature, eternity.
This observation, of itself, does not take into ac-
count the amazing thematic combinations she
managed or the extraordinary variety of poetic
voices she employed. These range from the almost
embarrassing cuteness of poems such as 61 (“Papa
above!”) or 288 (“I’m Nobody! Who are you?”) to
the skepticism of 338 (“I know that He exists.”) and
the passion, with intended or accidental double
meaning, of 249 (“Wild Nights—Wild Nights!”).Some of her poems are high serious medita-tions, such as 258 (“There’s a certain Slant of
light”); others amount to waspish commentary,
such as 401 (“What Soft—Cherubic Creatures—”).
That she could see herself as a nobody, a seething
volcano, a mouse, or a loaded gun all within the
compass of several hundred poems is an indication
of the variety of unconventional metaphor she
used.Even more astonishing is the fact that her styleundergoes no linear development. Many of the
early poems are as excellent as the later ones;
bathetic and coy elements also appear throughout
the collection. Absence of end-line punctuation cre-
ates enjambments that run for full stanzas, while
dashes often create a hiatus at mid-line or end.

for complete analyses of her poems, refer to link below.


good luck

Answer 2

Emily Dickinson Poem 258 Analysis