“THE SADDEST NOISE, THE SWEETEST NOISE”
Belonging occurs through a common human experience. Dickinson represents this in “The Saddest Noise, The Sweetest Noise” with her repetition of ‘we’ in the fourth stanza. By using this inclusive pronoun, Dickinson reinforces the notion of belonging through a shared experience of grief. This is due to the universality of death because of the human condition, which establishes a connection with the persona and the reader.
The progressing of time can intensify belonging. This is evident in Dickinson’s continual change of months and seasons as in, “March and April line.” This adjustment conveys a time of instability that hence intensifies the persona’s feelings of belonging and exasperates her feeling of loss. The personification of ‘summer’ in ‘beyond which summer hesitates’ also reflects Dickinson’s ambivalence about possession and loss.
Belonging creates an eternal connection. This is noticeable in “The Saddest Noise, The Sweetest Noise” due to the persona’s grief after a loved one dies. This is seen in, “ It makes us think of all the dead/ That sauntered with use her,/ By separation’s sorcery,” where the sibilance of the ‘s’ sounds emphasises the persona’s contemplation of loss.
Michelle Huynh, Kobika Manimaaran & Kanashya Thivagarupan
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“A word dropped careless on the page”
Belonging can solidify one’s perception of their own existence. This is perhaps evident through the quote, “When folded in perpetual seam.” The choice of diction, “perpetual”, signifies the permanence of “A Word” – how even after one dies, their work and words live on, essentially immortalising them. This is also emphasised through, “We may inhale Despair / At distances of Centuries.” Through enjambment, the idea of this work living on for centuries is made clear, and therefore, also, the reason for choosing carefully what the writer leaves behind – the words act as a connection to the writers themselves.
With belonging to this art comes a certain responsibility to others. This is shown through, “A Word dropped careless on a Page.” Tautology is used to perhaps emphasise the impact that “A Word” can have, and how the careless and thoughtless immortalisation of such a thing could either enrich or limit one’s perceptions of achieving a connection to this art. This is also evident in “Infection in the sentence breeds.” Through this metaphor, the ‘infectious’ and dangerous nature of careless art is made clear.
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