DEATH is a dialogue between
The spirit and the dust.
“Dissolve,” says Death. The Spirit, “Sir,
I have another trust.”
Death doubts it, argues from the ground.
The Spirit turns away,
Just laying off, for evidence,
An overcoat of clay.
Death is a dialogue between
Summary
Death is a dialogue between the spirit and the dust in this compact Emily Dickinson poem, staged as a quiet argument. Death commands the spirit to dissolve, but the spirit politely declines, claiming another trust to keep. Death doubts and presses its case from the ground, while the spirit turns away and sheds only an overcoat of clay. In just two stanzas, mortality becomes a conversation with sharp, startling images.
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