“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Summary

“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Themes

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  The Power and Consolations of Death

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers”

• Lines 1-3

  Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -
  Untouched by Morning - 
  and untouched by noon -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 4-5

  Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection, 
  Rafter of Satin and Roof of Stone - 

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-9

  Grand go the Years, 
  In the Crescent above them -
  Worlds scoop their Arcs - 
  and Firmaments - row -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 10-11

  Diadems - drop -
  And Doges surrender -

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 12-13

  Soundless as Dots, 
  On a Disk of Snow.

  

  

  

  

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“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Simile

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Metonymy

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Alabaster
• Meek
• Members of the Resurrection
• Firmaments
• Diadems
• Doges
• Dots

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Speaker

“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers”

More “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to the poem read out loud.

  • An Earlier Version — Take a look at the first printed version of the poem, which has a completely different second stanza. Compare and contrast!

  • The Dickinson Museum — Visit the Emily Dickinson Museum's website to learn more about Dickinson's life and work.

  • Dickinson's Influence — Read novelist Helen Oyeyemi's appreciation of Dickinson.

  • The Harvard Dickinson Collection — Visit the Harvard Dickinson Collection's website to learn more about how Dickinson's poetry was discovered and preserved.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!