Which of these excerpts from poems by Emily Dickinson uses irony?

My cocoon tightens, colors tease,

I'm feeling for the air;

A dim capacity for wings

Degrades the dress I wear.

Could she have guessed that it would be;

Could but a crier of the glee

Have climbed the distant hill;

Had not the bliss so slow a pace, -

Who knows but this surrendered face

Were undefeated still?

One dignity delays for all,

One mitred afternoon.

None can avoid this purple,

None evade this crown.

There's a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons,

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;

We can find no scar,

But internal difference

Where the meanings are.

Exultation is the going

Of an inland soul to sea, -

Past the houses, past the headlands,

Into deep eternity!

Question

English

Jayvon Woodward

9 August, 16:17

Which of these excerpts from poems by Emily Dickinson uses irony?

My cocoon tightens, colors tease,

I'm feeling for the air;

A dim capacity for wings

Degrades the dress I wear.

Could she have guessed that it would be;

Could but a crier of the glee

Have climbed the distant hill;

Had not the bliss so slow a pace, -

Who knows but this surrendered face

Were undefeated still?

One dignity delays for all,

One mitred afternoon.

None can avoid this purple,

None evade this crown.

There's a certain slant of light,

On winter afternoons,

That oppresses, like the weight

Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;

We can find no scar,

But internal difference

Where the meanings are.

Exultation is the going

Of an inland soul to sea, -

Past the houses, past the headlands,

Into deep eternity!

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Answers (1)

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Tyrell Barron · Answer 1

In my opinion, the whole poem is quite ironic - although she is mentioning the exultation and the royal color of death, the poem itself begins with the narrator saying that she cannot breathe - that she doesn't want to die.

So, I would say that the ironic parts are:

Exultation is the going

Of an inland soul to sea, -

Past the houses, past the headlands,

Into deep eternity!