Emily Dickinson’s poem, “They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars”, has, at face value at least, a very obvious meaning. She seems to be writing about war. I don’t believe that she was writing about one specific war, but this poem could have been inspired by the Civil War. This would have matched up with the era of realism. Her poem is very morose, as is with many of her other works. She writes about how so many people died, not in those exact words, but that’s the meaning. She writes that only God can know the full extent of war, and that, for humans, the dead fall and are shielded by a thick barrier, blocking all sight. From just the first line of the poem, “they dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars” (Dickinson), you can infer that she is using a metaphor for death. The saying “dropping like flies” goes along in the same line of thought. She is writing about the large magnitude of death that accompanies battles and wars. Men die in the hundreds, thousands, and even the hundreds of thousands. “Like petals from a rose” (Dickinson) is the next line. It delivers powerful imagery; juxtaposing the beauty associated with roses, and the horror of war. It’s easy to imagine how many petals can fall from a rose. As it loses petals, it becomes less beautiful. So to, does humanity; war scars the façade that is civility. No matter how far humans reach, and no matter how much we achieve, war will always be present. “When suddenly across the June a wind with fingers goes”, (Dickinson) is next. I think she is talking about the suddenness of death. Soldiers die with a quickness that leaves even the soldier in confusion. Just like that, the wind blows and takes with it the life of a soldier. "They perished in the seamless grass" (Dickinson) is the barrier, that block all vision. When they die, no one knows what happens to the soul. While the body may stay behind, only God knows where the soul goes and what happens to it. "No eye could find the place" (Dickinson) is again referring to what happens to the soul. No matter how hard someone looks, they will never find someone else after they die. "But God on his repealless list can summon every face" (Dickinson) is the last line of the poem. She is writing about God's laws, and that once God decides to take a life, he keeps it. There is no reversal of death. Once one dies, they stay dead. God decides when to take a life. Only He knows the name, face, and life of every life lost on earth. Humans can not know the death we cause, we can't know the terrible cost that war tolls on our earth. Only God can see enough of the grand scheme to fully understand what we as humans do to each other in the full scale. Only God can determine the sins that humans commit.
