The Power of a Punctuation Point: An Analysis of Emily Dickinson’s use of Punctuation Marks A.K. Bobo College

Emily Dickinson’s poem, numbered 622, opens with the line, “To know just how He suffered—would be dear—” (Dickinson 1). The speaker in this poem addresses the subject of death, forming fragmented thoughts and questions about the passing of a loved one. As in most, if not all, of Dickinson’s poetry, unorthodox uses of punctuation, capitalization, and meter are present throughout this piece. For example, the only punctuation marks used is this poem are em dashes. Where commas or periods would grammatically complete her lines, Dickinson instead places dashes. It is through her use of dashes in lieu of proper punctuation, however, as well as the lack of punctuation in certain lines in the last two stanzas, that help to deepen her readers’ understanding of the poem’s content.

Upon first reading the poem, one is confronted with the feeling of disjointedness that results from its punctuation. The complete lack of commas, periods, and question marks make the poem difficult to read and understand. The replacement of those punctuation marks with em dashes prevents the words from flowing smoothly, causing the text to feel somewhat choppy. This disjointedness can be easily recognized in the fourth stanza, as the speaker wonders what her...