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(*05) Emily's Chair
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Emily (*6)Emily's Chair
Chances are you'll find her there,
sitting in her electric chair.
Dying slowly of no disease.
A guilty heart, a sorry mind.
Chances are you'll find her there,
sitting in her electric chair.
No straps to bind her there,
Another day her only fear.
The electric chair is her own fear of another day, as the conclusion of the poem makes clear. She has sentenced herself to a spiritual death; and, being a modern girl, she uses a modern method of execution as the symbol within her metaphor. She is spiritually "shocked" by something that has happened in her life, and that shock is administered to her, repeatedly in her mind, and takes the form of a metaphoric electric chair. This poem, like the best of Edgar Lee Masters' epitaphs in the Sppon River Anthology, says a lot more by implication than by direct statement, so one has to work a bit---and I can just imagine the Poet, behind the scenes, smiling away as she sees us working out the meaning of this poem. Good job, Rae!
Starward
I don't understand what does the electric chair symbolize?