20 pages 40 minutes read

Emily Dickinson

The Only News I Know

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1929

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Symbols & Motifs

Immortality and Eternity

In much of Dickinson’s poetry, eternity and immortality are linked, reoccurring symbols. In her famous poem “Because I could not stop for Death,” Dickinson depicts the speaker’s journey with a personified Death inside his carriage. The speaker states, “The Carriage held but just Ourselves—/ And Immortality” (Lines 3-4). In her other poem “My life closed twice before its close,” Dickinson’s speaker acknowledges that, after the deaths of two people they cared about, “it yet remains to see / If Immortality unveil / A third event” (Lines 2-4) or a third death to them. In each poem, the term immortality is used to speak euphemistically of and is “practically synonymous” (“Emily Dickinson on Death,” Ruth Flanders McNaughton, pg. 208) with death itself. Within the Christian theology Dickinson both embraced and struggled with, death is a necessary step on the journey toward eternal life. Once a believer had died, they would be resurrected and given a perfect body before being ushered into a better life in Heaven. Thus, Dickinson always speaks of death in optimistic terms like immortality or eternity, emphasizing the spiritual joy of eternal life after death rather than the pain and grief associated with physical death.

In “The Only News I know,” Dickinson once more uses the terms eternity and immortality.

Related Titles

By Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

A Bird, came down the Walk

Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

A Clock stopped—

Emily Dickinson

A Clock stopped—

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)

Emily Dickinson

A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)

Emily Dickinson

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Emily Dickinson

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

"Faith" is a fine invention

Emily Dickinson

"Faith" is a fine invention

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

Emily Dickinson

Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Hope is a strange invention

Emily Dickinson

Hope is a strange invention

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers

Emily Dickinson

"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I Can Wade Grief

Emily Dickinson

I Can Wade Grief

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind

Emily Dickinson

I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain

Emily Dickinson

I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

Emily Dickinson

If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

If I should die

Emily Dickinson

If I should die

Emily Dickinson

STUDY + TEACHING GUIDE
logo

If you were coming in the fall

Emily Dickinson

If you were coming in the fall

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I heard a Fly buzz — when I died

Emily Dickinson

I heard a Fly buzz — when I died

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

Emily Dickinson

I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Much Madness is divinest Sense—

Emily Dickinson

Much Madness is divinest Sense—

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Success Is Counted Sweetest

Emily Dickinson

Success Is Counted Sweetest

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant

Emily Dickinson

Study Guide
logo

There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson