Emily Dickenson’s poem exemplified the individualistic and innovative style of the Romanticism era through her unconventional use of dashes. Dickenson utilizes the pause associated with the dash to encourage the audience to think slightly deeper about the moment just before an individual is approached by death. The abundance of dashes also serves an ironic purpose throughout the poem. Typically, when considering the crossroad of death, humans are known to show feelings of reluctance or a desire for just a second of pause. However, the reality is that once one approaches “that odd fork in Being’s road,” these dashes are nonexistent, since the only option in this case is to venture towards the “God at every gate.”
I agree with you that Dickenson uses dashes in her poem to symbolize a pause which emphasizes the points that she is trying to make. The purpose of the dashes can also be used to show the emotions of the speaker throughout the poem. In addition, I think that it was a great point when you said the dashes can also symbolize before an individual’s death. When I read the poem I didn’t think of the dashes this way but it was a really good way to think of it.