The Bustle in a House
“The Bustle in a House,” first published as “Af-
termath” in Dickinson’s posthumous first collec-
tion, Poems by Emily Dickinson,in 1890, was prob-
ably written in 1866. In this poem, Dickinson writes
about the brief, busy, suspended period of time be-
tween the death of a loved one and the private grief
that follows. It is during this time that the bereaved
must busy themselves with mundane, or ordinary,
tasks in order to get through the experience with-
out emotional collapse. Though it may seem ab-
surd to clean and straighten a house where a loved
one has passed away the night before, Dickinson
describes this behavior almost as if it were a cere-
monial rite. On a practical level, these activities are
necessary because friends and neighbors will come
calling to the house to pay their last respects to the
deceased and they will be comforted by cleanliness
and order. On a spiritual level, these activities are
cathartic, or emotionally cleansing, because they al-
low the bereaved some time to prepare themselves
for the real work: living the rest of their lives with-
out the loved one.
Author Biography.
Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in
1830 and lived there all her life. Her grandfather
was the founder of Amherst College, and her fa-
ther Edward Dickinson was a lawyer who served
as the treasurer of the college. He also held vari-
Emily Dickinson
1890
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