A Coffin - is a small Domain

Red - ContentBlue - SymbolismGreen - DevicesPurple - Structure

Use of the word "domain", implying a home for the afterlife.

Reference to Paradise - religious connotations

Use of hyphens in place of traditional punctuation, possibly to suggest and emphasize a link between words, e.g. the "coffin" and the "small domain"

This stanza says that the grave may be a "restricted breadth, but is larger than all of the world that "He" - God - looks down upon.This implies that there is something beyond the grave - an afterlife.

Metre alternates between iambic tetrametre and iambic triametre - typical of DickinsonNo breaks in metre, which is atypical.This lack of break in the metre is likely intentional, and may symbolise the soul's continuing journey, unbroken by death.

Rhyme scheme is generally ABCBFirst stanza - AABA.Second stanza - ABCB, slant rhyme.Third stanza - ABCB

Repose - tranquil rest or sleepMetaphor of death as sleep

Diminished plane - the place between life and death?

Eternal solitude, loneliness - related to how Dickinson felt while alive?

"He" does not literally "populate" the seas.

Slant rhyme - "sun" + "upon"

Themes of death, God, the afterlife

Fairly formal, quite matter-of-fact - typical of Dickinson.

Unusual capitalisation of words - to emphasise their importance?

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