poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

who is the blond assassin?

Now I like this poem and all, but I hafta do a presentation about it for school, and this would be a lot easier if I could figure out who the blond assasin was....oh well, ill assume its me

I think the "blonde Assassin" is the sun itself because it is yellow in color--the term "blonde" can be used to describe this color also.

i interpreted the blond assassin as frost that kills the flower.

i think the blond assassin is a yellow bee.

the blonde assassin is definitly the sun. to everyone that is interpreting it as a bee or anything to that extent, all i can say is, don't be so literal! when frost covers a flower or plant, the flower/plant does not die. The combination of the frost and sun is what kills the flower/plant. So when reading Dickinson's poem, the blonde assassin refers to the sun..it's "yellow" which can be interpreted as blonde, and the sun is ultimatly what kills the flower, thus making it the assassin.

The blond assassin is the frost that kills the flower. The Frost is the ASSASSIN and the Flower is BLONDE...a yellow flower.

Emily Dickinson would enjoy all these equally valid comments, as she used ambiguity to conjure up opposite things, often at the same time. I think the point of the poem is the lack of human fear and remorse concerning death and killing in the natural world. The happy flower doesn't care when it is killed by the frost, and the frost doesn't seem aware it has killed, nor does it seem concerned when the equally unconcerned sun kills it. Thus, the frost is the same whether it is the "blonde assassin" (assassin of the yellow flower) or killed by the "blonde assassin" (the yellow sun that dissolves teh frost).

yeah i have to answer this question for lit ap, but i agree that i think both answers: the frost on the yellow flower or, the sun, are good as long as you can tie in the meaning of such a character.

I believe the blond assasin to be frost, because she mentions it in other poems as well.