When I was a little girl, I received a book of poems for my tenth birthday. In this book of utterly random poems, I discovered the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, Robert Frost, and many eloquent others for the first time. Among these magnificent poets was none other than the solitary, articulate Emily Dickinson. Because I was so young, I can remember thinking of her lifestyle with disdain and confusion as I couldn’t understand why she would simply not want to be around people. I especially wondered how her pretty words made sense with, what I saw as, such a miserable life. Unfortunately, between about six moves, my precious poems book was lost forever and with it went nearly all my wonder about her. Until I took this class, I’d hardly thought of her at all since. …show more content…
Now that I’m a bit older, I can still very much appreciate her pretty words, but I can also better understand her situation and maybe even why the words seemed to flow so freely for her. As a bit of an introvert myself, inner worlds are especially important and can be retreated back to wether surrounded by numerous people or in candid seclusion. For this reason, just as losing my beloved book taught me, I believe Emily Dickinson’s relationship with nature epitomizes the cliche that absence makes the heart grow fonder. In addition of course, to nature itself being her closest
The poems “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” by Emily Dickinson both describe death and a journey one takes to get there. In “Because I could not stop for Death” the speaker tells of someones journey of death that did not see it coming and had no time to slow down to notice it. While in the poem “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died” the speaker describes ones journey to death that aware it is coming, someone who is prepared and waiting for it to happen. Death can arrive in many different forms, it is different for everyone and nobody knows or can predict accurately when or how it will come no matter how prepared or not prepared someone is.
In life, we lose things that are very important to us. Emily Dickinson’s poems show us how we must get accustomed to a new way of life. In her poems, she compares losing her sight to perhaps losing something very important to her. In order to grow after losing something very important, we must be brave and courageous to adapt to the new way of life. You must fully appreciate everything you are given in life because you never know when it may be taken away.
After being denied and rejected so many times, she wrote her poetry in spite of them, to prove she was a better poet than they gave her credit for. Today, she is known as one of the biggest influences on American poetry and has the kind of name association she wished she had back in the
December 10, 1830, the town of Amherst, Massachusetts quietly received the little girl who would grow to give identity to the very essence of the American poet. Emily Dickinson, an enigmatic recluse and unlikely literary genius would become, after her death in 1886, one of the most iconic figures in American literature. Dickinson was notably peculiar; this peculiarity most certainly contributes to the great intrigue surrounding her eerie writing. From 1860 to her death, Dickinson lived virtually in complete isolation, on her childhood homestead. It was during this time that she wrote her most esteemed works.
“This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me...” -Emily Dickinson Why are people so enamored by Emily Dickinson? She guards the independence of her heart and soul with her poems and her words. The person she is, the words she writes, and the people she grows up with, watches her struggle through pain rebellion, and introvertedness.
Dickinson was known as an outsider or recluse as she occasionally stayed in her room instead of meeting with close friends. She even ran away when visitors visited. It was awfully bad that she communicated with friends behind a somewhat open door (Emily Dickinson 2). In addition to that, relations between her and her father became distant. “I am not very well acquainted with father,” she once remarked.
I believe this is due to her loneliness and solitude throughout her 20’s and 30’s (Emily Dickinson's Biography). It also was probably an effect of the losses in her life and the time period she was in being rather stagnate compared to society today ( Garcia, Emily Dickinson). Dickinson likely was depressed and found little satisfaction in anything outside of literature. She likely found that she could excel in writing and put fourth much energy towards it. Literature became Dickinson’s life.
The poem that stood out the most while reading this assortment of Emily Dickinson poems, was her poem numbered 656/520. This poem used imagery in numerous ways throughout in order to show the audience the important themes and the overall meaning of this work of literature. The poem’s main theme was about a walk on the beach that the poet encountered in the early morning. Although the poem is about a beach it can also give the audience contextual clues into other aspects of life.
Emily Dickinson is perhaps the most mysterious and most scrutinized author in the history of American Literature. Just as many of her poems are riddles to be solved, her lifestyle and personality remain an enigma even today. She has been described as a recluse, a hermit, an agoraphobic, and even said to be insane. Was she mentally ill in some way or simply so tainted by life, life experiences, and just culture that she consciously chose to shut herself away. Perhaps society may never know the truth.
Emily Dickinson had a strong cold feeling toward society, so much so that she shut herself in a room and focused on expressing her emotions through poetry. At the
She wrote poems while she was isolated in her room that described what nature, love, and death would be. She has influenced many other writers of poetry, since hers have such a deep meaning behind them. Several of her poems can be explained from a personal point of view, which is incredible in poetry. A poet’s goal is to get the reader to think and feel emotions towards the poem they have written, and apparently, Emily has done a great job at doing that. Countless of people have been awestruck with her work to this day.
Freedom of Pen Poetry is indeed the form of literature with the most freedom because it is the embodiment of the author’s emotions; it is a white canvas that reels in the imagination of the author. By writing thoughts and expanding upon them, taking into consideration the format and phrases that best capture the author’s subject, creates poetry that will satisfy the author. Through the carefully woven lines of their poems the authors express their opinion on the topics that discomfort them. The author’s purpose of My Mistress’ Eyes, 'Twas warm — at first — like Us — and Dover Beach are best revealed through the poems’ tones. The poems’ tones illustrate a realistic love, the barrier of death, and a chaotic world caused by the lost of religion.
Dickinson and Whitman have revolutionized poetry eternally. Emily Dickinson’s writing shows her introverted side, she found comfort in being reclusive. Her writing clearly depicts that certain works of her will not be meant for everyone, rather
Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are the most representative and brilliant poets of the nineteenth century and in the American literature in general. However, we can also say that, between them, they have the most different styles of writing they can have, just as well as their lives. For example, as Christenbury (n.d.) stated, firstly that Walt Whitman was someone “[…] who struggled to get his poems published and who developed a broad admiring audience during his lifetime. In contrast, the reclusive Emily Dickinson died unknown to the world of poetry, leaving a box full of unpublished poems”. Nevertheless, we can find some similarities in their lives, for example, both of them lived in a difficult historical period: on the one hand Emily Dickinson, who was born the 10th of December of 1830 and on the other hand, Walt Whitman, who was born the 31st of May of 1819, lived the period of the American civil war.
The only certainty in life is death. It is something that shows up in every single art movement and style. This includes the work of Dickinson who lived when death would have been an ever present reality. She dealt with the death of family members as well as close friends. However Dickinson 's references to death tend to swing between the usual almost fear of it and this seeming picture of death as an almost kind figure that is not to be feared.