Seclusion In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Dickinson also incorporates her fixation on seclusion through the syntax in her poetry. An example of this is whenever she places a dash in her poems, which is her signature mark in poetry. An example of this is when she writes, “And sweetest- in the Gale- is heard-And sore must be the storm-” (Vendler 118). This line from the poem is interpreted to mean that a person should hold onto hope especially when life is hard, which is shown when the Gale starts to blow. This line also includes four dashes, which creates a song effect by wanting to sing the lines. The song effect allows the reader to picture itself as the bird, which is done by Dickinson’s attention to detail since she had so much time with being away from all humanity.

Another example of syntax relating to her fixation on seclusion is shown in the last line of stanza one: “And never stops- at all-” (Vendler 118). This line is depicted to display how the bird never stops singing at all, and this relates to Dickinson continuing on with her life even though almost all her loved ones passed. This displays her dark emotion for the reasons why she went into hiding since she was so depressed that all her loved ones died. The use of the two dashes at the end relate to this subject as well because she emphasizes to never quit, which is shown by “at all” only being in between the dashes and placing the word at the end of a stanza. Dickinson meant for these dark emotions to come out during her writing because she envisions