Dickinson And Longfellow: A Literary Analysis

Both Emily Dickinson and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow utilize expressive imagery to captivate their respective audiences and invoke certain mental images for the reader. Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” and Longfellow’s piece “The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls” are prime examples of imagery used to strengthen the impact of an author’s writing. Descriptive words that portray events and the setting in a more vivid manner benefit the author in allowing for a more complete understanding of the piece. In Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers”, she states “Hope is the thing with feathers // That perches in the soul, // And sings the tune without the words”. This imagery pastes the vivid picture of a bird being the inner light and being of a silhouetted figure; the words ‘perches in the soul” and “sings the tune without words” provide the foundation for this image. Additionally, Dickinson

When he says “The little waves, with their soft, white hands, // Efface the footprints in the sands,” it provide a picture of waves crashing along the ocean front. The use of personification of the water in relation to hands provides the image that the waves are delicate and have the ability to hold onto something, possibly creatures or sand. The “footprints in the sands” creates the image of past travelers leaving their momentary mark on the land before the ocean washes them away in the ongoing cycle of “the tide rises, the tide falls”. The addition of imagery into Longfellow’s poem allows for the full connection of theme as well as capturing the audience into this momentary tale. As authors, Dickinson and Longfellow must portray a story, thought, event, or emotion through his/her writing. Through the independent use of imagery in each their own unique way, the particular images and stories are told in an effective