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Emily Dickinson Individualism

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Emily Dickinson lived a large period of her life isolated from the outside world, surrounded by her close family and friends. It is apparent that, with most of her spare time, she wrote poems and letters. The Gothic Movement and her fascination with nature heavily influenced Dickinson’s poems during the 18th century in America, this is exhibited by her continuous use as nature as a source of joy and pain as a theme within her work. Both Dickinson’s curiosity about nature, and the Gothic Movement, influenced the recurring theme in her poems, which is evident in the analysis of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. The Gothic Movement heavily influenced Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Literature often reflects the writer’s emotions about an event that are taking place at that time period. For example, the Gothic Movement appeared in the late 18th century as a branch of the Romantic Movement within the arts. The Gothic Movement was in reaction to the Enlightenment, which emphasized individualism rather than tradition, and was significant in this period. However, some writers found this too optimistic, and therefore unrealistic, and in reaction, created the Gothic Movement. It is centered on death, and tragedies, which influenced most of Dickinson’s poetry. She dwelled on the idea of living and dying. In addition, Dickinson spent a larger portion of her life depressed, with many desires, …show more content…

Dickinson’s curiosity about nature, and the Gothic Movement, largely influenced the recurring theme in her poems, which is revealed in the analysis of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”. Poetry has a huge influence on other people as it helps express individuals’ experiences, thoughts and ideas. The ability to become a brilliant poet is a talent that many wish to be blessed with, it is luxury that many cannot

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441 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the poem, Dickinson describes Death as a male that keeps coming for her while she is trying to escape him. In the first two lines, she uses personification, giving Death human characteristics. “Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me,” emphasizing death as a male and how he has stopped for her at this point. In lines 9-12, Dickinson uses imagery to create a picture for the reader to emphasize what she and Death are witnessing as they are passing through the area. Imagery is used throughout the poem to illustrate what she is seeing such as children at recess and passing the Fields of Gazing Grain and watching the Sun Set as they take a walk.

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932 Words | 4 Pages

Whitman and Dickinson share the theme of death in their work, while Whitman decides to speak of death in a more realistic point of view, Dickinson speaks of the theme in a more conceptual one. In Whitman’s poems, he likes to have a more empathic view of individuals and their ways of living. For example, in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”, the poet talks about not just of himself, but all human beings, and of how mankind works into the world and the life of it. Even though the poem mostly talks about life and the happiness of it, Whitman describes also that life itself has its ending, and that is the theme of death. For Dickinson, she is the complete opposite of happiness.

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598 Words | 3 Pages

Emily Dickinson, one of America's greatest and most original poets of all time, wrote the poem,"Because I Could Not Stop For Death." Dickinson has been known for her unique style of writing and being a recluse for most of her life. She chose to write about the topic Death because she experienced great isolation, loss, and reclusion from her family who did not understand her. This poem is about to speaker's journey to the inevitable death. She uses many techniques through out the poem that each have great meaning.

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1313 Words | 6 Pages

With a close reading of Emily Dickinson’s poem 764, ‘My Life Had Stood – A Loaded Gun’ and poem 320, ‘There’s a certain Slant of Light’ I will be comparing and contrasting both poem in terms of the metre, language and themes that can be seen in both and others that are opposite to one another. The main aspects of Emily Dickinson’s poetry is the varying length of each poem, unusual capitalism throughout each, the variant of word choices and the slant or approximate rhyme. I choose poem 320 to compare to poem 764 because while it has similar aspects and themes it is in Dickinson’s ‘Death’ category rather than the ‘Poetic-Self’ category that poem 764 belongs too. ‘My Life Stood Still – A loaded Gun’ is written in common metre, which is popular

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1112 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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1214 Words | 5 Pages

Emily Dickinson had multiple views on death. At first she was in love with the peaceful, gentle side of death, but that all changed when she lost her everything, her parents to death. The significance is that Romanticism is a diverse thing and it can be shaped a formed to the writers likings, but it will only have an effect if the reader interprets the poem in the same

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692 Words | 3 Pages

She is one of America’s greatest and most original poets of all time as she took definition as her province and challenged the existing definitions of poetry and the poet’s work. (Poetry Foundation) Emily’s sharp-sighted observers saw the inescapable limitations of her society as well as her imagined and imaginable escapes. To make the abstract tangible, to define meaning without confining it, to inhabit a house that never became a prison, Dickinson created this in her writing; a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized. (Poetry Foundation) Dickinson’s work meets all criteria and selection policies, as well as bringing complex and detailed poetry helping form today’s culture involving poetry, Emily’s work deserves to continue to be taught in schools, as it meets all specifications and criteria set by the state.

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539 Words | 3 Pages

Emily Dickinson is remembered today as a stand out female poet due to her bold style that was a strong contrast beside her female counterparts. Not only was her lifestyle considered somewhat controversial, but her poetry was viewed that way, as well. Instead of sticking solely to soft poetry, Dickinson was a fan of the richer topics: life, death, and nature. Emily Dickinson’s poem “After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes,” is a spectacular example of her contemplation of a murkier subject. Through the use of a conspicuous title and fluid figurative language, Emily Dickinson creates tones throughout the stanzas, as well as a collective tone and theme.

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625 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

“Because I Could Not Stop For Death” by Emily Dickinson is a poem about death being personified in an odd and imaginative way. The poet has a personal encounter with Death, who is male and drives a horse-carriage. They go on a mysterious journey through time and from life to death to an afterlife. The poem begins with its first line being the title, but Emily Dickinson’s poems were written without a title and only numbered when published, after she died in 1886.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

Dickinson began writing early on, yet her first piece was published after her death. Dickinson’s writing can be describe as gloomy or dark, whereas Whitman’s is not. Throughout her work she portrays how life merely continues and exploits the darker, less noticeable meaning of daily life events. Her writing is extremely precise, she uses slant rhymes through her writing. By doing such she is able to put emphasis on certain words to convey the prominence of what is being said.

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361 Words | 2 Pages

The theme in the poem by Emily Dickinson focuses on how humans frequently want to ascribe human motivation to animal behavior while downplaying the animal's instinctive understanding of its surroundings. In doing so, she is able to illustrate both the beauty and brutality of nature. The poem is pretty intriguing because it describes the brutal nature of the bird and gives you some version of barbarism. In the first stanza, the speaker seems to suggest that perhaps the bird would not have been so brutal ("ate the fellow raw") if it had known it was being observed ("He did not know I saw").

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2095 Words | 9 Pages

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.

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926 Words | 4 Pages

In “Because I Could Not Stop For Death”, Emily Dickinson uses imagery and symbols to establish the cycle of life and uses examples to establish the inevitability of death. This poem describes the speaker’s journey to the afterlife with death. Dickinson uses distinct images, such as a sunset, the horses’ heads, and the carriage ride to establish the cycle of life after death. Dickinson artfully uses symbols such as a child, a field of grain, and a sunset to establish the cycle of life and its different stages. Dickinson utilizes the example of the busyness of the speaker and the death of the sun to establish the inevitability of death.

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938 Words | 4 Pages

Emily Dickinson lived during a time when many would become very well acquainted with death. As such it would become a specter that was feared as it could make an appearance at any time. So looking at Dickinson 's work it seems rather interesting that taken as a collection there seems to be the tale of one character that comes to view death in a multitude of different ways throughout their life. First is the feared figure that leaves them restless, then death comes as something numbing but leaves the living to celebrate the life of the one that has passed, life as a story that is completed and finished upon death, and finally coming to see death as kind figure that takes one to a new home. this finally view is what paints death as something that is not to be feared but rather as something natural, it is the next

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