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Emily Dickinson Literary Devices

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Recommended: Literary analysis on emily dickinson's poems

When writers add in seemingly random details such as capitalizations and dashes, one should pay attention. Emily Dickenson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” is simply about light passing over the landscape, but no poem is only about what it seems. Dickenson uses caesura, juxtaposition, personification, and other literary devices to convey a dark, negative tone about the light throughout the poem. In the first stanza, there is rhyming with the second and fourth lines followed by a dash. The rhythm is a longer line followed by a shorter line. This helps the poem flow but then stop with the short line and dash. The “certain Slant of light” is the focus of the whole poem (1). It is peculiar that she uses the word certain. This evokes that …show more content…

Earth is connected to the light and it is related to death. The “Landscape listens” is consonance and personification (13). The consonance of the /l/ sound followed by the /s/ sound evokes a quiet passing over everything. The personification of the landscape has it interacting and submitting to the light. The “Shadows” also submit to the light with the use of personification (14). The caesura surrounding “hold their breath” makes the reader actually hold their breath in this line (14). “Shadows” are the opposite of light, but the light has power over the shadows (14). Both the landscape and shadows tie to the theme of the Earth waiting for and yielding to the light that holds power. The light “oppresses,” causes “hurt”, and then “goes” (3, 4, 15). When the light “goes” it is described as negative through the simile “like the Distance On the look of Death” (15, 16). “Distance On the look of Death” compares the light leaving to the parting on the appearance of death (16). “Death” is capitalized showing its importance and significance in addition to its being the last line of the poem. The first line and the last line are connected through the light and death, demonstrating the relationship of the negativity and finality of death to the limited, specific light (1, 16). The rhyme scheme in only the last stanza is ABAB marking the increasing connection between the lines of the poem. “Death” and “breath” rhyme, associating the lack of breath to death (14, 16). The light that is causing the shadows to stop breathing is the same light likened to death. This negative, dark light could be killing which is ironic because this light has a tone of

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Often times, when a person experiences something unusual, that experience stays with them forever. The poem “Driving with Animals” by Billy Collins is about the lasting impression that an experience with deer can create. The imagery, sound devices, and figurative language that Collins uses in the poem draw the reader into the poem and makes them feel as if they are the driver in the car. The element of imagery is important in drawing the reader into the poem.

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199 Words | 1 Pages

shadows.¨ The mood the author sets is eerie because he uses the words like

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648 Words | 3 Pages

Once outside the camp, “it seemed as though an even darker night was waiting for us on the other side” (84). The motif of night can be identified effortlessly because of the key words and attention grabbing context of the literary

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289 Words | 2 Pages

People become tired of the mundane and traditional world of sunshine in which everything in life is put right in front of them to clearly see out in the open. When people are frightened because do not know what is coming next, then they experience an adrenaline rush. Eiseley explores the idea of a world below in his collection of essays called The Night Country. However, does such a world exist, if so, what does it mean, where do we find examples of this sort of dark descent in literature and mythology, how does it relate to traditional journeys of ascent, like Dante’s ascent to heaven, and how does Eiseley approach such a theme in his essay, “The Chresmologue” through the imagery of the mystical work of The Cloud of

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Through this comparison, it is illustrated that children value nature and the truths that arise from it more so than an adult. This image displays the insight that in order to view the beauty of life in its entirety is to gain an optimistic perspective, much like an imaginative child would possess. Moreover, Emerson executes personification in order to convey his insight regarding nature. In the piece, Emerson grants the human-like quality of smiling to stars when he states, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”

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280 Words | 2 Pages

Through the use of imagery, Yasunari Kawabata creates a still, quiet, and serene atmosphere in his short story ¨Girl Who Approached the Fire.¨ The story starts with the description of a lake: ¨The water of the lake glittered in the distance. It was the color of a stagnant spring in an old garden on a moonlit evening¨ (para. 1). The description of the lake compares its color to that of a static time unaffected by the world. Kawabata´s diction in the second sentence engenders the image of stillness in a uneventful area. The word ¨stagnant¨ leads to the thought of stillness.

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722 Words | 3 Pages

as in her final moments the narrator recalls her earliest connection to the landscape. A key theme throughout the poem is the importance of embracing nature, emphasized by the metaphor of the “fine pumpkins grown on a trellis” which rise in towards the “fastness of light”, which symbolizes the narrators own growth, flourishing as a fruit of the earth. Through her metaphors and complex conflagration of shifting perspectives, Harwood illustrates the relationship that people can develop with landscapes, seeing both present and past in

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651 Words | 3 Pages

one of the many times he uses imagery throughout this story is when the narrator says, “on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows” (Pg 1). By using imagery to compare walking through the neighborhood as walking through a graveyard shows that it is completely silent and there is no activity in any of the houses. Most people wouldn't describe their neighborhood as a graveyard, this also develops the mood. Another time he uses imagery is when the narrator says, “The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country” (1). This shows mood because the narrator describes him as a hawk in mid-country, that means that he is all alone in what he feels to be like a barren or abandoned place.

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For the word "Death" also known as in negative term means losses that no one wants to meet with him. He also uses ironic diction. There are three stanzas; six, eight, and ten lines. Including to rhyme scheme throughout each stanza.

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1214 Words | 5 Pages

American Romanticism American Romanticism is a concept that developed in the 17th century. Romanticism is all about emotions, the meaning of life, religion, society, the human form, death, and nature. Romanticism is very diverse and complex because each writer interprets the themes differently and each person who reads the poem can see something different and unique. Two famous and influential romantic poets were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Although Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were both romantic poets they interpreted society and death in two completely different ways.

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On of the greatest examples of imagery that Alice Walker uses is the one that compares light and darkness. At the beguining of the story the author mentions delicate and calm setting of a farm. In creating this imagery the reader is able to understand that all the positive and upbeat words are associated with the farm setting. Myop’s light-hearted innocence is also shown when “watching the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale”. The effective description  provides credibility to the environment, and makes the later events all the more shocking,

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In order to change history, people must learn from their mistakes. Segregation in North America has been a big issue in North America that unfortunately still happens in the world today, however, it is not as bad as it once was. In the poem “History Lesson” by Natasha Trethewey, the author uses mood, symbolism and imagery to describe the racial segregation coloured people faced in the past compared to more recent times, where equality is improved and celebrated. The author uses language and setting to influence the mood and meaning of the poem.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is bonded with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words,”(Paul Engle). Poetry covers all spectrums of life, whether it encompasses morality, love, death, or finding ones true self. When reading poetry one may stumble across pure brilliance, words so powerful they have the ability challenge the mind. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman have that such gift, and are nothing short of illustrious.

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1561 Words | 7 Pages

The poem is narrated by the voice of the dead. The text is related in a very personal manner, the poem being

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There are seven stanzas in this poem and the techniques appeared in the poem are Imagery, Simile, Metaphor, and Alliteration. The imagery is the techniques used all over the seven stanzas in this poem to describe the image of the Death the movement, and the sound which included Auditory, Visual, and Kinetic. The First stanza described the environment in the cemeteries, the heart refers to the dead bodies in the graves and a tunnel could be coffins. The dead bodies sleeping in a tunnel which give the image of the coffin and in this stanza the poet also used a Simile in the last three lines by using word “like” and “as though.”

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