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Similarities Between We Grow Accustomed To The Dark And Before I Got My Eye Put Out

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Recommended: Emily Dickinson’s poetry

During the 19th century, Emily Dickinson wrote countless poems pertaining to her daily insights on her life but only a few were published posthumously. Emily Dickinson, like most poets and writers, wrote about concepts close to them. For instance, Dickinson personally suffered with agoraphobia and vision problems leading her to write the poems: “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and “Before I got my eye put out”. These poems go on to display different viewpoints pertaining to reactions towards loss of sight and adjustment to darkness on a metaphorical and literal level. A common theme shared by the two poems: “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and “Before I got my eye put out”, is how sight is a powerful ability amongst the troubles darkness brings. …show more content…

For instance in “We grow accustomed to the Dark”, darkness is portrayed as an obstacle that only brave people can face without fear: “The Bravest - grope a little -/ And sometimes hit a Tree”. (13-14) From these lines, the reader can then gain a sense of confidence that they are not alone in their anxiety riddled fears. Because the darkness is given a negative persona by being a representation of the challenges and uncertainties humans face, the reader is given insight on how confidence and sight can still be obtained even in darkness. Similarly, in the poem “Before I got my eye put out” the sun and the vision-loss represent an obstacle the reader faces on a daily basis much like the darkness in the other poem. As a matter of fact the speaker demonstrates a longing to be able to see the sun and all the beauties that the light holds by lamenting, “I liked as well to see --/As other Creatures, that have Eyes/And know no other way” (2-4) By using this past tense of “liked” the speaker is explaining their wish to see again to the reader; therefore, the reader can see the speakers resentment towards the light since they can no longer see whenever they choose to. For this reason, the reader can draw a similar perspective from the poems on how sight is a great capability in darkness and in

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In the beginning she say’s that she liked to see just like everyone else: “Before I got my eye put out – I liked as well to see, As other creatures, that have eyes – And know no other way –”. She talks about different views she misses seeing but then she says that being able to see all of these things can ‘strike her dead’. In the last stanzas she says: “So safer – guess – with just my soul, Opon the window pane, Where other creatures put their eyes – Incautious – of the Sun –”. She is explaining that she is not cautious of the sun’s brightness affecting her sight because she lost her vision

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