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If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking Figurative Language

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In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking” she describes ways she can improve someone’s life. Dickinson feels that if she improves someone’s life, her life will not go in vain. She ultimately describes that her purpose in life is to care for others. Dickinson’s use of sound devices, a reoccurring theme, and figurative language allows her emotions to surface in the poem and draws attention to certain aspects of her poetry. During Emily Dickinson’s adult years, she spent most her time at home (“Emily Dickinson Biography”). She was secluded because she had to take care of her ill mother and the rest of her family (“Emily Dickinson Biography”). The reoccurring them she uses in her poem describes selfless love. The poem describes the selfless love Dickinson shows …show more content…

She uses repetition by writing “I shall not live in pain” various times. The use of this repetition stresses the fact that she does not want to life her life in vain, she wants her life to have meaning (2-5). Dickinson also uses idioms and imagery when writing “If I can stop one heart from breaking” (1). She does not literary mean that she wants to stop a broken heart, but means that she wants to stop someone from feeling pain and sadness. She also uses symbolism when comparing birds to humans by saying, “Or help one fainting robin... Unto his nest again” (5-6). She compares rescuing a bird to helping someone get back on their feet. She also uses personification by giving the bird human characteristics. Birds do not faint due to stress, while humans do faint due to stress. She uses figurative language in order to show her desperation of getting out there and helping people get back on their feet. She was sequestered from the world in order to take care of her family. While she was fulfilling her purpose in life by taking care of her family at home she also desired to help others outside of her

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Dickinson uses personification, symbolism, and imagery to convey the journey to accept death. Dickinson uses personification through out the poem to give human attributes to Death. She starts off her poem with ,"Because I could not stop for Death he kindly stopped for me." (lines 1 & 2) This is one of the many examples of personification because Death cannot actually stop.

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She concludes her poem with “Yet, never in extremity, it asked a crumb of me” telling us no matter where you are, how bad things get, or what the circumstances are, you will always have hope with you. (Dickinson, 12­13). The speaker stresses hope is the last inherent instinct humans have left when all else is gone, and yet only gives us positive efforts while asking nothing from humans. I n sum, she delivers her point to the reader by saying hope stays inside of us despite all of our struggles just as the little bird stays perched on the tree in the face of the

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Dickinson acknowledges that death is frequently a difficult occurrence to deal with, but she attempts to negate this fear and pain through the relationship she constructs between death and the soul. “That at last, it should not be a novel agony —” (10). Here, Dickinson is recognizing that experiencing agony prior to one’s death is a normal occurrence. However, through her use of personification, she makes clear her belief that such agony is unnecessary. Describing the interaction between death and the soul she writes, “Salute, and pass, without a hint— /

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She also employs simple but meaningful words to convey the theme to her readers. Literary devices such as metaphors, similes, and imagery are used in her poem to make it more vivid. Emily Dickinson’s poem has unique and distinct themes, literary devices, and format that make it quite interesting to read. The poem “Because I could not stop for Death” has two themes that contradict each other perfectly. The themes of this poem include both mortality and immortality.

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Although Emily Dickinson died at 55, she has heavily impacted and influenced American literature as she initiated the growth, love and popularity for poetry. Emily Dickinson’s poems have taught the world how emotions can be expressed in short pieces of writing with the use of simple and expressive

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Many might assume that because Emily Dickinson led a quiet life, that she would be timid, meek, and deferential. This is not the case; Dickinson defied both the societal and religious expectations that both her community and Puritanism placed upon her. Though it is true that Dickinson did not start rebellions and riots in the streets, through both her writing and her lifestyle, she continued to rebel in small but significant ways. Emily Dickinson’s community forced both religious and social standards on her; her defiance of these are illustrated in her poetry, as she addresses the negatives of both the expectations and a life that is led according to them.

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Her poems reveal the truths about life. “Emily used her poems as her primary tool for conveying meaning. Instead of relying on plot or setting to develop a character or tell a story, she focuses on diction to create atmosphere and evoke an emotional response,” writes Thomas Oppong. Her work forces readers to digest her words to understand what she lived through. This text emerges with Americans’ thoughts by presenting different ideas by broadening their minds and expressing themselves through

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This required behavior of Emily Dickinson is why her poems, can be interpreted to, reflect her rebellious views on death, heaven, and time. Having learned of her life and the legacy of her family, the family’s views can now be

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Many of Emily Dickinson’s 1800 works were centered around topics of death, nature, and solitude. Her works and topics were based off her life experiences and feelings. In Dickinson’s early life she had many losses with people in her life. Even after her early life there were still death in the middle of her life as many near the end. Many of these losses especially the ones starting in the early life were the reason Dickinson would make many poems relating to death.

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One of them attempt to explain her poetry from an autobiographical stance, another point of view is analyzed from a psychological stance. The latter portraits several labels that define Dickinson as a “helpless agoraphobic woman trapped in her father's house,” while other opinions define her as a Puritan feminist victim of a patriarchal society, or from her father’s patriarchal yoke. These are only some examples of the critics’ theorizing of Emily Dickinson. Unavoidably, her untitled 1700+ poems give critics the fire to support their theories, giving an invitation to all sorts of speculation. Dickinson’s biography shows a life of seclusion and yet a passionate life of seclusion.

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Emily Dickinson is acknowledged as one of America’s greatest poets. Dickinson’s poems likely emerged from her inner life as her curiosity and restless mind were the source of her poetic strength, and her poetry expressing compelling topics such as psychological insights of life. The topic of Dickinson’s ideas about love, separation, and gaining insight from experience are symbolized in her poems: „Wild Nights - Wild Nights!” , „I Cannot Live with You”, and „After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes”. Dickinson’s poem, „Wild Nights - Wild Nights!”, was published in 1891.

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Throughout the poem, the speaker narrates her uncanny journey and experience with her death. With the calmness this poem presents, Dickinson paints an abnormal picture of what an experience

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Dickinson takes advantage of a few literary devices in order to convey specific messages

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Dickinson lived most of her life within her house, away from the outside world that so many poets are influenced by. Her poetry, including her style, is all original that can seem to baffle many readers if not closely examined, that many will not do. Timothy Morris says that “it has become a given of Dickinson criticism that the poet’s style never changed” (Morris). When readers look at Dickinson’s work they mostly have the same critique on her style saying that it never changes. Most readers find themselves getting lost in almost random dashes and capitalized words.

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Dickinson is talking about physical and emotional pain that everyone experiences in their life, whether it be the loss of a family member, to the failing of a math exam, the pain experienced will push you further than you thought you could ever go before to be sure you will never feel that pain again. For the first two quizzes in AP Literature, I got at the highest a 70 percent, and was almost failing the class. To avoid this pain of failing and me losing faith in my ability to do well in an advanced level course, the next reading we had I took detailed and thorough notes. There was no quiz on this reading, but I kept up this quality of work and eventually I was able to do better on the quizzes, and know I can handle the AP course load. The ending stanza of the poem describes that , “It has

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