Quiz 19: Dickinson 1. For many years, critics believed Emily Dickinson suffered from agoraphobia, a social disorder that makes one fearful of leaving his or her house (sometimes even one room!). However, her poetry could be interpreted in a way that suggests Dickinson, rather than being afraid of people, was contemptuous of people. Support this position by using examples from her poems. Unfortunately, I do not see contempt or fear of people in any of the examples of Dickenson’s poetry which were included in our textbook. I see evidence of depression, a preference for nature and a preoccupation with death. There are very few (if any) poems that are attributed to Dickenson that are bright, sunny and happy. I would not say her poems are dark, but rather ob-scured by a grey cloud. …show more content…
Dickinson's poems often engage, directly or subtly, with her own solitude and anonymity as an artist. Describe the variety of ways and moods in which this situation is addressed. Her solitude was shown in many of her poems, as she wrote them using a first person point of view, almost like she was talking to herself. They give me the impression of someone jotting down their random thoughts in a journal. Her poem listed as number “39” reflexes this in the first line, “I never lost as much but twice / And that was in the sod.” (Dickinson 1-2) Another ex-ample of this is her poem number “339”, where she comments, “I like a look of Agony, / Because I know it’s true –” (Dickinson