In Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes, by Billy Collins we are taken on a journey back to the nineteenth century, it is fascinating to contemplate Collins idea of the diminishing of Dickinson's clothes. Emily Dickinson took her liberty to compose such shrewd poetry that was revealed later after her death to the public. Dickinson’s poetry is found perplexing and dramatic, which is clear on why Collins would pick Emily Dickinson as his incentive for this poem. Throughout Collins poem, he uses extended metaphors to expose the reader to understand the profound thoughts of a poet. Collins also conveys figurative language in reference to Dickinson life that can persuade an effect on the reader when reading a
To Dickinson, darkness seems to represent the unknown. The focus of this poem is people trying to find their way in the dark, where nothing can be foreseen. Sight is a prevalent theme in Untitled, achieved through words like
The speaker in Emily Dickinson’sj poem “The Soul selects her own Society '' explores and reveals themes of strength and self-reliance in society by using poetic sound devices and literary devices.. In the first two lines of the poem, Dickinson uses personification in “The Soul selects her own Society-Then- shuts the Door-'' (Dickinson 1) to explain how the soul chooses to pick her own company, such as friends, lovers, or companions, then closes herself off and “shuts'' the rest of society out. Dickinson uses dashes in “Then — shuts the Door—” to create emphasis, suspense, and pauses within her poem. By using an assonant rhyme in “Door” (Dickinson 2) and “more” (Dickinson 4), Dickinson continues to emphasize these lines.
While looking into the mind of a narrator who battles between claiming to be sane while portraying a reality of insanity, readers who have read Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Tell-Tale Heart," have stated the narrator is insane. A closer look shows that he is actually sane by means of nervousness, patience, and murder. The author, Edgar Allen Poe suggests sanity in the narrator by saying, "Why will you say that I am mad? " Throughout the story, the narrator's actions brought forth contempt, showing readers the narrator is attentive of his own surroundings.
Madness within ‘A Cask of Amontillado’ The belief that madness is linked with creative thinking has been held since ancient times. In fact, Plato once stated “creativity is a divine madness…a gift from the gods” (Maureen). Understanding this connection allows us to perceive how many writers, such as Anne Sexton and Edgar Alan Poe, use their literature to lead them “by the hand out of madness” (Maureen). Poe’s life, for example, was riddled with loss and suffering: being raised in multiple orphanages and the losing so many loved ones is often said to be the reason for his questionable mental state.
An example of this is when she states, “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun, - In Corners - till a Day, The Owner passed - identified, - And carried Me away -, And now We roam in Sovreign Woods -, And now We hunt the Doe -, And every time I speak for Him, The Mountains straight reply -”. The use of capitalization and hyphens shows how before the anger is released, the writing is in short bursts, like anger, and when it is released it flows more, similar to peacefulness. This more flowy writing is continued until the last stanza, where the gun returns to being unused and the anger is not able to be released. Dickinson’s style choice adds to the writing because in real life people with built-up anger are often very short-tempered and have quick outbursts, and after they release that anger they are slow to anger and
The Closet Perspective Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson represented two talented and relevant poets of their time. They are most often recognized for their patriotism and their influence on starting a transition between transcendentalism and realism. Their works reflected themes of love, life, nature and death among other things. Whitman and Dickinson did subtly advocate for their sexuality in their writings. Adding a sub-section to the “Whitman and Dickinson” header in our course could more completely depict Whitman, Dickinson, and their influence on American culture and writing.
Dickinson’s use of repetition and onomatopoeia helps show just how mad the narrator really is. It is stated,” Kept beating-beating- till I thought my mind was going numb”. The narrator is hearing noises that aren’t really there like the “beating” of a drum which supports the idea she is crazy. The first person point of view helps show that apparent funeral that is taking place inside of her mind. She states,” I felt a funeral, in my Brain…
Emily Dickinson had a strong cold feeling toward society, so much so that she shut herself in a room and focused on expressing her emotions through poetry. At the
Dickinson’s family background enriches the readers’ understanding of the theme – nature. Based on information from Poetryfoundation.org, Dickinson was born in a decent, upper-class family, with father working as a lawyer and a politician and mother working as a science researcher (Poetryfoundation.org, para.2). However, the way she describes in the poem is not the behavior of a person from upper-class. For instance, she uses words like “inebriate” and “little Tippler” to describe the narrator’s drunkenness (l.5&l.15).
The use of metaphor is evident in the poem in the first stanza the metaphor “Futile - the winds -” is important because it is showing that in the middle there is no windy path that can break from their love. And the wind is incapable to produce. This goes back to my thesis because Dickinson is expressing her emotion and love that nothing can come in between the love she has for her significant other and not even the winds can stop the longing of their love. The second stanza “To a Heart in port -”, gives the message that her heart is being unused right now, but is in the boat coming.
Emily Dickinson engages in profoundly unique and distinctive perspectives in regards of human beings inside society, something which she expresses deeply and thoroughly within her poems. In her judgement, she believes that individuals can become very ambitious and conformist, which can keep them from achieving the full potential humans have. As she formulates in “The Brain is wider than the sky”, our brain, along with our imagination and creativity, has no specific boundaries regarding depth, length, and weight. Emily acknowledges that human potential has a capacity “wider than the sky”, “deeper than the sea”, and “just the weight of God”. Along with these comparisons in “The Brain is wider than the sky”, Dickinson relates the brain’s supremacy to be so boundless it can “put a Current back”, as she details in “The Brain, within its Groove”.
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.
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.
On the one hand, if one goes deeply into Dickinson’s poem “This is my letter to the world”, where one can say that this poem can be appreciated that the speaker is complaining about the way that life has gone on. At first sight it is possible to observe that the language used by Dickinson was very simple because it was easy to understand. However, it was more complex than it seems to be, because a different meaning could have been given to the poem if it is analyzed in a deeper way. Moreover the poetic devices that she uses make the poem very attractive for the reader and also easy to follow because of the musicality that her rhymes produced in the way it is read, as in the ones used in the verse 2: “That never wrote to Me”, compared to verse 4: “With tender Majesty”, where the endings have the same sound. (Dickinson, poem #441: This is my letter to the
