Floral Motifs In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Introduction

The research studies the theme ‘preservation of beauty’. More specifically, the use of print making for flowers will be explored. Floral motifs have been very popular in print, as seen in the Resort 2015 collections of Oscar de la Renta and Christian Dior, and high street brands like Topshop. As predicted by online fashion forecaster WGSN, flowers will have a big influence in textiles in Spring Summer 2015. Therefore, this research will explore the different ways floral motifs can be translated into print.

The beauty of nature has been popular in art and books for a very long time. The fact that nature has been prominent in photography, poetry, and other forms of art shows how much nature and beauty are associated with each

Flowers have been either subjects or inspirations in different forms of art. This chapter will examine how flowers were used in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Van Gogh’s paintings, and Magda Wasiczek’s photographs.

The flower is a common subject in poetry, and this is evident in the works of many poets. Rattigan’s analysis of Emily Dickinson’s poetry highlights that one major theme in her poems was flowers, and scholar Judith Farr was certain that at least a third of all her poems are about flowers . Dickinson related certain flowers to different people, and she often sent friends her poems and letters accompanied by flowers. In her poem titled ‘We should not mind so small a flower-’ she uses the flower in life and death symbolism and to give hope.

Flowers are also widely used in paintings. Vincent Van Gogh painted flowers throughout his ten years of painting. He initially used flowers for his still-life paintings because he did not have enough money to pay for models. Painting flowers also helped him to expand the variety of colour in his work. Van Gogh used flowers to depict his emotions, painting ‘Sunflowers’ to welcome a friend who was coming to stay with him, and ‘Irises’ while he was staying at an asylum. He painted ‘Roses’ just before he left the asylum to show his optimism and hope for the new life he could

Flowers in the Flower Power era

The 1960s is often known for being a decade of good music, freedom, and the Flower Power. It was the period of time when the baby boomer generation was in their teenage years. They lived life to the fullest, experimenting with drugs and straying away from the dominant values of society then.

Flower Power came about as disapproval to the Vietnam War. People who disapproved of the Vietnam War were called hippies, and they used flowers as symbol of peace and love. They also rejected the mainstream lifestyle and all things mass-produced or made using machines. This counter culture found its way into clothing. Floral prints became very popular, and they wore clothes with lots of floral prints, such as paisley prints, and often had flowers in their hair or around their necks. Their clothes were made of natural fibres and were of a natural colour scheme. Most of their clothing was oversized, to symbolize