Transcendentalism Influence In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

By definition, transcendentalism is an idealistic philosophical and social movement that developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Emily Dickinson is known as the most widely read and well known poets in American history. She lived during the eighteenth century. Throughout her lifetime, she wrote around 1,775 poems. Only a few of these poems were published by Emily herself, while the others were discovered after her death. Although her poetry is not considered to be under the transcendentalist category, Emily’s work could be interpreted as being influenced by transcendentalism. “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”, “How happy is the little stone”, and “This is my letter to the World” are examples of a transcendentalist feel in Emily’s poems. Initially, the poem “A narrow Fellow in the Grass” seems to have a slight transcendentalist influence. This riddle poem is about a snake and explains various ways of nature. The first line reads, “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”, which is part of nature. Throughout the poem, other features of nature are explained, such as “A Floor too cool for Corn” and “Nature’s People”, meaning animals. As a final point,

In this poem, Emily is addressing the world and thanking nature for always being there for her to turn back to. In the poem, the first and second lines read, “This is my letter to the World / That never wrote to Me-”. These lines explain that although nature has never written to her, Emily is still grateful for helping her through everything. The last stanza says, “Her Message is committed / To Hands I cannot see- / For love of Her-Sweet-countrymen- / Judge tenderly-of Me”. These lines elucidate to me that Emily relied on nature to be there for her and appreciates everything that nature has done for her. To conclude, “This is my letter to the World” exhibit examples of the importance of