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Who Is Emily Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson: I'm Nobody! Who are you?
I'm Nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson reminds me of the song, "You belong with me" by Taylor Swift. These two works speak of the author being behind the scenes in life. The writers are unnoticed by society and watch life from the back of the room. Content to watch life play out for others, without the inconvenience of social rules and etiquette. Swift sings "She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers" (Swift). Dickinson and Swift, in reality, are nothing alike, Swift is a brash famous woman, while Dickenson was a recluse. This work is excitedly unemotional while imparting wisdom. Dickinson's poem playfully speaks of human's social fears through voice, conventional symbols, and stanza.
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Dickinson felt it would be wrong to join the church as she had not had a calling, saying, "I am standing alone in my rebellion."("Emily Dickinson") Religion was the main conventional symbol of the day, not conforming made her a rebel. Poetry was the vehicle Dickinson chose to convey her opinion's and wisdom. Thinking it abhorrent to make social calls, she writes "How public—like a Frog--- / To tell your name---the livelong June / To an admiring bog!"(5-7). The frog is a rather obvious symbol for a prince in the making. To make introductions and small talk for, what seems like forever. The bog is the natural home of the frog, but Dickinson's reference is to a group of admirers. Her use of conventional symbols is clever and entertaining. Dickinson was known for her wit and brain among her peers, often being the smartest person in the room. This must have made social calls even more excruciating.
This poem has two, four-line stanzas, written in an iambic trimeter. The words rhyme in a AABC rhythm, with pauses for effect. The poem's rhythm has an upbeat and playful tempo, making it seem childlike. Dickinson uses the stanza formula to separate her thoughts in a fun and appealing way. As if she is making a joke of the entire art of social graces. The pauses seem to emphasize how truly tedious socializing in the 1850's could

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Who are you?,” Emily Dickinson uses word choice to convey her

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This is why she shows such a fascination towards it. “There is no frigate like a book”, this shows that she found literature as a great escape from life (Dickinson 1). Dickinson’s isolation to the world is further exemplified in, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” I believe that this poem shows that she believes that she is nobody, and finds no reason to become a “somebody” because it is useless to her (Dickinson).

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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.

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This poem is trying to show that one must feel beautiful and love themselves. Dickinson

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Emily Dickinson explicits the poem about her inner thought in a song-like tone. She creates the poem as if the readers are the psychologist and she is the patient. Dickinson uses parallelism, "It was not," for three times. She does not know what "It" is.

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In the second stanza, Dickinson uses metaphors to compare her new realization and power over herself by comparing her new situation to being “Called to my Full -- The Crescent dropped -- / Existence’s whole Arc, filled up,” (11, 12) These lines show her being called to her potential and gaining that power which can also be seen with her mentioning Crescent which is metoymy to the crown she later mentions. She also writes the line, “Unto supremest name --”

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By using a paradox, and the inversion of this paradox, connotation, and denotation, Dickinson is able to show the fact that people who are mad may actually be the people who have any sort of sense and challenges the constructs of the society she lives in. Though short in length, the poem carries a certain gravity that pulls the reader in. The speaker starts with a paradox: “Much Madness is Divinest Sense --“(line 1). The speaker gets to the point and does not use fancy words to describe it all.

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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

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Dickinson communicates why she dislikes being a “somebody” by using a simile. She writes that a “somebody…like a Frog” will feel pressured “to tell one’s name - the livelong June - to an admiring Bog” to maintain their status (Dickinson 847). This simile shows that the narrator dislikes the idea of having to retain public attention through their actions. Interpretation Throughout her poem, Dickinson tries

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The first stanza of this particular Dickinson poem helps to set the on going theme for the rest of the poem. The theme of course for this particular poem is about the sea and early morning walk that Dickinson had with her dog. The opening stanza of the poem reads, “I started Early- Took my Dog -/And visited the Sea -/The Mermaids in the Basement / Came out to look at me” (I. 1-4). From this passage the audience can presume that Dickinson has taken her pet dog for a walk on the beach in the early morning hours, and that on the walk she may have encountered beautiful sea creatures that looked up at her.

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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.

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The solemn contract of a life Was ratified this way.” “At least, ’t is mutual risk,— Some found it mutual gain; Sweet debt of Life,—each night to owe, Insolvent, every noon” Emily Dickinson's poetry illustrated a discontent with the idea of marriage . Her poetry contains many references to gender issues, the civil war, and shifts in religious views. Reynolds argues, “She was unique among American women of her day in the breath of her awareness of the most experimental tendencies in contemporary American culture” (Reynolds 112).She had become the voice of the women who suffered due to the different roles played by the two different genders.

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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

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Dickinson also incorporates her fixation on seclusion through the syntax in her poetry. An example of this is whenever she places a dash in her poems, which is her signature mark in poetry. An example of this is when she writes, “And sweetest- in the Gale- is heard-And sore must be the storm-” (Vendler 118). This line from the poem is interpreted to mean that a person should hold onto hope especially when life is hard, which is shown when the Gale starts to blow.

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458 Words | 2 Pages

In Emily Dickinson’s poem, “The Wind Tapped,” a brief visit from a bird is emphasized through silence of punctuation, mimicking the movements. The speaker’s contradicting attitude toward impending isolation reveals the importance of communication and companionship by her choice of brief intonation and complex structure.     Smooth and simple word choices provide abrupt, yet reflexive moments. The simile, “like a tired man” (line 1) describes the effortless impact it has similar to an exhausted man. This is important to notice because it gives the wind a subtle and oblivious character.

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