Analysis Of Emily Dickinson 's ' There 's A Certain Slant Of Light ``

Emily Dickinson was an exceptional writer through the mid-late 1800’s. She never published any of her writings and it wasn’t until after her death that they were even discovered. The complexity of understanding her poems is made prevalent because of the fact that she, the author, cannot expound on what her writing meant. This causes others to have to speculate and decide for themselves the meaning of any of her poems. There are several ways that people can interpret Emily Dickinson’s poems; readers often give their opinion on which of her poems present human understanding as something boundless and unlimited or something small and limited, and people always speculate Dickinson’s view of the individual self.

During the 1850’s Emily Dickinson was not someone who blended in with the crowd, she was a nonconformist. Her nonconformity allowed her to view nature, religion and death differently than most people. Emily Dickinson stood apart from her peers physically, religiously, and socially which showed true in her writing.

Emily Dickinson is the definition of poetry. Within her poems lies numerous underlying meanings and symbols from her lifetime. When she was just a teenager she left school and became a recluse on her family’s homestead. Where she would begin to write some of the greatest poems in history. It is recorded that she wrote hundreds of little poems on random pieces of paper. Some of her greatest poems were about society during her time period, and they can even relate up to today’s society. Some of her best poems about society are “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” and “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant”. Both of these poems contain a lot of similarities. However they differ slightly, in saying that, the other really compliments the other within their deeper meanings. Within each of these poems lies metaphors, personification, and inverted syntax.

Emily Dickinson, born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts, is regarded as one of America’s best poets. After a poor experience at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, where she was regarded as a “no hope,” her writing career took off in full swing. Although her family was more conservative, regular churchgoers, and socially prominent town figures, Dickinson preferred a socially reserved lifestyle that renounced the traditional values of her day (Baym, 1189-93). The iconoclastic spirit pervasive in Emily Dickinson's poetry reflects her conflict with the traditions of New England society.

“I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean” (Socrates). What does it mean to be this type of poet? How can someone accomplish such success in poetry, the answer is just two words Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson spent a large portion of her life in isolation, not because she was forced to or because she was ill, Dickinson simply wanted to be alone and because of her isolation she became one of the greatest female poets of all time. Emily Dickinson set the bar high for other female poets and created some of the most renowned poems in the world. The two poems “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” and “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant” are drastically different poems that tell two different stories, but there are some aspects that cause them to be similar: Imagery, tone, and the statement that the two poems make.

Although Emily Dickinson was born towards the end of the Transcendentalist movement in 1830, her views later in life, specifically those concerning women’s right and religion, align nicely with the previous wave of new thought (“Emily Dickinson’s Life”). Transcendentalism encouraged individualism and pushed for self-reliance. The movement also spoke loudly for feminism, abolition, reform, and education while resisting government, religion, and laws (“American Philosophy”). For Emily Dickinson, part of what made her so similar to Transcendentalists is the fact that she possessed an impressive imagination that she allows to shine in her poetry (“Emily Dickinson’s Life”). Considering that the movement created a mindset

In “Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant” Emily Dickinson talks about the truth and how commonly it is to avoid the truth. We as humans at times never tell the whole truth and sometimes we use the phrase “the truth hurts” loosely to justify the actual I told you so. Most of us would rather tell a lie, before we tell the truth because it’s less stress and less commotion. Emily Dickinson uses the term “truth” to illustrate the manipulation of lies through religion and theoretical viewpoints.

I’ve enjoyed Emily Dickinson’s number 258 poem (“There’s a certain Slant of light”) because the poem main theme is a distinguished light that occurs only on winter afternoons. The speaker describes this light as being uncomfortable or anxious as the word he uses to describe it is “oppresses”. Then she goes on comparing this oppression to the heft of cathedral tunes, which in my opinion is contradictory. But knowing that Dickinson’s view of religion was somewhat controversial, she describes that this light that only happens during winter afternoons is as heavy on her as the sounds of a chapels songs. Then the poem goes on detailing how this light may affects the speaker, but it leaves no scar behind. Furthermore, as soon as the winter afternoon

Emily Dickinson did not live what seemed to be an adventurous or lively life. Many people thought of her as a recluse because she did not get out much. However, she wrote with so much knowledge of adventure and experience which not one person thought happened to her. She was able to come up with such vivid moments, ones where it were as if she dealt with them herself. This shows that either she had amazing and compelling ideas or that she did experience some of the things she wrote about, but was very quiet about it all. She did not write how other poets wrote. Many of her poems did not rhyme, but if they did, it was slant rhyme. She also had many reoccurring themes that she was very comfortable talking about. Knowing her background before reading the poems she wrote makes them

Emily Dickinson is the creator of some of the most famous works in American poetry. Throughout the 1800s, the author dedicated her life to poetry. She used metaphors in an advanced way and displayed power through her unique use of diction. Emily’s immense power with words derived from her determination. Dickinson’s determination to achieve individuality and power is exemplified through her complex poetry and derived from the events that occurred in her life.

Emily Dickinson was a poet who used many different devices to develop her poetry, which made her style quite unique. A glance at one of her poems may lead one to believe that she was quite a simple poet, although a closer examination of her verse would uncover the complexity it contains.

A poem’s structure can either make or break it. Emily Dickinson skillfully incorporates a variety of different methods in her works to enhance their meanings. At first glance her poetry can seem confusing, but simply analyzing at how she structures her poems can give great insight to what she means. Looking at whether each line of the poem ends without punctuation, also known as enjambment can reveal a great deal about a poem. The use of enjambment and end-stops control the flow of the poem. Along with em-dashes, one of Dickinson’s specialties, these techniques allow for an even deeper interpretation of her poetry. She uses dashes to connect words and phrases, that seemingly have no relation, together. In Dickinson’s poem “There’s a certain Slant of light,” these devices significantly add to meaning behind the writing. Emily Dickinson’s masterful use of enjambment, dashes and end-stops immensely add to the meaning of the slant of light, the main topic of the poem.

Emily Dickinson is an American poet born in Amherst Massachusetts December tenth, 1830. As a child Dickinson’s love for books was massive yet she did not start writing poetry until she was eighteen. However, she was not known of until after her death. Nonetheless, some people other than her family did now about Dickinson’s remarkable poems. Furthermore, most tried encouraging her to publish her poems yet others did the contrary. Emily Dickinson’s life is what caused her to write such great poetry.

In Emily Dickinson’s lyrical poem “There’s a certain slant of light” she describes a revelation that is experienced on cold “winter afternoons.” Further she goes to say that this revelation of self “oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes” and causes “Heavenly Hurt”, yet does not scare for it is neither exterior nor permanent. This only leaves it to be an internal feeling, and according to Dickinson that is where all the “Meanings” lie. There’s no way for this feeling to be explained, all that is known is that it is the “Seal Despair”, and an “imperial affliction”. These descriptions have a rather powerful connotation in showing the oppressive nature of his sentiment. There is an official mark of despair and an imperial affliction

Emily Dickinson is one of the most interesting female poets of the nineteenth century. Every author has unique characteristics about him/her that make one poet different from another, but what cause Emily Dickinson to be so unique are not only the words she writes, but how she writes them. Her style of writing is in a category of its own. To understand how and why she writes the way she does, her background has to be brought into perspective. Every poet has inspiration, negative or positive, that contributes not only to the content of the writing itself, but the actual form of writing the author uses to express his/her personal talents. Emily Dickinson is no different. Her childhood and adult experiences and culture form