Analysis Of Emily Dickinson 's Writing

“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.

Emily Dickinson is one of the most influential poets of all time, and has a unique way of using literal imagery to paint a picture in the readers mind. The best poets are those that excel at using their words to create clear, concrete images and intrigue their reader. Dickinson began writing poetry around the year 1855, and prospered for another 10 years. Some of her most famous poems include “I Taste a liquor Never Brewed”, “Success is Counted Sweetest”, and “Wild nights – Wild Nights!”, all of which have influenced many aspiring writers to become poets, and show her true colors as a poet. Among her works of poetry, I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, is one that resembles the frequent patterns of Dickinson’s style of

In this era, America was trying to form its own poetic identity. "...and poetic achievement was viewed as the standard by which a national culture was measured. The desire to create a distinctly American literature consequently took on a special urgency in the realm of poetry," (pg. 937). "But surely, many reasoned, a nation without its own poets and poetry could not be a real nation," (pgs. 937-938). Because of this, Daniel Whitaker "simply announced that American poetry in fact existed," (pg. 937). He was not alone in this opinion, as "so did many others view the writing of poetry as a patriotic act, a necessary part of building a new and culturally independent country," (pg. 938).

Let’s play a game. Close your eyes. Now, think of some of your favorite poems. Can you remember the poets who created them? Did you name off Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, and Robert Frost to name a few? I imagine that the majority of people didn’t remember Emily Dickinson. Emily Dickinson was a talented poet who used her previously devastating personal experiences to enhance her poems.

There is a lot more to poetry than just the words themselves. “What William Shakespeare called, “the mind’s eye” also plays a role” (Borus34). What that means is that your experiences and thoughts will add to your understanding. Dickinson had an active mind and a style so unique and unusual with her writing. Something that was very unusual about her writing was that she never put a title to her poems. Just like many poets, she used a wide assortment of literary devices such as, metaphor, simile, alliteration, and symbolism. “Unlike many writers of her time, Dickinson did not use conventional rhyme, capitalization, or punctuation” (Borus36). For example, she would put dashes not just at the end of a line, but also

The mysterious woman, who only wore white, is one of Americas most famous female poets. She began writing at a young age, and continued to write or revise her work as she got older. Dickinson stayed fairly predictable in her style of writing, but was always original in content. It was common during this time period for for poets to not let reason limit their writing. Her writing style became even more unique after the death of many of her friends. Dickinson was very private and didn’t publish many of her poems herself. During the Romanticism Era Emily Elizabeth Dickinson wrote over 1,800 poems focusing on love, faith, pain, nature, and death but was very secluded from society which leaves much of her life up to speculation.

Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson, Emily began her life on December 10, 1830. Her father portrayed an important role where Emily grew up, and therefore she was able to attend Amherst Academy. There she earned 7 years of education and met inspiring figures that were draft into her writing. The inspiring folk were Leonard Humphrey, the principal at Amherst Academy, and Benjamin Franklin Newton, a family friend. After Amherst Academy, Emily became secluded at home and that is where the magic of her writing commenced.

Emily Dickinson was born on December 12, 1830. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her parents are Emily Norcross Dickinson and Edward Dickinson. She had two siblings named Lavinia Norcross Dickinson and William Austin Dickinson. Lavinia is the youngest and William is the oldest. She died because of Kidney Disease on May 30, 1886. She was 55.

Emily Dickinson was born December 10, 1830, Amherst, MA to Edward Dickinson, a Yale graduate and politician, and Emily Norcross Dickinson. She was the middle child with an older brother, William Austin Dickinson and a younger sister, Lavinia Norcross Dickinson. She went to school at Amherst Academy for seven years (1840–1847) and she went to Mount Holyoke College. Emily Dickinson is very well-known for her life of social seclusion. Though she is known as one the greatest poets of all time, she was not known of as a great poet during her lifetime. After she died her sister, Lavinia, found hundreds of poems Emily had written. Without these poems, American Literature would have been set back many years. She, along with Walt Whitman, is considered

Emily Dickinson conveys the comedic aspect into her 18 century poems. From many of the poems that Emily Dickinson has created in her lifetime. Her poetic comedic side portrays a boisterous side to her personality. She makes her poems comedic by teasing people and about topics that they can relate to. Also she liked to make her poems cartoonish. She would bring inanimate objects to life.

Emily Dickinson is perhaps one of the most intriguing American poets studied. The remote look in her eyes mirror her life, which she mostly spent secluded in her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. While leading an outwardly reclusive life, she unleashes the faculties of her mind in her powerful poetry. She addresses compelling themes such as death, depression, human despair, individual capability, and the art of poetry. Her feelings on these subjects emerge in her poems, but her exact thoughts are difficult to uncover since her poetry is so highly enigmatic. Likewise, the subject matter of Christianity in her poetry remains one of the most inconsistent of Dickinson’s recurring themes. Emily Dickinson posses an uncanny ability to wrestle down the perfect diction, thus creating worlds of hope, despair, faith, and endless questioning.Through her use of imagery, Dickinson displays her linguistic prowess and the intricacies of language.

Emily Dickinson lost her father on June 16, 1874 (Sewall 69). The sudden loss of her father stunned her and she wrote in a letter that she was “wondering where he is. Without any body, I keep thinking. What kind can that be” (Letter, 471). When Dickinson’s mother passed away in November of 1882, Dickinson also wrote in a letter about her “wonder at her fate” and she was “seeking what it means” (Letter, 815). The “wonder” in both letters shows that Emily Dickinson is a person who looks inward for the mystery of death. Many of her poems convey her preoccupation with death, concern with immortality and doubts about fulfillment beyond the grave. I will analyze “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” (591) and “Because I could not stop for Death” (479), both of which deal with the death and eternity. These two poems reflect the conflicting attitudes of Emily Dickinson towards afterlife.

     Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous authors in American History, and a good amount of that can be attributed to her uniqueness in writing. In Emily Dickinson's poem 'Because I could not stop for Death,' she characterizes her overarching theme of Death differently than it is usually described through the poetic devices of irony, imagery, symbolism, and word choice.

Emily Dickinson a modern romantic writer, whose poems considered imaginative and natural, but also dark as she uses death as the main theme many times in her writings. She made the death look natural and painless since she wanted the reader to look for what after death and not be stuck in that single moment. In her poems imagination play a big role as it sets the ground for everything to unfold in a magical way. The speakers in Dickinson’s poetry, are sharp-sighted observers who see the inescapable limitations of their societies as well as their imagined and imaginable escapes. To make the abstract tangible, to define meaning without confining it, to inhabit a house that never became a prison, Dickinson created in her writing a distinctively elliptical language for expressing what was possible but not yet realized. She turned increasingly to this style that came to define her writing. The poems are rich in aphorism and dense

Emily Dickinson was one of the many famous American poets whose work was published in the 19th century. Her writing style was seen as unconventional due to her use of “dashes and syntactical fragments”(81), which was later edited out by her original publishers. These fragmented statements and dashes were added to give emphasis to certain lines and subjects to get her point across. Even though Emily Dickinson was thought to be a recluse, she wrote descriptive, moving poems on death, religion, and love. Her poems continue to create gripping discussions among scholars on the meaning behind her poems.