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Comparing There's A Certain Slant Of Light And Black Rook In Rainy Weather

Decent Essays

The two poems that will be analysed are: There’s a Certain Slant of Light by Emily Dickinson, and Black Rook in Rainy Weather by Sylvia Plath. Dickinson’s poem effectively captures the feelings and images that she efforts to portray. The setting of this poem is of the author in her home and it is the middle of a grey winter afternoon. Dickinson describes the light peering into her room, thus her poem is entitled There’s a Certain Slant of Light. This piece relays a dark tone and illustrates specific feelings or lack thereof. Contrarily, Black Rook in Rainy Weather transmits a tone that is slightly more enlightening. Plath paints a picture of herself on a walk when she stumbles upon a black rook on a tree branch and contemplates the events in her life. Both poet’s strongly present their emotions as well as evoke sensations in the readers themselves. …show more content…

I infer that when this poem was written, the writer was engulfed with thoughts and was attempting to survive a great tragedy. In this passage she says, “That oppresses, like the Heft/Of Cathedral Tunes–.” The word “that” referring to the slant of light. It’s as if in this line Dickinson wants to portray through the use of the word “Heft” that the light holds so much weight or power that it overwhelms her making her feel anxious, similar to the mighty sounds heard in Cathedral Tunes. Furthermore, she writes “Heavenly Hurt, it gives us–” The combination of words she uses in this line is peculiar because they contrast one another. “Heavenly” is used to mean pleasant and “hurt” is used to mean pain. When reading this passage, I felt that Dickinson, although grieving internally, enjoys the pain that surrounds her. Despite the tone, Emily Dickinson appears to feel at

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