Emily Dickinson Punctuation

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes-“is a profound portrayal of the debilitating process of grief human beings undergo when confronted with a horrific tragedy. The response to that ultimate pain is the predominance of numbness, “After great pain, a formal feeling comes-/The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-“(1-2). This is a poem that must be read slowly to become saturated in the melancholy, the dehumanization of suffering as it affects each aspect of the body without reference to the chaotic emotionality of it. The abundance of metaphors within Dickinson’s poem provides the means to empathize the necessity of numbness. It is also through the use of punctuation and capitalization, depicting the presence of a

The poetry of Emily Dickinson is one of the most recognizable of the 19th century. Dickinson’s poetry stands out because of its unconventional use of capitalization and punctuation. Her poems contain capitalized words which are not normally capitalized. Her poems are noted for the frequent use of the dash. Literary scholars have attempted to interpret Dickinson’s unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Some believe that it was merely part of Dickinson’s penmanship (Weisbuch 73). They therefore edit Dickinson’s poetry and publish them in standardized form. Others believe that the capitalization and punctuation were a conscious effort on Dickinson’s part. These scholars notice the little nuances of Dickinson’s dashes, such as whether

Throughout the poem, Dickinson employs repetition to show the cyclical experiences of the soul, hence to create an observant tone. At the beginning of the poem, the soul is going through her first stage of her cycle of experiences. The speaker refers to one of the three stages of the soul’s cycle when they voice, “The soul has bandaged moments” (Dickinson 1). The use of “moments” indicates there are multiple times where the soul experiences a distinct change in how certain events or actions are assessed, as well how the events or actions affect the soul, such as the soul feeling fearful during her bandaged moments. Therefore, the cyclical experiences of the soul expressed using repetition play into the observant tone of the poem, which is lengthened

Approaching Emily Dickinson’s poetry as one large body of work can be an intimidating and overwhelming task. There are obvious themes and images that recur throughout, but with such variation that seeking out any sense of intention or order can feel impossible. When the poems are viewed in the groupings Dickinson gave many of them, however, possible structures are easier to find. In Fascicle 17, for instance, Dickinson embarks upon a journey toward confidence in her own little world. She begins the fascicle writing about her fear of the natural universe, but invokes the unknowable and religious as a means of overcoming that fear throughout her life and ends with a contextualization of herself within

The tone seems reflective, as if the narrator is retelling the story over, having thought about it many times. There is one point when irony is used—the last stanza is full of confusing words that contradict each other and are certainly not what one would expect after reading the preceding line. I feel the rhetorical situation is the narrator telling a story, perhaps something that happened long ago, and reflecting on it. Dickinson’s use of dashes—though she uses them frequently in all poems—assists to the feeling of story-telling. There are a few occasions throughout the poem when the use of dashes gives the idea of the narrator pausing and adding in a little extra information, maybe something that helps the reader understand the situation more. I think the reader is having a one-on-one meeting with the narrator, though the reader is never formally or specifically addressed. I think it could be that the narrator has gone off on a bit of a tangent, and is perhaps talking almost to his or herself, and glances back to the reader every once in a while to make sure he or she is still paying attention.

Kattelman believed Emily Dickinson was an expert at combining clever word choices with concepts and images into a few short but very powerful lines of poetry (1). On the surface ?Much Madness is divinest Sense? communicates both irony and defiance as the speaker denies the idea of common sense while reaching for a greater truth. We initially learn and recognize the difference between sane and insane as recognized by the society at large. As we read deeper, we begin to understand her syntax, use of punctuation and meaning of her seemingly random capitalization (2). Dickinson is no longer simply observing madness against the norms of society but declaring her own convictions of it. Kattelman argues her capitalization of words, for example ?Madness?, ?Sense?, and ?All? is her way of objectifying them as people. Dickinson often personifies animals, inanimate objects, and

In Dickinson’s poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” there is much impression in the tone, in symbols, and in the use of imagery that exudes creativity. One might undoubtedly agree to an eerie, haunting, if not frightening, tone in Dickinson’s poem. Dickinson uses controlling adjectives—“slowly” and “passed”—to create a tone that seems rather placid. For example, “We slowly drove—He knew no haste / …We passed the School … / We passed the Setting Sun—,” sets a slow, quiet, calm, and dreamy atmosphere (5, 9, 11,

In Dickinson's "My Life Had Stood—A Loaded Gun", I interpreted the poem literally, thinking the poem was really about a gun and the relationship with its owner. But as I read the poem more and more, I felt the power and rage engulfed into this piece. I also gathered that, like most of Dickinson's poetry,

While much of Emily Dickinson's poetry has been described as sad or morose, the poetess did use humor and irony in many of her poems. This essay will address the humor and/ or irony found in five of Dickinson's poems: "Faith" is a Fine Invention, I'm Nobody! Who are you?, Some keep the Sabbath Going to Church and Success Is Counted Sweetest. The attempt will be made to show how Dickinson used humor and / or irony for the dual purposes of comic relief and to stress an idea or conclusion about her life and environment expressed by the poetess in the respective poem. The most humorous or ironic are some of the shorter poems, such as the four lined stanzas of "Faith" is a Fine Invention and

Dickinson uses ambiguity to stress the difficulty of knowing and understanding certain experiences and thoughts to the reader. By being deliberately elusive, Dickinson makes the speaker out to be some sort of hero. In a

Dickinson’s poems are easily recognized by her usage of dashes, random capitalization, and no titles. Dickinson frequently uses dashes for a more dramatic tone and adding more power behind her words. For example, in the poem “Death sets a Thing significant,” Dickinson writers, “The stitches stopped -- by themselves –” (XX). In this sentence, the dashes between the words “by themselves” it forces the reader to pause and add a more dramatic tone. It also shows that she tries to add emphasis that nothing influenced the stitches stop it just stopped by itself. In most of her poems she places dashes at the end instead of common punctuation marks in most poet’s poems during her time. For instance, in the poem “ I gave myself to him” the line “ Depreciate the Vision-/ Till the Merchant buys-” demonstrates her usage of dashes to replace the common punctuations ( stanza 3, line 1-2). In addition, she would capitalize words that shouldn’t be capitalized. For instance, in the poem “ I gave myself to him” she wrote “ And took Himself, for Pay,” (Stanza 1,line 2). In this line, the capitalization of himself emphasizes that he didn’t give anything up for this marriage and that she gave up everything in her life. It also emphasizes the inequality in her marriage and society’s view of roles for females as submissive. As a matter of fact, this is also shown in the line “ She rose to His Requirement” from the poem “She Rose to His Requirement- dropt” ( stanza 1, line 1). As in this sentence by capitalizing His she made it seem like he was a higher status than her. During that time, Mount Holyoke Female semistery college adapted these techniques and it led to many believing that she adapted these trademarks because she wanted wanted to gain admission. ( “Major”) Also, Emily Dickinson never title any of her poems. Due to the fact that she never had any intention of publishing her work while she was alive, her work was only published after her death by her family (“Emily”). Dickinson’s poems are mostly filled with metaphors, imagery Almost all of her poems are lyrical which express thoughts and feelings and written in first person point of view ( “Major”). She chose to wrote her poem in a lyrical form and a first person view

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

Dickinson’s enjambment and syntax allows the reader to more fully understand the weight of this decision. Offsetting “shuts the Door” and “close the Valves of her attention” with dashes adds emphasis and prompts the reader to pause and understand their significance. The dashes physically separate these phrases from the rest of

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.

The controversy surrounding Emily Dickinson is her odd lifestyle and her tendencies to be somewhat of a recluse. She is sometimes considered abnormal because she does things differently from most others. She spends much of her life dressed in white and withdrawn from much of society. Of course, her peers take this negatively, but what they do not understand is that her being so private is more of a meditation to her, instead of a hiding. She just wants to escape the pressures she feels are normally required of women. She does not want to be a servant to sick and elderly. She feels she has more potential for her mind to grow, and those obligations would just be hindrances to her writing (McQuade 1255). Her childhood and her staying out of society as an adult, along with many other aspects known and not known, influence her poems and the style in which she goes about writing the works. Her techniques of writing are completely different from any other writer, whether prose or poetry. Dickinson composes her phrases by marking them off with a dash, placing a space before and after. This small maneuver places more emphasis on her “impress of the mind in its analysis of experience” (McQuade 1256). Her slant thymes and unique form of expression produces more of an oddness to the audience.