Emily Dickinson's Before I Got My Eye-Out

In their eyes is the truth. The speaker in Dickinson’s poem promotes adaptation as the primary response to the darkness; one must, “fit our Vision to the Dark –” before acting. With courage and conviction can the speaker finally move forward “And meet the Road – erect”. Familiarization to the darkness instills a sense of fortitude with which the speaker suggests may assist until the light returns. While the speaker in Dickinson’s poem chooses to face the darkness, the speaker in Frost’s poem becomes enveloped within it, shying away from the surrounding society. Embarrassed by this nightly wandering, the speaker scarcely responds to meeting the watchman on his beat, saying, “And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.” By lowering the eyes, the speaker assumes a passive role, choosing to dwell within the night rather than facing it. This melancholy response may appear cowardly against the courageous action of the other poem, but the speaker knows that one must become acquainted with the night before moving on from this solitary lifestyle. In both poems, the reaction to the darkness is within the eyes. They must change themselves to face the darkness, or let the night change

The poem “Before I got my eye put out” portrays the idea that most living things are unable to recognize the beauty of sight until they lose it. The speaker reflects the true beauty of the world when she says “The Motions of the Dipping Birds-/ The Morning’s Amber Road-/ For mine-/ to look at when I liked-/ The News would strike me dead-” (14-17). This demonstrates the image of nature that the speaker “looks at” but actually “sees” the beauty of sight. Dickinson conveys the idea that one’s vision from

Emily Dickinson’s work, “In We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”, is portrayed by showing the contrasting metaphors representing darkness and light. Dickinson includes intensely vivid imagery, a myriad of metaphors and orients the poem in a specific sort of way in order to illustrate the loss of a loved one in her life. The poem is in Dickinson’s or the readers point of view; however she uses "we" in the first line and the title, ultimately to show the poem is meant to be universally understood, by other individuals whom have lost something essential in their daily lives, and now must attempt to live in the darkness which Dickinson resides in as well.

For Dickinson, sight is the most valuable sense that allowed her to see the world and act based upon whatever situations were thrown at her. In her poems, it seems that “darkness” would be a metaphor for the uncertainty, subsequently allowing “sight” to be a metaphor for how we tend to react to this uncertainty. Her two poems, “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and “Before I got my eye put out” seem to share the same representation and message that sight isn’t only a physical sense, but more importantly it’s the way our minds can adjust to see problematic situations with a different outlook.

“What is the speaker really saying about sight?” The poems, We Grow Accustomed to the Dark and Before I Got My Eye Put Out written by Emily Dickinson, mainly focus on sight. The first poem centers around this idea of being in a dark state. If someone condemns themself to darkness they might not recognize the light and good in the world. The second poem shows how the speaker is dealing with the loss of her eyesight and possibly taking it for granted. In each poem the speaker shares their own perspective on the world. Throughout the poems, Dickinson supports this idea of sight using figurative language- specifically metaphors. In these two poems you will hear a variation of tones from the speakers.

Most people depend on their sight to guide their path, but what if they lose their sense of sight? What would they do? Emily Dickinson’s vision grew poorer and poorer as she aged due to writing poems in the dim light of the night. She wrote two poems related to sight, but there was a much deeper meaning to the both of them. Sometimes people with the ability of sight are blinded as to someone who is blind can see clearly. People can not always depend on their eyes to lead their path in life.They have to open their soul to lead the way.

Emily Dickinson's most famous work, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is generally considered to be one of the great masterpieces of American poetry (GALE). Dickinson experienced an emotional crisis of an undetermined nature in the early 1860's. Her traumatized state of mind is believed to have inspired her writing. In this particular poem, “Because I could not stop for Death,” the deceased narrator of the poem reminisces about that material day when Death came seeking for her. In stanza one of the poem, the speaker states that she had always been too occupied to give room to death, so in good manner, he stopped for her. She further remarks that, in his carriage, she was accompanied by Immortality alongside Death. "The Carriage held

In Dickinson’s poem, Eden, characterized as a place of holiness, warmth, and comfort, becomes “that old-fashioned house” (Dickinson 1). Her word choice gives the sense that Eden is a place of comfort and warmth similar to how old-fashioned house would be. She then goes on to say how the residents of the home “sauntered from the Door, Unconscious their returning, But discover it no more” (Dickinson 6-8). These three lines show a dramatic change of tone in writing, as it goes from a sense of being relaxed while walking out of “Eden”, to a sense of fear and anxiousness in order to return to “Eden”. To my understanding, the poem provides the allusion that “Dickinson’s Eden” is a place of comfort vaguely similar to our childhood, and that once we

Emily Dickinson , a private American poet , whose poems made a lot of metaphorical references had her poems exposed by her younger sister right after she died. As a child Dickinson lived most of her life in isolation which gave her time to write a lot of things like letters and poems like “Before I Got My Eye Put Out” and “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”. Most of her poems aren't literal. They are written in metaphorical ways to make you think. Like her poem “Before I Got My Eye Put Out” , I think this poem is referring to how she wanted to explore the world , but later realized that she would be safer inside where there was shelter and protection. In her poem “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” I think she refers to how she lost somebody that she was close to , and the problem she encountered along the way as they were gone. Both of these poems are alike in a way that they both talk about losing or giving up on something. In “Before I Got My Eye Put Put Out” the speaker reacts to the loss by giving up and not trying anymore. I think speaker in “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” would react differently and actually try to explore the world and go on an adventure.

“We grow accustomed to the dark” talks about sight in a literal and metaphorical sense. Emily Dickinson has a great way of making the readers really think about what they just read. Not only is the poem powerful and intriguing, you question what you

In some instances within literature, writers surprise readers by incorporating ideas that the reader may or may not expect. Within Emily Dickinson’s poem “I heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”, readers are introduced to a ghostly speaker that discusses the scene of their deathbed. Readers are exposed to many surprises throughout various aspects of the poem.

Darkness is perceived as many different things. It can be seen as a scary unknown or being able to push forward without knowing what’s ahead or around you. When someone looks at their past, they normally see places filled with both light memories and dark memories. Emily Dickinson was a poet whose life had many places of darkness. In her poem, We Grow Accustomed to the Dark, she is able to look through the darkness as a new beginning.

Emily Dickinson’s reputation made her appear to most people as a reclusive woman captivated by death (“Emily Dickinson” 1001). This is reinforced in many of her poems, specifically “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” In Contrast, Dylan Thomas, the poet who created “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” was well known for his over-the-top personality and iniquitous lifestyle (“Dylan Thomas”). Emily Dickinson creates the persona of an older woman, who has been called upon by Death, while Dylan Thomas has created the persona of an outraged young man whose father is dying. Although these personas differ greatly, both authors’ poems concentrate on the theme of death. Dickinson’s tone, symbols, and imagery are much more gentle and accepting than Thomas’ more aggressive diction (Withrow).

Emily Dickinson stresses the theme of death in her poem, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” It seems as if she likes to explore and question the experience of mortality. Within her poem, she creates conceits that compare death to a lover and tries to explain the process of death. Dickinson tentatively approaches the theme of mortality and questions what the actual experience of death is like rather than avoiding it. Poems that usually have a theme of death revolve around the fear of dying and the worry that there is not enough time within a lifetime, however, Dickinson uses personified metaphors to describe the process of dying and shows curiosity throughout her poem rather than fear of running out of time.

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