Emily Dickinson's Capitalization and Punctuation

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

    Figurative language plays a key role in the poem, as well. The best example is  The Morning after Death,  which sounds a lot like  mourning after death.  In fact,  mourning  could even replace  morning  and the poem would still make sense. Another example occurs in the second stanza, when Dickinson uses the words  sweeping  and  putting.   By using such cold, unfeeling words when describing matters of the heart, the author creates a numb, distant tone. She really means that after someone dies, one almost has to detach oneself from the feelings of love that once existed for the deceased.

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,

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.

Stanza one explains how Dickinson used the words to express about how it’s going to be a wild night. (maybe referring to partying) To have this night to shine to make it special almost like a treat. Saying “thee” Dickison might have been referring to people but she could have referred it to the wild night. She also used the word luxury in the context that means it probably doesn’t happen very often so it will most likely make it really special. Stanza two explains by the capitalization of her words. I really enjoyed really this stanza. It really stands out to me. The world “futile” it means pointless. “Heart” trying to highlight these words because this night should be wild and fun. It should be a free night, no specific plans just be a open

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

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 stanza 1, Dickinson begins with describing how she thinks Jesus Christ was before his death. In lines 1 and 2, Dickinson uses capitalization in "Savior" to refer to Jesus Christ, and in “Gentleman” to show that Jesus was selfless and cared for others. She describes Christ as “A docile Gentleman” to show that he was submissive until death when he sacrificed his life for everyone's sin. Dickinson uses a dash to show that she has an explanation of why she thinks Jesus was a “docile Gentleman." In the last lines, Dickinson references to the birth of Jesus Christ when she capitalizes “Day” and symbolizes “so cold a Day” to when Jesus was born in this "cold" world that was

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

The change begins in the next poem, “He touched me, so I live to know”. This “He”, presumably God, has the effect of calming Dickinson’s myriad small fears. She tells us, “I groped opon his breast--/It was a boundless place to me/And silenced, as the awful Sea/Puts minor streams to rest,” (2-5). At first it may seem that the “silenced” applies to Dickinson here—that this masculine God has taken away even more of her confidence in her own voice (4). When considered with the rest of the

The next seemingly arbitrary decision is Dickinson's capitalization. The capitalization at the beginning of the sentence must be capitalized; therefore, we'll focus on the capitalizations that lie within each sentence. In this poem, each of these words is a noun. Past this simple reading, what may we deduce from these capitalizations? Each stanza presents a different set of capitalized objects

Before all else, it is crucial to examine the format of each Dickinson poem; this would provide a reader with a baseline of what they should expect while reading and allows them to notice any outliers. Poems such as “I know that He exists” and “Apparently With No Surprise” offer more of a free-flowing structure, similar to a train of thought, in comparison to a more intransigent “‘Faith’ is Fine Invention” or “I Never Saw a Moor”. In the initial two poems, Dickinson is describing her thoughts and a scene in nature, not taking any breaths while doing so. In the latter poems, she shows a more harsh side, where lines are quick, and straight to the point. A particular line that shows urgency is found within “‘Faith is Fine invention”, where Dickinson writes, “But Microscopes are prudent, In an Emergency!”. Of

In addition to poetic devices used, the poem has a structural pattern that deepens the meaning by adding emphasis. The poem structurally consists of six stanzas with four lines each. These stanzas use an 8,6,8,6 syllable scheme for most of the poem. In addition, each line is written in iambic meter meaning every second syllable is stressed. This is also a common syllable scheme for ballads and hymns. Knowing Dickinson’s background, this syllable scheme adds meaning as a ballad is used to narrate something and a hymn is a religious song or poem. In the poem, there are unsystematic capital letters and dashes in multiple locations. However, these capital letters have meaning behind them. In lines one and four “Because I could not stop for Death/And

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

First, she uses dashes that separate the lines in the poem. The dashes are there to cause readers to pause and slowly read the poem. The next method that is used is the rhyme scheme, which is an ABCB pattern. The rhyme scheme is very important in the fact that it still slows the reading of the poem down, while still flowing smoothly. Also, Dickinson uses strange capitalization throughout the poem. The capitalization is purposely in specific words to make readers stop and think about why the words are capitalized, making the readers slow down while