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Similarities Between Dickinson And Whitman

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“Dickinson and Whitman: differences and similarities”

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson share more than contemporaneity in the bustling America of the XIX century. Both are celebrated as poets who have significantly transformed the American poetry from both style and content standpoints. While they are equally innovators and write about common subjects such as nature, death, and immortality, they speak from different perspectives. She produced a more intimate poetry - one that dealt with states of mind –, which can be attributed to some extent to her reclusive and quiet life. He, in contrast, had Nature as a way to connect with what he called “the Over Soul” and trusted its regenerative and instructional powers, dealing with this theme in a broader way when compared to Dickinson.
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In his poem A child said, What is the grass?, he portrays grass as representation of the life-death cycle. He responds to Emerson’s call celebrating nature as divine and a symbol of God, as the universe is full of life and meaning, calling the reader’s attention to the everyday minor miracles. He rejoices about a series of nature’s elements in his poetry, which can be extensively seen in Leaves of Grass.
Another focus of Whitman’s poetry in on the average people in opposition to individuals who exhorted power. His developed a concept of self that suited all individuals, in a way to join all Americans around a unified identity. Therefore, his poetry is perceived as communal, in opposition to Dickinson’s intimate voice.
From a formal perspective, Whitman is known as someone who have perfected the free verse while Dickinson preferred slant or partial rhyme schemes as well as irregular punctuation and capitalization. As far as length is concerned, Whitman wrote long and frequently intricate poems whereas Dickinson’s poems are rather shorter and more

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