The Themes of Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who wrote during the 19th century. Her work is both emotional and thought-provoking and her lack of social interaction during her lifetime give her poetry a personality that is vastly different from other poets of her time. Desmond Powell writes in “Emily Dickinson” “She was not seeking new forms; she was only writing in a form inherent in her, a form quite different from the conventional ones employed by the other poets of her day.” Dickinson was not worried about copying the work of other poets, but instead concentrated on making an art form that was entirely her own and that has managed to stand the test of time even to this day. As one of the most recognizable names in American literature, she is truly

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 was an American poetess during the 19th century, born in Amherst, Massachusetts, December 10, 1830. Dickinson died at the age of 56, on May 15, 1886. Although her family was prominent, she was most unsociable, being intensely solitary. People considered her as an eccentric, as she showed disinclination towards guests, which in some cases, even caused them to leave, leaving most of her acquaintanceships founded upon by correlation. Dickinson was known for her adherence for wearing white clothing, and her introverted personality. She remained unwedded for life, and rarely ever left her front gate of her homestead. Emily Dickinson started writing poetry in her youthful years, and was encouraged by Benjamin Franklin Newton to continue her writings. During her teenage years, she had uncovered poetic works through verses of Ralph Waldo Emerson and William Wordsworth, she also deeply admired by John Keats and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Her poetry was deeply affected by the Book of Revelation, and her Puritan background, that influenced her to explore concepts like love and death, and write in styles that made her be noticeable to the crowd. Critics believe that her biggest influence in poetry was Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whom she had met on her trip to Philadelphia, and fell in love with him. It is believed that her flow of verses came when Wadsworth left, which gave rise to heartsick poems, as she had considered him as her “closest

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.

Emily Dickinson is the definition of poetry. Within her poems lies numerous underlying meanings and symbols from her lifetime. When she was just a teenager she left school and became a recluse on her family’s homestead. Where she would begin to write some of the greatest poems in history. It is recorded that she wrote hundreds of little poems on random pieces of paper. Some of her greatest poems were about society during her time period, and they can even relate up to today’s society. Some of her best poems about society are “The Soul Selects Her Own Society” and “Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant”. Both of these poems contain a lot of similarities. However they differ slightly, in saying that, the other really compliments the other within their deeper meanings. Within each of these poems lies metaphors, personification, and inverted syntax.

In her adolescent years, Dickinson didn’t spend a lot of time in school. She attended Amherst Academy for a short period of time. She was a very intelligent student. She later attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. She made a few friends, but not many. This is also the time she began writing. Before Dickinson departed from Amherst Academy, she had been influenced by a book of poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson. She had other influences such as her principle at Amherst, Leonard Humphrey. As a writer, her work escalated when her poems were published in their original structure. She is mostly known for her new way of writing, which was short, but it was very passionate. What she mostly wrote about was her feelings and she was brutally sincere, but she also kept actual poetry intact. Dickinson’s writing was different from other poets’ writings because she didn’t formulate her writing. She wrote what was on her mind

Emily Dickinson is one of the most famous American poets. She wrote many poems throughout her lifetime, but it was not until after her death that she became famous. She wrote about death and life, love and separation, and God. She wrote about topics like these because she was inspired by the experiences in her life. Throughout her life, she dealt with problems that caused her to seclude herself, wear only a while dress, and write poems. Many have questioned what caused her seclusion? What happened that was so devastating to make her want to be alone all the time? Why did she always wear white?

Until Dickinson was in her mid-twenties, her writing mostly took the form of letters, and a surprising number of those that she wrote from age eleven onward have been preserved. Sent to her brother, Austin, or to friends, these generous communications overflow with humor, narration, invention, and reflection. Indeed, the loss of friends, whether through death or cooling interest, became a basic pattern for Dickinson. Much of her writing, both poetic and epistolary, seems premised on a feeling of abandonment and a matching effort to deny, overcome, or reflect on a sense of solitude. In 1858 Dickinson began assembling her manuscript-books. She made clean copies of her poems on fine quality stationery and then sewed small bundles of these sheets together at the fold. Over the next seven years she created forty such booklets and several unsewn sheaves, and altogether they contained about eight hundred poems. Dickinson sent more poems to her sister-in-law than to any other known correspondent. In those years Dickinson experienced a painful and unclear personal crisis, partly of a romantic nature. The sad and pleading drafts of her second and third letters to the unidentified person she called “Master” are probably related to her many poems about a loved but distant person, usually male. There has been much speculation about the identity of this

The mysterious woman, who only wore white, is one of Americas most famous female poets. She began writing at a young age, and continued to write or revise her work as she got older. Dickinson stayed fairly predictable in her style of writing, but was always original in content. It was common during this time period for for poets to not let reason limit their writing. Her writing style became even more unique after the death of many of her friends. Dickinson was very private and didn’t publish many of her poems herself. During the Romanticism Era Emily Elizabeth Dickinson wrote over 1,800 poems focusing on love, faith, pain, nature, and death but was very secluded from society which leaves much of her life up to speculation.

One of Emily’s Dickinson’s amazing gifts as a poet was her ability to write her poems

Emily Dickinson, a more calm writer, wrote about what she knew and what intrigued her. She used imagery from nature, religion, love, reality, and death in each of her poems. Using pathos, she writes her poems with strong satire which

With her grandfather one of the initial founders of Amherst College, Dickinson was sure to get a great education not only from school, but from the people around her. Her father always made sure to have brilliant literature in the house, not allowing works he thought were not literally correct or inappropriate. She resented this and developed an independent personality which would later show up in a few of her works. Dickinson was introduced to writers such as William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson by her fathers boss Benjamin Newton. Newton soon died of tuberculous, but only after effecting Dickinson's writings a great deal(Emily Dickinson-Biography). In the duration of Dickinson's youth, Calvinist revivals were sweeping the nation. Emily attended the rallies until she eventually became partial to worshiping in her own house as she mentions in her one of her writings, '“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – / I keep it, staying at Home.”'(Emily Dickinson-Biography). From this point forward her relationship with God greatly influences her work.In her young adult years, Dickinson was joyful and pleasant. As she got older, she had a change in personality; she became a more sad than normal. She left her home for one year to attend Mount Holyoke Female Seminary but sent for her brother to retrieve her “'at all events”'(Emily Dickinson-Biography). Other than that year Dickinson remained at home for the rest of her life. In Dickinson early twenties many close friends and mentors had died, leaving her extremely sad, marking the beginning of her depression. Dickinson was slowly secluding herself from everyone except Susan Gilbert, her neighbor, sister-in-law, and life long friend. Dickinson would often sent Gilbert writings for editorial advice, as Gilbert was a writer as well. Dickinson's dying mother only brought her further into isolation.

Comfort can be found in any place that it is desired. Dickinson’s desired comfort was found within the experience of seclusion. In 1852, Emily went through an unknown, traumatic event which caused her to sink into the depths of her emotions. She withdrew from society for 15 years and refused to interact with any one contacted with the outside world. She resided within the confines of Homestead from 1858 until her death, in 1862. All visitors of Homestead were hidden from and her only focus was poetry (Miller). Some say the cause of her withdrawal was the rejection of her mother, which lead to an immunity to loneliness. Others say she withdrew because none of her relationships seemed to work out which understandably could cause a strong feeling of misery. However, Emily quite frequently had trouble getting poems published, therefore she could have merely wanted to perfect her poetry. Dickinson’s period of seclusion inspired many of her astonishing, yet negative-toned poems still being read

Emily Dickinson’s reclusive life was arguably a result of her proposed bi-polar disorder. This life and disorder unduly influenced the themes of her poetry. She chose not to associate herself with society and volumes of her poems, published posthumously, examine this idea as well as the themes of nature and death. The clearest examples of these themes are presented in the following analysis of just of few of her

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.