We Grow Accustomed to the Dark...

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

Dickinson writes, “We grow accustomed to the Dark / When Light is put away / As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp / To witness her Goodbye” (Dickinson 1-4). The reader is given a situation where one must perceive his/her fears as an obstacle to overcome in order to adapt to the situation. Dickinson explains how the mind influences how people see things. Although the mind gets used to the “darkness”, the mind also changes its way of interpreting other problems. Emily Dickinson also writes, “The Bravest - grope a little / And sometimes hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead / But as they learn to see” (Dickinson 13-16). This stanza is explaining how the bravest people perceive their fears as an obstacle to overcome in order to continue forward with their lives, like adaptation. The “bravest” are those who choose to conquer their fears instead of letting their fears consume them. Overall, the poem, “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”, elaborates on how people must adapt to change sufficiently both mentally and physically in order to overcome their

Have you ever taken something too literal. Poetry can be an enigma. Emily Dickinson, a poet who expresses her life through metaphorical poems. Metaphorical poems are poems that are used to apply something that is not literally relevant but resembles something else. In the first poem, “We Grow Accustomed To The Dark” , Dickinson explains how her everyday life frustrates her and she was ready for a change. In the second poem, “Before I got my eye put out”, indicates how much Dickinson appreciated her sight before it went away. In this essay there will be some explanations on how Emily Dickinson expresses her life experience in an descriptive way.

One of two ways that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by having a dash after the word “dark” in the very first line of the poem it draws attention to the word, this is shown in the following excerpt “We grow accustomed to the Dark --” this is strengthened when in the second line, when the author chose to capitalize the word “when” before the phrase “…light is put away--” therefore, strengthening the theme of darkness. Another way that the author’s use of dashes and unusual capitalization are used to contribute to my understanding of the theme of darkness in the poem is by capitalizing the words “a” and “moment” they caused a sense of hesitation,

In Emily Dickenson’s “We grow accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost’s “Acquainted with the Night” distinct views of hesitation in life are explained, and are manifested with each authors different point of views, structure, sound, imagery, and metaphors.

The poem “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark “ to me is about us ,humans , overcoming setbacks.There is always going to be people or things that will try to get in the way of us being successful . The negative energy which the poet symbolized with “ darkness” will try to stop your success . Success is symbolized with “ light “ or “eyesight” which will overcome the darkness in this poem . Us becoming accustomed and or use to the darkness is us becoming use to the negative energy that tries to stop us from becoming great at our talent or whatever activity you are pursuing . In Emily Dickinson poem “ We grow accustomed to the Dark” ,she talks about how we get use to the darkness meaning we get use the people that want you to fail or the major setbacks that are coincidentally thrown in your direction while we are working our way to the stop.

Throughout the novel one can notice a constant reference to the darkness, as symbolizing a heaviness and resignation that afflicts deeply the characters and also the atmosphere of story.

Most of us are accustomed to the light, we live and prosper in the light; it’s such a familiar thing. But imagine one day that light vanishes and it’s gone, the only thing that’s left is the darkness and it’ll be there forever, so growing accustomed to it is not an option. That’s exactly what Dickinson’s poems “We Grow Accustomed To The Dark” and “Before I Got My Eyes Put Out” are about, but on a metaphorical level. In those two poems she gives a message about how happiness disappears and depression comes, but also how her viewpoint is changed and how she takes a safer and more isolating approach.

In the poem the first word is always capitalized, and from there the words capitalized are words that almost inflict pain in themselves. For example the words “Pain, Blank,When, Future, Infinite, Past, and New,”(Dickinson 650) are some of the words Dickinson capitalizes all of them are words that can mentally cause suffering. Each of those words are unknown they are words that we see and they cause us to remember or think about something thats either painful or unknown to most which in turn helps with the theme of pain always being there no matter

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

     Metaphors and similes are used throughout this poem to give the reader an understanding of the nature of pain itself. When "He" is capitalized in western culture it is a reference to Jesus Christ. When Dickinson says, "was it He, that bore, / And Yesterday, or Centuries before?", she is comparing the suffering with the pain of the voice of the poem to the pain of Christ (3,4). The pain of the sufferer

Is there light at the end of darkness? Well according to Emily Dickinson losing sight is like never coming to light from darkness.In “ Before I got my eye put out” and “We grow accustomed to the Dark” she shows how something she loves turns to darkness. She uses various metaphoric words detailing what it's like for someone to lose their sight and be in the dark.

Have you ever been in the dark? I know what you’re thinking “of course, every night”, but that’s not what I mean. Not when you turn off the lights, and not when the sun disappears from the sky promising to return the next morning. Have you ever been in true darkness? If you haven’t, you will be. Shut your eyes and imagine yourself : you are plunged into an abyss, where you have no idea what to expect of the new realm you’ve entered. You feel and grope and try to make sense of things, but you just don’t understand. That’s what darkness is: the unknown, and it’s what Dickinson discusses in her poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and “Before I Got My Eyes Put Out”. She did lose her eyesight towards the end of her lifetime however we conclude from her context clues and figurative language that she’s not talking about literal sight but life. The “abyss” are things we don’t know and aren’t sure of, that’s what the speaker is really speaking about in these poems.

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

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