Whitman And Dickinson

Walt Whitman 's poem, "To a Locomotive in Winter" and Emily Dickinson 's "I Like to See It Lap The Miles" are two different poems about the same subject, the steam engine. Where Whitman uses solely free verse, Dickinson’s poem more closely follows standard writing practices, with very structured line breaks. Another key difference in these works is the speech they use; Whitman uses "old English" laden with thee and thy, whereas Dickinson uses fairly modern terminology. Whitman describes the elegant and powerful grandeur of the locomotive from the shining brass and steel to the twinkling of the wheels. Dickinson describes the arrogance and nuisance of it as she imagines it staring down upon the

As the speaker sits in an auditorium, they observe the lecturer’s many notes, “When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, / When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,” (lines 2-3). This line provides strong visual imagery of complex investigations in astronomy, and a reader can easily imagine a full lecture room with endless notes and charts which aids in providing the mind-numbing mood of the experience. Moreover, the repetitions of what are essentially synonyms in this context make these lines sound like the rambles of the astronomer, contributing to the tone. As the speaker tires of the lecture, he leaves the room and “In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, / Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars” (lines 8-9). Here Whitman again employs imagery to make the night seem appealing and

I believe that the characters in Whitman’s writings have a sense of individualism and by comparing and contrasting each of the main character in “Song of Myself” and “Drum Taps” it will show others what it is like to share individuality as a whole with the world, but to be different as well based on the experiences some may have to go through.

By looking at one of Dickinson’s poems and comparing it to the works of her contemporaries will reveal her unique syntax and style. Her use of dashes and capitalization as punctuation is unorthodox. Often, she uses slant rhyme instead of absolute rhyme - yet another way she rebels against traditional poetry. Transcendentalism is marked by a rebellious spirit, one not always directly defiant yet markedly different. Moreover, Dickinson shows this uniqueness through her syntax and themes. Dickinson chooses to write a number of her poems about death, a theme rarely covered by those other than Gothic writers and even they feature little discussion about death. Comparatively, Dickinson remarks it with hope of understanding death for she writes about it from nearly every perspective. This idea of understanding everything is a crucial tenet of transcendentalism. Moreover, Dickinson shows that she wants to truly understand death because nearly one third of her poetry is about

Isiah Porter 11/24/15 Essay 3 World Literature Literary Devices in Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” The opening line is powerful concerning how Walt Whitman feels about himself in the poem, Song of Myself. This is about a comparison concerning two different things. To better understand this text, I will discuss lines that will open your mind to a higher calling of the text concerning how author talks about himself and what he really means.

In Crossing Brooklyn Ferry Whitman attempts to transcend time and place, “The similitudes of the past and those of the future”. This becomes even more apparent when the second stanza is read, when he speaks of others, “Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore, Others will watch the run of the flood-tide, Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east. It is here that Whitman directly engages his audience and later he says, “ Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt”. He strives to break down boundaries, abolish differences, and eliminate separateness. Whitman is speaking directly to us, here and now, generations later. He is also quite clear on what direction he wants us to go as he maps it out smoothly with his words. Emily Dickinson, however, in contrast does not lay out such a clear path with her words. She plants them in the audiences’ mind instead, like a seed, where, when given some thought it will grow and possibly then be understood. After great pain, a formal feeling comes is a good example of how she is not quite as clear as Whitman is. She writes “The stiff Heart questions was it he, that bore, And yesterday, or centuries before? The reader can not gain a sense of what exactly she is talking about. “This is the hour of

As mentioned earlier, Whitman and Dickinson introduced new ways to create poetry with their works. This is because the Civil War was going on during the peak of their career, giving them new material to work with. A similarity is introduced with this: both Whitman and Dickinson typically incorporated Civil War themes (death, war, etc.), as well as other modern ideas, in

When reading Emily Dickinson’s work, she has a unique writing style which is clearly seen in this poem. She uses a lot of dashes and shorty, choppy sentences which is a common theme in her poems. The use of dashes in is important to the way the piece flows and is read. By including dashes into the reading, it forces the

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are both well-known poets. They have two different types of writing styles. Both of Walt Whitman’s poems, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” and “The Wound-Dresser” are more extensive than Emily Dickinson’s poems. Her poems were shorter and simpler words were used, however, her poems had deeper meanings than Whitman’s. In “The Wound-Dresser”, Whitman uses words such as “captur’d works” to describe what can be interpreted as trenches. Whitman also uses a different type of writing than Dickinson does because he replaces his e’s with apostrophes. “Arous’d,” “droop’d,” and “unsurpass’d” are some examples of this.

Though their approaches differ on similar themes, such as, death, life, God, and the details of their relation to the natural world, both poets established their own unique style of writing that in turn shaped American poetry as we see it today. Dickinson and Whitman were brilliant writers who merely expressed their brilliance through their own style of poetry. Majority of Dickinson’s' poems were written with no title, titling “fewer than 10 of her almost 1800 poems” (Major). Today her poems are known by either the first lines or the numbers assigned to them by

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are considered to be two of the best poets in the 19th century. These two poets have written many stories, poems, and books throughout their lives. They are each know for a different aspect. Dickinson is known for writing poems which question immortality and death, meanwhile Whitman is recognized for continuing the tradition of Transcendentalism. although they might have different ways styles of writing, these two often depict similar views for certain themes of life. In this case Whitman and Dickinson describe death in almost identical ways but yet still have dissimilarities which distinguishes their style of writing. Their definition also happens to be more fully explained and improved than that of the dictionary. To add more to that Dickinson also does a great job explaining the meaning of the brain in a more indepth and specific way. So one can say that authors, poets, and writers, have a unique and specific method of explaining the full aspects behind a word.

This poem makes the assumption that the poet knows the truth,but makes an active choice to hold it back to “tell it slant”,so as not to dazzle the sensitive reader.in Dickinson’s poems,however,it seems more likely that her circuitous paths to the truth,returning to the same themes again and again,from different conclusions,are not so much to protect the reader from the pure light of the truth,but are because this is how she discover it.

American literature shifted from romanticism to realism after witnessing the harsh aftermath of the Civil War as many lives were taken, homes were destroyed, and many were left deserted. This reality disintegrated previous mindsets and united the country under the founding ideals of equality.

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two acclaimed poets whose writing demonstrating the ideals of transcendentalism and naturalism. The use of nature, human interaction, and the realities of life and death were some of the elements both shared in their poems. “Song Number 6” by Walt Whitman and “This quiet Dust Was Gentlemen and Ladies” by Emily Dickinson, shared some of the same traits; however, are distinguished in different ways in terms of writing style and how they utilized the idea of nature. Both poets had common themes to their literary works, yet distinguishable and unique characteristics separated these two poems.

Whitman is using this opportunity to comfort his audience. He tells the reader that although their experiences may seem new, terrifying, or large, they aren’t experiencing something novel. He’s cried the tears you cried, been hurt by the things you were hurt by, and loved the same things you loved. This connection of human experience is immensely stronger than the separation of place and