In Emily Dickinson’s poem “I am afraid to own a Body” the speaker primarily uses sound to posit the overall theme of the poem. More specifically, she uses incoherent and disjointed repetition (notably alliteration and assonance) and slant rhymes that scatter the poem but do not fall into any pattern to suggest her own inability to conform to expected or desired patterns of being a human. The background imagery of inheritance to which the poem alludes complements these expected patterns.…
"I'm Nobody! Who are you?" is a case of one of Dickinson's all the more interesting sonnets, yet the comic drama is not just for delight. Or maybe, it contains a gnawing parody of people in general circle, both of the general population figures who have the advantage of it, and of the masses who license them to. Dickinson's light tone, silly voice, and welcome to the peruser to be on her side, nonetheless, keep the sharp edge of the parody from cutting too stingingly.…
Emily Dickinson’s main purpose in poem 355 is to describe an indefinable depression. She creates a melancholy persona to depict the chaos and despair she feels because of her condition. Her poem is structured around her uncertainty towards her mental state. Dickinson, in the first two stanzas, eliminates possibilities to what she may be feeling. She analyzes that “it was not death”, “it was not night”, “it was not frost”, “nor fire”. The poem appeals to the human sense of touch, as Dickinson compares tangible sensations that the body normally experiences to her tumultuous emotions. In the third stanza, Dickinson synthesizes all of the possibilities she eradicated in the previous two stanzas, ominously stating that her condition “tasted like them all”. The narrator is unable to distinguish her feelings from one another, leading the reader to conclude that she is in a chaotic state of mind. She compares her condition to a funeral, both of which evoke death. In the fourth stanza, Dickinson continues to explore her persona’s dark psyche. The narrator experiences terror and despair to the point where she “could not breathe.” Her only “key” to escape this punishment is to be able to understand what she is feeling and why…
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830 and died on May 15, 1886, she was born and died in the same house and it was called the Homestead. The Homestead was located in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson was a well-known, great American poet during her time. Growing up Dickinson had very good education she studied at Amherst Academy for seven years of her youth and then proceeded on to attend Mount Holyoke College. Over a time period of 30 years she wrote and revised almost all the 1800s poems that have been passed down to us today, she did this all at a small desk in her bedroom. She would go to her room and write in the afternoon after she finished her household chores which were cooking, baking, gardening, and cleaning. She would started writing in the afternoon…
In this poem, the speaker speaks from the spiritual realm. As the narrator is speaking, the narrator talks about the day she died. The theme of this poem is death is inevitable yet peaceful.…
There is a multitude of poems written with the theme of death, be it in a positive light or negative. Some poets write poems that depict Death as a spine-chilling inevitable end, others hold respect for this natural occurrence. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, diction and personification is utilized to demonstrate the speaker’s cordial friendship with Death.…
Dickinson and Frost expresses their views on darkness and night in the poems, “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and “Acquainted with the Night”. Although the two poems have a similar subject and imagery, there are differences in the tones and views. The subject of the two poems is the struggles in life, which is symbolized as night and darkness. In both poems, there is this walk or journey that the narrators take, most likely a metaphor for life.…
"Hope is a strange invention", written in 1877, demonstrates Emily's individuality and cleverness with the structure and the organization of her poetry. This literary piece consists of two quatrains and follows the pattern of an iambic trimeter and an iambic tetrameter every other line. The rhyme scheme mimics the imperfect sequence ABAC, which possesses Dickinson's typical style. The Transcendentalist often compares hope to unrelated things, like when she writes, "hope is a strange invention" or "this electric adjunct". These comparisons, termed metaphors, appear sporadically throughout the poem.…
This signifies how Emily enjoys seclusion and has chosen a prison to be her refuge. In the following stanza, Emily shows appreciation of her confinement through, “the appointed Beam” which symbolises something that provides the persona with support and structure. She uses symbolism of food in the second stanza when she writes “It deals us- stated as our food” to represent how the persona not only hungers, but depends on the self-imposed isolation. Dickinson uses juxtaposition to explain the seclusion of a prison by saying “so miserable a sound-at first- nor ever now-so sweet’, describing a prison as both miserable and sweet. This implies that although isolation may seem miserable at first, the privacy and exclusion will eventually grow on you and you begin to appreciate it. The reoccurring metaphor of a prison being the persona’s room is explored when she says ‘A geometric joy’, which suggests that the square shape of a room and its limited circuit brings contentment and comfort to the persona. In the fourth and fifth stanza, the idea that the prison and the key are an illusion is acknowledged when Emily uses the word ‘Phantasm’ proving to the audience that in actuality Dickinson has created this way of life and is satisfied with the privacy it provides. In the final stanza, Dickinson implys that freedom can only be redeemed after life when she…
Darkness entails various reputations such as evil, loneliness, and anguish. Whenever darkness is mentioned there is likely to be no good in the vicinity. “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”, by Emily Dickinson and “Acquainted with the Night”, by Robert Frost are full of similarities. They both share themes of darkness, but their tones are different. One poem gradually becomes hopeful while the other fills minds with thoughts of despair. The uniqueness of these poems are shown through there tones, structure and point of view.…
Contributing hundreds of poems to today’s collection of literature, Dickinson wrote to convey experience and virtues to her readers. Despite her elected seclusion, her universal themes span many nations and invoke a sense of meaning and importance into her readers. Incorporating irregularities into her poetry with a clear purpose, Dickinson’s unique command of punctuation, capitalization, and rhyme contribute to the overall power of her writing. Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest female American poets of all time, and her words will continue to influence people for centuries to…
In all four of the poems there is a common connection which is faith. In Emily Dickinson's poems the author’s project was to show that people should have faith by expressing how both science and faith are important, by knowing faith can’t be seen, by believing in something she has never seen, and by knowing everything happens for a reason. These are the topics that are expressed in each poem.…
Literature is a stimulant for imagination and inspiration. Depriving one of literary and poetic works suppresses expansion and growth. Emily Dickinson’s poem “There is no Frigate like a Book,” suggests that literature, allows readers to distance themselves from reality and embark on limitless journeys. Dickinson’s use of words with particular connotations gives her short poem a rich and meaningful aspect.…
In her poem, #465, Emily Dickinson’s speaker allows the reader to experience an ironic reversal of conventional expectation of the moment of death in the mid-1800s, as the speaker finds nothing but an eerie darkness at the end of her life.…
Succeeding in life, or achieving one’s own goals, seems to be the central theme in everyone’s life as is in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Dickinson expresses the lessons learned in life throughout her poems. There can be many hardships and obstacles preventing one from their own succession. The prevailing of these obstacles leads to one’s success is life.…