Preview

Theme on Emily Dickinson Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
865 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theme on Emily Dickinson Essay Example
Anthony J. Buchanan

English 203 1:00 MWF, Theme #3

Oct. 25, 2000

Poems of Emily Dickinson

Thesis of my paper that I am trying to prove to the reader is that Emily Dickinson is a brilliant extraordinary writer. She talks about mortality and death within her life and on paper in her poem works.

Although she lived a seemingly secluded life, Emily Dickinson's many encounters with death influenced many of her poems and letters. Perhaps one of the most ground breaking and inventive poets in American history, Dickinson has become as well known for her bizarre and eccentric life as for her incredible poems and letters. Numbering over 1,700, her poems highlight the many moments in a 19th century New England woman's life, including the deaths of some of her most beloved friends and family, most of which occurred in a short period of time (Introduction, Paragraph 2).

In many short poems, several readers or critics of Dickinson point out her methods of exploring several topics in "circumference," as she says in her own words. Death is perhaps one of the best examples of this exploration and examination. Other than one trip to Washington and Philadelphia, several excursions to Boston to see a doctor and a few short years in school, Dickinson never left her hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts. In the latter part of her life she rarely left her large brick house, and communicated even to her beloved sister through a door often left "slightly ajar." This seclusion gave her a reputation for eccentricity to the local towns' people, and perhaps increased her interest in death (The Belle Of Amherst, Dickinson).

Some knew Dickinson in Amherst as, "the New England mystic,". Her only contact to her few friends and correspondents was through a series of letters, seen as some authors and critics to be equal not only in number to her poetic works, but in literary genius as well (Introduction Dickinson).

Explored thoroughly in her

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson is known as one of the most unique and influential poets of all time. Many of her poems are recognized for their deep meanings and dark tones. She often wrote about unconventional themes of death and immortality. Less than a dozen of her eighteen hundred poems were published while she was alive. Today, Dickinson is known as one of the greatest American poets for her eccentric and truth seeking pieces of literature.…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson, a chief figure in American literature, wrote hundreds of poems in her lifetime using unusual syntax and form. Several if not all her poems revolved around themes of nature, illness, love, and death. Dickinson’s poem, Because I could not stop for Death, a lyric with a jarring volta conflates several themes with an air of ambiguity leaving multiple interpretations open for analysis. Whether death is a lover and immortality their chaperone, a deceiver and seducer of the speaker to lead her to demise, or a timely truth of life, literary devices such as syntax, selection of detail, and diction throughout the poem support and enable these different understandings to stand alone.…

    • 113 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The great Emily Dickinson is known for her inquisitive and powerful poems, but what made her poems so notable? Emily lived a simple life, mostly secluded, so why would some simple poems change how people thought about such difficult subjects? The answers are in her style of writing. Her seclusion allowed her to “meditate on life and death” and write about such controversial themes and topics that are still being discussed today (Allen 546). Her ability to highlight important words or phrases or cause a short pause or accentuate a certain phrase cause people reading her work to entirely stop and think about what they had just read. Emily Dickinson’s style, involving odd punctuation, unusual capitalization, and meticulous figurative language,…

    • 1463 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    this theme are Because I could not stop for Death— and A Coffin — is a small Domain.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is an odd thing, humans do not know what waits for them the moment their hearts stop beating, they do not know where they’ll end up going- but death is a common topic. Whether it be in movies or writing, death has made its impression on the world; especially on poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” focus on a consistent theme of death and her own curiosity on what it might be like to die herself. Dickinson’s life and use of the archetypal device have a connection to helping fuel her dreary, death revolving, poetry.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Duhac, Joseph. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: An Annotated Guide to Commentary Published in English. 1890-1977. Boston: G.K. Hall. 327-331.…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Emily Dickinson Outline

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I. Emily Dickinson was an introvert who wrote poems about life, love and death. Dickinson showed her feelings of death and Desire using unusual scenario’s that cause the reader to stretch their thinking and go beyond superficial thought. Emily Dickinson uses imagery, Form, and settings in her poems in “I Heard a Fly Buzz when I Died” to set the tone of the poem.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Michael Salvucci Mrs. Comeau English 10 Honors Death, Pain, and the Pursuit of Peace Although Emily Dickinson’s poetry is profoundly insightful, her poems have a very confinedpan of subjects and themes. Most likely due to her early life and social reclusion, Dickinson’s poetry is limited to three major subjects: death, pain, and on a somewhat lighter note, nature. Dickinson’s poetry is greatly influenced by her early life as she led an extremely secluded and pessimisticlife. In her early adult years the poet spent one year studying at female seminary, from 1847 to 1848. Dickinson’s blunt pessimistic attitude is shown in a letter, written to a friend, as she says “I am not happy…Christ is calling everyone here, all my companions have answered, and I am standing alone in rebellion.” (Meltzer 20-21) The poets self-described rebellious manner can be acclaimed to her residence featuring many politically active and dominant men, as her brother, father and grandfather were all attorneys with interest in politics. Again in a letter to a friend written during a political convention, Dickinson wonders “why can’t [she] be a delegate in the convention?” as she says “[she] knows all about the tariff and the law.” (Sewall 64-65) She recognizes the gender barrier in society and as a result Dickinson develops a unique style of poetry. Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. (Lines 1-4) The speaker’s use of the word ‘kindly’ to describe death exemplifies his civil and considerate manner, but is his courteous character an illusion? Later in the poem the speaker writes: We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility. (4-8) Because of death’s kindness in stopping for the speaker, she “put[s] away / [her] labor, and [her] leisure too,” (5-6), is death being true in taking her to heaven, or is he betraying her? There interposed a fly (9-12)…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Portrayal of death through the arts in the nineteenth century was commonly done with an air of fear and trepidation. However, poetic recluse Emily Dickinson viewed death in a manner contrary to her time, as she was fascinated with the unknown regarding the passing from this world into the next. Dickinson expresses her attitude towards death and the afterlife in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” through personification, symbolism, and form.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson was a 19th century poet from Massachusetts who did not become famous until decades after her death. Looking back at her poetry, she was especially infatuated with death and religion. It would make perfect sense then that her poetry was influenced greatly by her own feelings of depression and loneliness. Emily Dickinson’s work is unique because of the poetic devices she uses, like irony, symbolism, connotation, imagery, and personification, and the recurring themes of death, religion, and nature. The following poems are related because they all share Dickinson’s common literary devices and themes.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson was an American poet who was not recognized as such until after her death. She lived in a world of isolation not answering to her front door when people came by. The vast majority of her poems express themes of immortality, love, and death. Prior to her isolation she has been known for falling in love with men that were married, some of which she had committed affairs with. Emily Dickinson was also said to go long periods of time just wearing one color such as white. The movement of transcendentalism impacts her beliefs and values.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Emily Dickinson Beliefs

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is one of the most influential poets and has unique characteristics that make her very different than any other poet. What causes Dickinson to be so unique is the words she writes and how she expresses her thoughts with them. Since a very young age, Emily Dickinson has always been captivated with religion and death. It aided that her room had a view of a cemetery and that her father was extremely religious. Her philosophies covered the Christian faith and how she felt about the church in her poem, “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church;” also, “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” gave different perspectives on how she felt about funerals and death. She had only a few inspirations that helped her in her writing and influenced…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the history of human kind, there have existed a significant number of poets, who did not care to write about “happy things.” Rather, they concerned themselves with unpleasant and sinister concepts, such as death. Fascination and personification of death has become a common theme in poetry, but very few poets mastered it as well as Emily Dickinson did. Although most of Dickinson’s poems are morbid, a reader has no right to overlook the aesthetic beauty with which she embellishes her “dark” art. It is apparent that for Dickinson, death is more than an event, which occurs at least once in a lifetime of every being. For her, death is a person, who will take her away with Him, when the right time comes,…

    • 985 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson is unquestionably one of the most significant, innovative, and renowned American poets. She did not always receive such high praise, however, as most of her fame and honor was obtained long after she died. While she was alive, she lived most of her life isolated from society as a recluse. During this reclusion, however, she wrote almost eighteen hundred poems, and one of these included “Because I could not stop for Death” (Mays 1187). This is one of her most popular poems and that is in part because it allows the audience to analyze the topic of death and the struggle to come to grip with one’s own demise. The concept of Death is humanized within this poem. “He” is portrayed as a groom and a conductor, as much as he is a robber…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson Ambiguity

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Dickinson lived a reclusive life away from society in her parents’ house where she used to garden and write poems and letters. In her lifetime, only tenth poems were anonymously published. Dickinson was a woman that didn’t desire to be known. In one of her poems “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” she states that “Don’t tell! They’d advertise- you know! (2)”. This poem emphasizes the fact that for society, Dickinson is nobody and that she preferred it that way. She preferred to conserved her individuality that to be advertise and loose her identity. When Dickinson died in 1886, her collection of poems was found by her sister and later published. Thomas H. Jonhson in his book “Final Harvest Emily Dickinson”, writes: She thereby steadily participated in the issues of existing. “More than Love and Death? (xiii)”. Jonhson means that Dickinson poems are about these topics, she persistently likes to express her ambiguity and questioning of these topics.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays