More handpicked essays just for you.
Emily dickinson the soul selects analysis
Emily dickinson the soul selects analysis
Emily dickinson the soul selects analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Emily Dickinson’s “The Soul Selects her Own Society” presents herself as absolute and her rights as unchallengeable. The poem puts forward the idea of “friendship or love” which means choosing a significant person and excluding other people. Dickinson reveals that she was shutting people from her life, but because it had been so long, they are no longer interested in taking part of her life. Dickinson’s actions imply that the ability to create and construct a world for oneself, such as choosing your own actions, provides an example of a god-like achievement. Overall, Dickson asserts the importance of “the Self” theme which is shown my just speaking and writing as a ratification of the will to explore and express “the Self” to others.
The poem is indicative of the poet herself and when she “shuts the Door-”, she locks herself behind a closed door and chooses to remain in solitude Behind the door, she tries to find herself and her religion. She is “Unmoved-” until “she notes the Chariots pausing- because Dickson is in a way, separated from the world due to her isolation. The “Chariots” are coming for her as if they were people who were trying to be in her presence. Even when an “Emperor be kneeling” in front of her, she is indifferent to a powerful figure’s actions. The “Emperor” is part of the “divine Majority” and it means status or rank, which is an important idea. The soul is not won by status or rank. Dickinson sees the “Emperor” as a threat because he is “Upon her Mat-”. He came into her life and has come to change her. However, Dickinson is “Unmoved” by his presence and she must “choose one-” which could mean a suitor. If the “one” is a suitor, the poem could mean that she has to choose whether to marry him or not. “I’ve k...
... middle of paper ...
...e has the right to choose how to spend her life. Dickinson lived a very lonely and isolated life where she lost many important people in her life. The poem, “The Soul selects her own Society” brings attention to the Western society where isolation becomes prevalent and the cultures starts to open up to independence and freedom which leads to actual social relations being replaced with nonexistent sociableness. However, Dickinson was not easily swayed by force, wealth, and beauty like the “Majority”. She was a strong woman who could “shut the Door” and “close the Valves of her attention-Like Stone-”. She provides many ways to interpret the poem and she teaches an important lesson about how the “Soul” makes the decision and not the mind. She creates and eye opening life lesson that enlightens people to make their own decisions for their own life within twelve lines.
Her voice expresses the individual power to select the people whose opinions matter as well as who the individual lets in. “The Soul selects her own Society - / Then - shuts the Door - (354).” It also represents how the individual has the power to make choices independent from the majority view. Dickinson also voices that individualism can come along with unacceptance because you are not conforming yourself to the standards of society,“This is my letter to the World / That never wrote to Me - “ (This is my Letter to the World 354).
“Although Emily Dickinson is known as one of America’s best and most beloved poets, her extraordinary talent was not recognized until after her death” (Kort 1). Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she spent most of her life with her younger sister, older brother, semi-invalid mother, and domineering father in the house that her prominent family owned. As a child, she was curious and was considered a bright student and a voracious reader. She graduated from Amherst Academy in 1847, and attended a female seminary for a year, which she quitted as she considered that “’I [she] am [was] standing alone in rebellion [against becoming an ‘established Christian’].’” (Kort 1) and was homesick. Afterwards, she excluded herself from having a social life, as she took most of the house’s domestic responsibilities, and began writing; she only left Massachusetts once. During the rest of her life, she wrote prolifically by retreating to her room as soon as she could. Her works were influenced ...
Although Emily Dickinson was a private person throughout her life, some critics gave a negative view to her work. For example, the work of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is dissenting toward the nineteenth century woman. Critics imply that this work of Dickinson had a negative influence on marriage and independent women. They believe the proper place for a woman was beside her husband, but a husbandless woman, according to Dickinson, was uncertain of herself. Although the independent woman has a life, she is literally speaking through a grave. She has been deceived, driven to her death, and has been abandoned.
Emily Dickinson was an intricate and contradictory figure who moved from a reverent faith in God to a deep suspicion of him in her works. (Sherwood 3) Through her own intentional choice she was, in her lifetime, considered peculiar. Despite different people and groups trying to influence her, she resisted making a public confession of faith to Christ and the Church. (Sherwood 10) She wanted to establish her own wanted to establish her own individuality and, in doing so, turned to poetry. (Benfey 27) Dickinson’s poems were a sort of channel for her feelings and an “exploration” of her faith (Benfey 27).
Dickinson's poetry is both thought provoking and shocking. This poem communicates many things about Dickinson, such as her cynical outlook on God, and her obsession with death. It is puzzling to me why a young lady such as Emily Dickinson would be so melancholy, since she seemed to have such a good life. Perhaps she just revealed in her poetry that dark side that most people try to keep hidden.
Emily Dickinson is one of the great visionary poets of nineteenth century America. In her lifetime, she composed more poems than most modern Americans will even read in their lifetimes. Dickinson is still praised today, and she continues to be taught in schools, read for pleasure, and studied for research and criticism. Since she stayed inside her house for most of her life, and many of her poems were not discovered until after her death, Dickinson was uninvolved in the publication process of her poetry. This means that every Dickinson poem in print today is just a guess—an assumption of what the author wanted on the page. As a result, Dickinson maintains an aura of mystery as a writer. However, this mystery is often overshadowed by a more prevalent notion of Dickinson as an eccentric recluse or a madwoman. Of course, it is difficult to give one label to Dickinson and expect that label to summarize her entire life. Certainly she was a complex woman who could not accurately be described with one sentence or phrase. Her poems are unique and quite interestingly composed—just looking at them on the page is pleasurable—and it may very well prove useful to examine the author when reading her poems. Understanding Dickinson may lead to a better interpretation of the poems, a better appreciation of her life’s work. What is not useful, however, is reading her poems while looking back at the one sentence summary of Dickinson’s life.
The life led by Emily Dickinson was one secluded from the outside world, but full of color and light within. During her time she was not well known, but as time progressed after her death more and more people took her works into consideration and many of them were published. Dickinson’s life was interesting in its self, but the life her poems held, changed American Literature. Emily Dickinson led a unique life that emotionally attached her to her writing and the people who would read them long after she died.
Emily Dickinson is one of the most well known poets of her time. Though her life was outwardly uneventful, what went on inside her house behind closed doors is unbelievable. After her father died she met Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She soon came to regard him as one of her most trusted friends, and she created in his image the “lover'; whom she was never to know except in her imagination. It is also said that it was around 1812 when he was removed to San Fransico that she began her withdrawal from society. During this time she began to write many of her poems. She wrote mainly in private, guarding all of her poems from all but a few select friends. She did not write for fame, but instead as a way of expressing her feelings. In her lifetime only six of her poems were even printed; none of which had her consent. It was not until her death of Brights Disease in May of 1862, that many of her poems were even read (Chelsea House of Library Criticism 2837). Thus proving that the analysis on Emily Dickinson’s poetry is some of the most emotionally felt works of the nineteenth century.
In Emily Dickinson’s poem #280, “I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain”, she compares her state of depression and madness with a funeral. In a predominant male society, Dickinson feels trapped in a coffin, where she is unable to make any decisions on her own. The women’s role in society during her time was to be a good “Angel of the House”, to be a good housewife. This captivity is the cause of her depression, which in turn causes her to slowly lose her sense of self. The “Mourners” seem to be the majority of society who demands her to take up her part in society as a respectable young woman. This peer pressure seems to draw her in:
Although, Emily Dickinson physically isolated herself from the world she managed to maintain friendships by communicating through correspondence. Ironically, Dickinson’s poetry was collected and published after her death. Dickinson explores life and death in most of her poems by questioning the existence of God. Dickinson applies common human experiences as images to illustrate the connection from the personal level of the human being, to a universal level of faith and God. This can be seen in Dickinson’s Poem (I, 45).
Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost talk about the power of nature in their poetry. Frost and Dickinson have reasonable evidence on why human beings should live life to their own agenda but, what if that person cannot stop living somebody else's dreams? How can these poems help people break away from society and become a strong, confident individual? In these poems the authors make a bold statement or display punctuation to describe the mood and tone of the poetry.
Dickinson’s Christian education affected her profoundly, and her desire for a human intuitive faith motivates and enlivens her poetry. Yet what she has faith in tends to be left undefined because she assumes that it is unknowable. There are many unknown subjects in her poetry among them: Death and the afterlife, God, nature, artistic and poetic inspiration, one’s own mind, and other human beings.
Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.
Emily Dickinson, who achieved more fame after her death, is said to be one of the greatest American poets of all time. Dickinson communicated through letters and notes and according to Amy Paulson Herstek, author of “Emily Dickinson: Solitary and Celebrated Poet,” “Writing was the way she kept in touch with the world” (15). Dickinson’s style is unique and although unconventional, it led to extraordinary works of literature. Dickinson lived her life in solitude, but in her solitude she was free to read, write and think which led to her nonconformity and strong sense of individualism. Suzanne Juhasz, a biographer of Dickinson, sums up most critics’ idea of Dickinson ideally: “Emily Dickinson is at once the most intimate of poets, and the most guarded. The most self-sufficient, and the neediest. The proudest, and the most vulnerable. These contradictions, which we as her readers encounter repeatedly in her poems, are understandable, not paradoxical, for they result from the tension between the life to which she was born and the one to which she aspired” (1). Dickinson poured her heart and soul into over 1,700
Many of her poems were a reaction to the rejection of many publishers and other literary critics. This particular poem’s character comes from Dickinson’s reaction to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s statement that “poets are thus liberating gods.” Here she is challenging the established literati by questioning popular Emersonian views. In particular, this poem is a reaction to Emerson’s belief that “the poet is the sayer, the namer, and represents beauty.” Basically, it is a reaction to the idea that the poet is the creator of beautiful words, liberating the common people by giving them words they would not have access to.