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Difference between Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson compared to Edgar Allan Poe
Analysis of Emily Dickinson's poems
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“Saying nothing... sometimes says the most” is very true in a lot of cases, including writing. Emily Dickinson wrote a poem to display the insanity while Poe wrote a long story. Emily Dickinson’s poem called, “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” showed off insanity from a whole new perspective. The poem is about a person having very out of the ordinary thoughts about her own funeral. Edgar Allan Poe’s display of insanity was in a story titled, “The Tell-Tale Heart” which had a man who committed murder and was dealing with the after effects of the crime. Emily Dickinson displays insanity more effectively because not only does she cover her characters in craziness and make describe insanity beautifully she matches Poe’s best ability with her skills. …show more content…
On lines 3-4 when Dickinson mentions, “Kept treading-treading-till it seemed/ That Sense was breaking through” she displays that the character is starting to lose it. The character in the text was losing her ability to think straight and that is why the ‘sense’ was starting to break through. In the beginning stages of mental illness everyone can feel it much like other sicknesses until it completely swallows the victim. In the text this is the stage where the character is at and she can sense it in her and she says she can feel herself going insane. Emotionally readers feel for the character because it is a huge struggle for people who can are diving further into the depths but can’t do anything about it. Also, on lines 10-11 while the character is thinking, “and creak across my soul with the same boots of lead, again” her insanity took …show more content…
During her descriptions of insanity Dickinson says on lines 13-14 “As all the Heavens were a Bell, /And Being, but an Ear” which is very hard to follow because of the peculiar style of writing she has for this text. She capitalizes at non-proper places and the writing does not flow. Her writing is very radical because she is attempting to be in the shoes of an insane person. While thinking logically an insane person does not have the proper grammar or the ability to think straight. So an insane person’s writing would sound much like ‘I Felt a Funeral in my Brain’ because of the fact that insane people can’t produce technical pieces of art. Also, when at the end of the poem, Dickinson states on lines 15-16 “And I, and Silence, some strange Race, / -Wrecked, solitary, here-“it leaves many readers having to go back and read it again. The words seem to be placed in horrible spots and seem like bad writing. There was a big intention behind writing in these ways. Dickinson has a huge amount of wisdom when it came to this poem and the reason behind everything she did completely put it over the top for the expression of insanity. In actuality, there was a big purpose behind everything Dickinson did with the writing to make it convincing that the character was one hundred percent insane. Although Dickinson did a great job with convincing readers of insanity for the character, some
Emily Dickinson develops the central idea of madness throughout her poem by using capitalization of keywords that develop the central idea as well as using repetition of words that help to show how the narrator is insane and getting more and more so throughout the poem. She starts using repetition in the first
The structure of this poem is complex and it tied directly into the figurative meaning. This poem consists of three quatrains written in iamic meter but with no set number of feet per line. Also, the second and fourth lines of each quatrain thyme somewhat. Perhaps the most perplexing attribute of the structure is that Dickinson capitalizes words in mid-sentence that would not normally be capitalized. This could represent decaying objects; capitalized words represent things still standing and lowercase words represent things decayed. This poem is choppy at timed, but it flows smoothly at others. Long hyphens throughout the poem slow down reading speed. This could be compared to the rate of decay. Sometimes decay is rapid, sometimes it is slow. the last three parts of the poem’s structure help create its figurative meaning.
...Dickinson has for the most part conquered her fears. As the second poem gave us the unsettling idea that the author of the poem we were reading was afraid to compose poetry, this poem shows us her coming to terms with that. Her list of creatures blessed with wonders they had not dared to hope for extends quite naturally to include her. She has come to her “Heaven” through poetry—“unexpected”, but eventually with confidence brought about by the trials dealt with throughout the fascicle. The poems are very closely linked, each one showing us some new aspect of Dickinson’s personality that leads toward her confidence. Finally, Dickinson has found her voice and in this final poem proclaims that she has found a peace to which she had not dared aspire at the beginning. Now she has both nature and poetry within her grasp—this is “Heaven” and “Old Home” all at once.
Emily Dickinson, a poet that was never truly heard until after death. Life is not always what you think it will be and sometimes your words are worth more after your gone. “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” and “Because I could not stop for Death” both poems engrossed on the subject of death. It is ironic and humorous; that after her death is when people began to read her poetry. Emily Dickinson was somewhat of a hermit so many people had not read her poetry until long after it was wrote; for she did not publish it herself. These poems are noticeably similar focusing on the subject of death, which is also the subject that makes them different. “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died,” is completely focused on death in a physical state; and “Because I could not stop for Death” focuses on death as a spiritual journey: The poems both present the existence of an afterlife, the speaker is dead and yet their voice is heard.
“Death, the end of life: the time when someone or something dies” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). The definition of death is quite simple, the end of life is inescapable. I chose to write about death and impermanence because it is something we all must inevitably face. People often deal with death in a number of different ways. Although it is something that we must eventually face, it can be hard to come to terms with because the idea can be hard to grasp. Some of us fear it, others are able to accept it, either way we all must eventually face it. In this essay I will look at two different literary works about death and impermanence and compare and contrast the different elements of the point of view, theme, setting, and symbolism. The comparison of these particular works will offer a deeper look into words written by the authors and the feelings that they experiencing at that particular time.
The speaker connects a symbol of death with her brain and says her “mind is going numb,” which implies that a part of her is dying (Dickinson 8). At the end of the poem, the speaker also states “a plank in reason broke / and I dropped down and down” (Dickinson 17-18). The statement of an interruption of logic followed by her descent is a hopeless ending that shows the speaker is losing her rationality and declining mentally. Dickinson portrays a speaker who is dying physcologically and thus is becoming mad. In addition, “I Felt a Funeral,” characterizes death as forcefully acting upon the speaker beyond her control, much like it is in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death.” In the former, Dickinson does not demonstrate the funeral and the downturn as stoppable or preventable, and in the latter she unsuccessfully avoids death. The opening lines “Because I could not stop for Death / He kindly stopped for me” shows the speaker did not want to give up her earthly life (Dickinson 1-2). Though the figure of death treated her politely, it is clear that the presence of death was unavoidable, as it was in the previous poem.
...e use of figurative language and many literary techniques, Dickinson makes clear her theme, adding on to the intensity of the poem.
She chooses this arrangement of verse in order to ordain a religious aspect into the poem, which does well to suite the theme and what she is fond of. As the recollection of the speaker’s death progresses, Dickinson uses the stanzas to mark the stages of the
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.
The waxing and waning action of the text might symbolize the constant cycles of life. The fact that the text recedes then elongates in rhythm make the reader think the speaker of the poem is not sure what steps to take in their life. The speaker might not have convinced him or herself about the suicide attempt. Many suicidal thoughts are stopped short of action and then thought about later. Dickinson writes in this style to show the opposing forces of every situation. Suicide would likely be the most contemplated decision the narrator has ever had to make.
...eart would split, but because she is able to see nature through her imagination she is safe from those effects, shown when she says, “So safer-guess-with just my soul” (18) While Emerson uses only sight to form a connection with nature, Dickinson uses both sight and imagination to connect people’s souls to nature when she says, “…with just my soul open the window pane”(19); the eyes are said to be the windows that lead to one’s soul, so through this statement Dickinson shows that there is a correlation between imagination, sight, and soul because through all of them one is able to become one with nature. Through the very act of writing this poem Dickinson reveals that poetic writing is another form of reaching oneness with nature.
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).
This poem is very interesting in many aspects because it reminds me of a person that I use to know. In my life I have met people just like Emily Dickinson who were mentally depressed and very unsociable. In this poem it shows how unstable her mind was in words that she wrote in her poems. I do not want people to get me wrong she was a very smart woman it was said that she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, it also said that she was one of the best poets of all times. I do not understand were she went wrong because she lived a normal childhood in which she was very bright, witty, friendly to people, she had friends, and she went to parties. So where did she go wrong? By her early 30's she began to separate herself from everyone, even the people who she obviously loved had to speak with her from the other side of a closed door. In her life it was that she was in love with some man who died this maybe her for become very depressed. Emily Dickinson was very suicidal (meaning she tried to kill her many times, but was afraid of what it would be like).
The average reader cannot help but be affected by Dickinson’s style. The capitalized words draw the reader’s attention. They highlight important key words of the poem. The dashes set apart specific words and phrases, forcing the reader to slow down while reading. The dashes compel the reader to contemplate and ponder over the lines. Thus, whether or not Dickinson had a conscious purpose in her unconventional capitalization and punctuation, they have an undeniable effect on the rhythm of the poem and the perception of the reader.