Compare And Contrast Emily Dickinson Beliefs

718 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of emily dickinsons writings

Emily Dickinson

As a member of the Christian faith, I find it fairly recognizable on what Emily Dickinson’s views are towards religion. Pessimistic. One of the many adjectives that come to mind when describing her views, especially after reading both poems “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers” & “Some keep the Sabbath”. Poems that touch upon the concept of religion, one viewing the current state of human life and the other, afterlife. Through analysis of both, these two Dickinson 's poems possibly define her overall view upon the disciplined, religious faith. Such views could also perhaps coincide with earlier poet, Walt Whitman, whom also shares some common ideas of faith and God. Therefore it is appropriate to break down each poem, stanza by stanza, to truly understand how she felt about her faith through the poems. Regarding to her poem stressing on the outlook of what she considers her house of “worship”, Dickinson begins by describing her way of keeping the Sabbath. Within the two first lines of the stanza, it is understood that she’d rather spend her day of the Sabbath …show more content…

Those, whom are members of the resurrection, waiting to once rise again with Christ. She basically points out that those who are dead and consider themselves safe as they wait for the resurrection, are underground experiencing nothing that lies above. For in the next stanza, she goes on to say that years as these hopefull ones in the ground wait for Heaven. Stating that nothing more matters now, that “Diadems-drop-” and “And Doges-surrender_”. Possibly meaning that all forms of any kind of materialism is now lost, that nothing is significant to them anymore. That they are now only “Soundless as Dots, On a Disc of Snow.”. Possibly referring that those whom are dead will be as one in Heaven, equal and the same, like that as small dots on a disc of

Show More
Related

  • Exposing the Hypocrisy of Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    Exposing the Hypocrisy of Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson's Fascicle 17

    2582 Words  | 6 Pages

    Approaching Emily Dickinson’s poetry as one large body of work can be an intimidating and overwhelming task. There are obvious themes and images that recur throughout, but with such variation that seeking out any sense of intention or order can feel impossible. When the poems are viewed in the groupings Dickinson gave many of them, however, possible structures are easier to find. In Fascicle 17, for instance, Dickinson embarks upon a journey toward confidence in her own little world. She begins the fascicle writing about her fear of the natural universe, but invokes the unknowable and religious as a means of overcoming that fear throughout her life and ends with a contextualization of herself within both nature and eternity.

    Read More

  • “Because I could not stop for Death” and “Annabel Lee”: Similarities, Differences, and Their Authors

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • comparing emerson and dickinson

    659 Words  | 2 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Comparing The Works Of Edgar Allen Poe And Emily Dickinson

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although difficult and challenging, I have compared and contrasted the works of two American Poets, Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson, based on literary elements used in their writings. Their differences both in style and subject are contradictory to the fact that both Poe and Dickinson are writers/poets of the same personal nature. The use of literary elements showcase the iconic statuses of the writings created by such reserved yet fame dependent poets such as Poe and Dickinson. To an extent, their chosen elements are what create their uniqueness. Further, it establishes a uniform perception that they are similar yet different poets of the personal essence. Through their writings, readers are able to grasp the concept that they are rarely drawn to the fact their lives were perfect. Dickinson seemed to be a writer of distinct but subtle characteristics. Poe, on the other hand, was considered to be a writer filled with a dependancy on fame and fortune.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson Conformity

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history society has depicted the “outsider” as the non-conformist. This non-conformist persona usually has negative attributes attached to it, therefore, no one wants to be correlated with it. For this reason, it is believed that the non-conformist poses danger to society because they may cause a collapse in its structure. Yet, a “mad” society meaning a society that poses danger to the outsider creates justification to their non conformity. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” she demonstrates how a “mad” society causes destruction on the non-conformist.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson Influences

    880 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily Dickinson was a different type of poet that has people thinking of things people would never think about in another author’s work. Dickinson was born and raised with the rich life with only two siblings. Her work was inspired by her much of her childhood and the people she interacted with. An example of Dickinson’s different type of style is, “ So I conclude that space and time are things of the body and have little or nothing to do with ourselves. My Country is Truth,”(Berry) Emily Dickinson did not share hardly any of her writing when she was alive. According to Berry,” With the exception of six poems that appeared in newspapers at various times, and another that appeared in a collection of stories and poems in 1878, Emily Dickinson never published her work,” (Berry) Even though Dickinson wrote differently, does not mean she had a different lifestyle compared to most people today. Dickinson was an outstanding American poet where her childhood, family and friends, religion, and education inspired most of her poetry.

    Read More

  • A Brief Biography Of Emily Dickinson

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    The famous well-known poet, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, was born on December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts. Growing up, she was busy with schooling, religious activities, gardening, baking, and exploring nature. Her family was well known in Massachusetts; her dad was a member of the governor’s cabinet and a US Congressman. In 1840, she attended Amherst Academy. At Amherst Academy, she was an excellent student. Many said she caught much attention and was very original in the way she presented herself. Dickinson’s poetry has a great amount of scientific vocabulary and she gained most of her knowledge about it at this academy. Seven years later, she enrolled in Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. At Mount Holyoke, she was academically successful and was very involved. Like most institutions at the time, Mount Holyoke believed that the students’ religious lives were part of responsibility. Dickinson refused to take part of the school’s Christian evangelical efforts. She had not given up on the claims of Christ, but didn’t think it was an important matter.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson and Charles Wright

    1684 Words  | 4 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson And Robert Frost Comparison

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost both think that individuality is very important to a person equally like Ralph Emerson. Although they may have a lot in common these poets are different in many ways. Both Frost and Dickinson were American poets and were both from New England. A big similarity between Frost and Dickinson both talk about death. Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost both talk about the power of nature in their poetry. Frost and Dickinson have a reasonable evidence on why human beings should live life to their own agenda but, what if that person cannot stop living somebody else dreams? How can these poems help people break away for society and become a strong confidence individual person?

    Read More

  • Dickinson and Her religion

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emily Dickinson’s imagination is dynamic partly because she thinks of her mental world as always in flux and prefers not to adhere for long to any preconceived religious of philosophical doctrine. At different times she advances opposed positions on such central questions as the goodness of God, the reality of heaven, or the presence of the divine in nature. As a child of her culture, the fixed positions of her local Calvinism are inscribed in her mind and heart, while at the same time she distrusts them and seeks an alternative faith that will be truer to her moral conceptions. Since she takes different positions on religious questions, it has proved hard for commentators to summarize her religious perspective.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson And 324 Comparison

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    This is evident because Dickinson seems to poke fun at the people who attend church with the line, “Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice- I just wear my Wings” (5). This line from the poem indicates that Dickinson’s way of worshiping is much simpler and maybe more effective in her opinion. At the end of the poem it mentions that Dickinson is going somewhere that might be a place other than heaven as she writes, “So instead of getting to Heaven, at last – I’m going, all along” (11). This last line of the poem indicates that Dickinson might realize that her not attending church will not get her in to heaven, although she seems to be calm and content with

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Emily Dickinson And Walt Whitman

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are both considered as the most original poets who has boldly revolutionized the subject and style of 20th-century American poetry. Both the poets come from vastly different backgrounds but they share common inspirations but in a distinctive way. They both lived polar opposite personal lives as Walt was friendly, outgoing and influential, while Emily was very simple, shy, isolate and content. A lot of poems written by them were based on nature, death, and immortality and they focused on the importance of individualism in the society like in “I Hear America Singing” by Walt and “Much Madness is most divine Sense” by Emily. Together, they both have huge hands to shape the American poetry, and their influences

    Read More

  • Some Keep The Sabbath Going To Church Analysis

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Some keep the Sabbath going to Church” by Emily Dickinson is a poem expressing, how she felt about where and how we fellowship with God. Emily felt as if real worship occurred at home, or within oneself. In this poem, she expressed her very own church through nature. The message that Emily was trying to portray with this poem is that God is within our hearts, so we should not contain our praise and worship in a building, but wherever we see fit to worship God. She used nature and other different metaphors to take the place of the church, she described a Bobolink for a chorister and an orchard for a dome, God preaches a noted clergyman, and instead of keeping the Sabbath in surplice, she wears her wings.

    Read More

  • Emily Dickinson’s This was a Poet- it is That

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Compare And Contrast Emily Dickinson Beliefs

Open Document