“Powerful or Helpless: The Ruse of Choice with Meticulous Nuance” Poem 303, or “The Soul selects her own Society,” is a strong poem written by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson creates a strong, unmoving voice belonging to “the Soul” who is supposedly choosing her companionships, but there are small nuances that may cause one to read the poem in various ways. The poem may be read with a tone that is godly and/or royal. It may also be read as the Soul having a choice on her companionships or the ruse of having a choice. Firstly, one must attempt to summarize or describe the essence of the poem to argue for it. The use of metonymy, the “Soul”, represents the person about whom the poem is about. This person is choosing her companionship or “Society” …show more content…
Dickinson commences her poem with her typical common meter, or so it seems. By the last line of the first stanza, we have a dimeter line instead of the anticipated trimeter line. The rest of the poem then becomes an alternation of tetrameter and dimeter lines. The dimeter lines are especially important to note. As Mary Oliver write in her book, A Poetry Handbook, “The reader is brought to a more than usual attentiveness by the shorter line, which indicates a situation in some way out of the ordinary” (40). The short dimeter lines could be boasting about how much power she has, emphasizing the emperor “at her mat”, or it could be that the lines should come off as anxious or powerless, as if she only has enough breath or power to summon dimeter lines. “Choose One” in the last stanza is a spondee and a dimeter line, which draws more attention to it. The line seeps with importance and with anxiety, having to “Choose One” and to choose correctly from “an ample nation.” The last line, “like Stone,” is also a spondee and a dimeter line and thus it is also anxiety filled and nuanced. It brings to question whether the reader should take that line as boasting at her complete control over choosing her society carefully, or whether she is crying for help making us read the line “Like! …show more content…
By the end of the first stanza everything changes; the meter shifts to one that is more pressing, and even the rhymes completely change into slant rhymes. This change of the poem suggests that there is a thinly veiled insistence under the initial reading, one where the “Soul” is actually crying for help. It could be that she wants to believe that she has the power but perhaps an opposing force, perhaps a mental illness or a person is influencing her too much regarding her ability to choose. Regardless of whether the Soul is powerful or helpless – although the latter seems to be argued when the poem is analyzed – it is a strong voice nonetheless. The unmovingness, the authority, and superiority of an emperor kneeling, and shutting out the “divine Majority” before her inevitably places her upon a pedestal. The tone many times sounds romantic and yet condescending especially on an initial reading, then sounds pressing and helpless through further analysis. The subtle nuances used via her literary tropes suggests an anxious, internal argument occurring throughout the
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.
In this stanza there is a question asked to the question reveals that the girl is puzzled about the lord is after her. This suggests that she is aware that he has different motives, rather than love and romance. This also shows that she knows the compliment is false and just a way of seducing her into bed. The second stanza is where the great lord isn’t so “great” anymore. He lured and tricked her into going to his palace home.
This poem is Maya Angelou speaking to the audience as she explains the problems she has overcome such as; racism, sexism, bullying and other problems in her life that she has managed to move on from.This poem is set in a first person narrative, Angelou explains to the audience about the good and bad times within her life, presented in a graceful way. By the poem being set in first person narrative, this allows the audience to connect to the poet on a deeper level because the tone of the poem is more intense throughout, making it more real for the audience. This genre of poetry is lyric poetry, relating to Angelou’s feelings and thoughts throughout the poem, addressing the audience directly.
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 portrays the intrinsic nature of belonging as conflict and tension arise through the understanding of one’s identity whilst conforming to society in This Is My Letter To The World. The emphatic title of this poem acts as a conflict in itself, with a “letter” acting as a symbol of intimacy yet it’s being proclaimed “to the world” as a hyperbole which is incongruent with the usual representation of a letter. The congenial address with reference to “my letter” evokes the speaker’s marginalised literary voice in context of women’s position and role in her society. The “world” is personified as it “never wrote to me” also connotes with her not belonging as it could be a matter of “the simple news” that outlines her bare truth in understanding the complexities of life as a profound implication of natures’ teachings. The final line of the first stanza expresses embracing nature as majestic with connotations of grace and dignity whilst it is qualified by the adjective “tender” implying th...
...sed society with religious overtones throughout the poem, as though religion and God are placing pressure on her. The is a very deep poem that can be taken in may ways depending on the readers stature yet one thing is certain; this poem speaks on Woman’s Identity.
It's also worth keeping in mind that Dickinson was not always consistent in her views and they can change from poems, to poem, depending upon how she felt at a given moment. Dickinson was less interested in absolute answers to questions than she was in examining and exploring their "circumference."
Reading a poem by Emily Dickinson can often lead the reader to a rather introspective state. Dickinson writes at length about the drastically transformative effect a book may have upon its’ reader. Alternating between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, Dickinson masterfully uses the ballad meter to tell a story about the ecstasy brought by reading. In poem number 1587, she writes about the changes wrought upon the reader by a book and the liberty literature brings.
The tone in the first stanza is of joyousness and excitement, as people make their way to heaven. Dickinson uses the words “gayer,” “hallelujah,” and “singing” to emphasize the uplifting feeling here. It could be argued that this is the point in the humans’ lives (or deaths, or afterlives, depending on how one looks at it) when they reach the pinnacle of happiness, for they have finally entered heaven. The humans, now dead, would then acquire wings, immortality, and an angelic status that rises far above that of humans. Much like Dickinson’s other poems, this one uses metaphors to represent similar things, such as “home,” which represents “heaven,” “snow,” which represents the “clouds” on which heaven resides, and “vassals,” which represents the “angels” who serve God.
Alliteration is a key aspect to how the reader experiences the poem; it especially gives interest toward alliteration of the letter T. This alliteration begins in the very first line “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-” (1.1). The alliteration on the T is used three times within the first line; however, it does not stop there. Dickinson uses the “T” sound to continually draw back to the theme of truth. Dickinson, through the use of two stanzas, four lines each, uses quite a distinct rhyme scheme to organize her poem. The second and fourth lines of each stanza are clearly examples of end rhyme, by using words such as “lies” (1.2) and “surprise” (1.4). However, every single line is not an example of end rhyme. The first and third lines rhyme words such as “slant” (1.1) and “delight” (1.3); which can be described as near rhymes for they give a small sensation of rhyming. This rhyming pattern continues for the second stanza as well. The sequence of rhyming is not arbitrarily put into practice, rather, it also adds on to the truth theme. The near rhymes Dickinson stresses to not tell the truth in its entirety, but rather, convey a little bit of truth. This is being directly compared to the almost rhyming sensatio...
The second stanza begins with a series of rhetorical questions that express the woman's inner struggle. The second question is her response to the dark encroachment of the procession, and the third question answers the previous two. The randomness of this questioning illustrates the disorganized nature of her thinking, and an answer finally surfaces when she decides that "divinity must live within herself." A list of positive and negative emotions that she has experienced as a result of nature provides further explanation of the divinity she hopes she possesses within. The realization that these emotions "are the measures destined for her soul" ends the stanza with a feeling of hopefulness.
I found that throughout this poem there was much symbolism within it. Identifying that it was written in first person form showed that this poem relates to the author on a personal basis, and that it was probably written to symbolize his life. But when talking about people’s lives, you can conclude that people’s lives are generally and individually very diffe...
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.
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.
In this poem, she connects philosophical thinking of death and the poem, which breaks the restriction of time and space. She takes advantage of a large amount of rhetorical devices, for instance, symbolizes and metaphor to express her opinions about the relationship of death, and immortal. She makes efforts to model a different image of death; Mr. Death is not ruthless or relentless anymore. Death is the common and eternal topic in the world; philosophers from all over that word try to find out the truth about the death. There are some similarities between Dickinson’s opinions and Chinese philosophies. Life is short and unstable; however, death is destined and eternal. If we want to have eternity, we cannot pin our hope on the human body because it will die sooner or later. But, human beings’ spirit and humanity which are not controlled by natural laws which can exist forever. Therefore, it is unnecessary to be afraid of death. Treated him like your old friend-accept and welcome