How Does Plath Present Power In Dickinson's Poetry

Power is a prevalent theme in both Plath and Dickinson’s poems. Both poets explore the theme of power from different angles and although there are distinctive differences between how the two portray the theme there are also some noticeable similarities. Plath portrays power as something she has never had and some parts of her poems indicate that she wishes she did. She also expresses a sense of victimisation; she feels victimised by men in her life, like her father and husband, because of the power they assert. Her poetry can be understood as a response to how she feels about the lack of power she has in the male dominated world. In Dickinson’s case, she approaches the theme of power through empowering herself, even if it’s just for a moment,

Firstly, the poem is made out of a series of quintet stanzas. The consistent structure itself could imply stability and therefore power, too. Also, Plath uses different forms of figurative language to explore the theme and to communicate with the reader the relationship she had with her father. She commonly uses metaphors: from the very beginning she compares him to a ‘black shoe…in which I have lived like a foot’. This shows that she feels confined like a foot does in a shoe. This could also interlock with the idea that she feels trapped by the men in her life which makes her feel powerless and inferior. She goes on further to say ‘barely daring to breathe or Achoo.’ This reemphasises the idea that she felt vulnerable, scared and perhaps threatened and again, powerless. One could further interpret her use of onomatopoeia in ‘Achoo’ as Plath’s attempt at softening the tone of the poem as ‘Achoo’ is a very child-like

Dickinson begins with ‘Because’ to communicate to the reader that the speaker is giving an explanation or answer to an event beforehand. This engages and makes them question what the speaker means by stopping for death. Perhaps ‘I could not stop for Death’ means the speaker has no choice over when they will die and in that sense, she is giving power to death and taking away power from the speaker. Dickinson capitalises ‘Death’ as she does commonly in her other poems in order to personify Death as a suitor who drives a horse-drawn carriage as she mentions in the following