Pain and Sorrow in the Works of Emily Dickinson

Introduction

Almost unknown as a poet in her lifetime, Emily Dickinson is now considered as one of the most mysterious and original American poets of 19th century for her innovation in rhythmic meters and creative use of metaphors. Her poems were rarely published in Russia because most of them had religious content (to express religious feelings was restricted in Russia for almost a century). However, some poems that I read impressed me at the first glance. Dickinson’s poems spoke powerfully to me about meaningful events in living. Many impressions that she compressed into only few words helped me to understand my own experience through her emotional clarity. It was not easy to understand Dickinson’s poems. I had to read “between lines” to get what she meant. However, her poems contained the pain and sorrow to which I can easily relate because of several losses that I had to go through in my own personal life.

Her tone attracted me even more when I have learned that she did not raise her talent from the life experience, traveling around the World, meeting great people, or getting a great education. Practically all her life, Emily spent her time in her father’s house, observing nature from the window. Emily did not write about life, she wrote about her feelings that extracts from her connection with surrounding life. Her isolation from the outside world put her in mysterious aura, as she’d seen something better and deeper that ordinary person can see. The tone of the Emily’s poems sounds pushed aside and peacefully, - no fear, dread, or anguish, like she discovered all secrets of the World, or she got to know the Universal Wisdom, and nothing can touch her.

To write about Dickinson’s poetry convincingly, I had to read many of...

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...ng College. 24 January, 2003. 19 Apr. 2008

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