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Analysis of emily dickinsons writings
Interpretation of emily dickinson peotry
Religion emily dickinson
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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
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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
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).
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Exposing the Hypocrisy of Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church
“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.
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.
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?
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