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Poem and analysis by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson's unique use of style and language
Poem and analysis by Emily Dickinson
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The Misunderstood Emily Dickinson
They shut me up in Prose--
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet--
Because they liked me "still"--- ~Emily Dickinson Though in her life she isolated herself from the world, Emily Dickinson has allowed every one of her readers the opportunity to view her most intimate thoughts. Her poems offer insight to her feelings of disassociation from other people, which seem to be a cry for understanding. Her syntax and grammar suggest that she was, indeed, different from everyone else. In "They shut me up in Prose--," Dickinson expresses her longing to be understood. In the first stanza of the poem, Dicksinson compares her treatment from others to her days "as when
“Although Emily Dickinson is known as one of America’s best and most beloved poets, her extraordinary talent was not recognized until after her death” (Kort 1). 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. During the rest of her life, she wrote prolifically by retreating to her room as soon as she could. Her works were influenced ...
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.
Emily Dickinson was born December 10th, 1830 in her family home on main street in Amherst, Massachusetts to her two parents Edward and Emily Norcross Dickinson. The homestead in which she was born was a family home owned by her grandparents who, soon after her sister’s birth in 1833, sold it out of the family. The Dickinson’s held residence in the home as tenants for the next seven years. Once her father’s political career took off, around the age she was nine, they moved to, and bought a new house in the same town. Dickinson was very close to her siblings, her older brother Austin and younger sister Lavinia. She had a strong attachment to her home and spent a lot of her time doing domestic duties such as baking and gardening. Dickinson also had good schooling experiences of a girl in the early nineteenth century. She started out her education in an Amherst district school, then from there she attended Amherst Academy with her sister for about seven years. At this school it is said that she was an extraordinary student with very unique writing talent. From there she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for a year in 1847. this year was the longest she had spent away from home. In her youth, Dickinson displayed a social s...
Dickinson became in this state of affairs because of the influence and “correspondence with Higginson,” which was probably why Dickinson isolated everyone out of her life. Dickinson’s “correspondence with Higginson probably also influenced her that her poems had no significance in or won’t bring the audience's attention,” with Higginson’s words stuck in her head, it influenced her to isolate herself from society. While she was writing poems, Dickinson wanted to make her parents, society and her family aware of her work. When she wrote her poems, she wanted to make everyone proud of her work that she has been doing, including her parents.
Emily Dickinson is one of the most well known poets of her time. Though her life was outwardly uneventful, what went on inside her house behind closed doors is unbelievable. After her father died she met Reverend Charles Wadsworth. She soon came to regard him as one of her most trusted friends, and she created in his image the “lover'; whom she was never to know except in her imagination. It is also said that it was around 1812 when he was removed to San Fransico that she began her withdrawal from society. During this time she began to write many of her poems. She wrote mainly in private, guarding all of her poems from all but a few select friends. She did not write for fame, but instead as a way of expressing her feelings. In her lifetime only six of her poems were even printed; none of which had her consent. It was not until her death of Brights Disease in May of 1862, that many of her poems were even read (Chelsea House of Library Criticism 2837). Thus proving that the analysis on Emily Dickinson’s poetry is some of the most emotionally felt works of the nineteenth century.
To begin with, "It dropped so low-in my Regard" is one of the most mystifying and obscured poems Emily Dickinson has ever written. This free verse poem is about the disheartening realization that someone relatively close, in either spirit or in life, is not who you thought. A person would never have to know what exactly lost the regard of Dickinson; it is quite easy to substitute your own "it" for what once lost your own respect or love to feel akin to what Dickinson meant when she wrote this poem. Dickinson wrote this poem in the "I" perspective, which doesn't doesn't neccesarily mean it was about her, nonetheless, I'm considering this poem to be written about her personal eperience with disillusionment. By examining the choice of words that Dickinson uses to convey her feelings, I will demonstrate that beneath the seemingly obscurity of her words this poem is a story of anguish.
Emily did not enjoy the popularity and excitement of the public life, unlike her father. So she began to pull away from it. In the presence of strangers Emily could be shy, silent or even depreciating. Emily felt that she did not fit in with her and her father’s religion in Amherst especially when he father started to censor the books she read because of their potential to draw her away from faith.
In conclusion, it can be stated the examples of Emily Dickinson's work discussed in this essay show the poetess to be highly skilled in the use of humor and irony. The use of these two tools in her poems is to stress a point or idea the poetess is trying to express, rather than being an end in themselves. These two tools allow her to present serious critiques of her society and the place she feels she has been allocated into by masking her concerns in a light-hearted, irreverent tone.
This poem is very interesting in many aspects because it reminds me of a person that I use to know. In my life I have met people just like Emily Dickinson who were mentally depressed and very unsociable. In this poem it shows how unstable her mind was in words that she wrote in her poems. I do not want people to get me wrong she was a very smart woman it was said that she attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, it also said that she was one of the best poets of all times. I do not understand were she went wrong because she lived a normal childhood in which she was very bright, witty, friendly to people, she had friends, and she went to parties. So where did she go wrong? By her early 30's she began to separate herself from everyone, even the people who she obviously loved had to speak with her from the other side of a closed door. In her life it was that she was in love with some man who died this maybe her for become very depressed. Emily Dickinson was very suicidal (meaning she tried to kill her many times, but was afraid of what it would be like).
Dickinson was unique and the “exception” in creating a private relationship with her self and her soul. In “Emily Dickinson and Popular Culture”, David S. Reynolds, a new historicism critic, wrote that it 's no surprise that the majority of Dickinson 's poetry was produced between 1858-1866, “It was a period of extreme consciousness about proliferation of varied women 's role in American culture.” It was a time where women were actively searching for more “literary” ways of self expression” (Reynolds 25). Dickinson was able to express her ideas and beliefs as a woman, something that was scandalous during this time period.
Breaking news revealing the truth about Emily Dickinson’s life has recently been uncovered. For the past hundred-plus years literary historians believed Dickinson to be a plain and quiet type of person who did not communicate with the public for most of her life. Her romanticism poetry drew attention from fellow literary legends. After corresponding with the well-known Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who showed interest in her work but advised her not to publish it, she became defiant to publish any of her work.
Psychological criticism is known as the type of criticism that analyses the writer’s work within the realms of Freud’s psychological theories. Such approach can be used when trying to reconstruct an author’s position throughout their literary writings, as well as understanding whom the author was and how their mind created such works. When considering the work of Emily Dickinson, psychoanalytic criticism comes into play with the role of explaining the many meanings behind her poetry, as to make the reader relate to such poetry on a deeper level or not to who she was as a human being.
Emily Dickinson, a radical feminist is often expressing her viewpoints on issues of gender inequality in society. Her poems often highlight these viewpoints. Such as with the case of her poem, They shut me up in Prose. Which she place herself into the poem itself, and address the outlining issues of such a dividend society. She is often noted for using dashes that seem to be disruptive in the text itself. Dickinson uses these disruption in her text to signify her viewpoints on conflictual issues that reside in society. From the inequality that women face, to religion, to what foreseeable future she would like to happen. All of her values and morales are upheld by the dashes that Dickinson introduces into her poems.
Emily Dickinson, who achieved more fame after her death, is said to be one of the greatest American poets of all time. Dickinson communicated through letters and notes and according to Amy Paulson Herstek, author of “Emily Dickinson: Solitary and Celebrated Poet,” “Writing was the way she kept in touch with the world” (15). Dickinson’s style is unique and although unconventional, it led to extraordinary works of literature. Dickinson lived her life in solitude, but in her solitude she was free to read, write and think which led to her nonconformity and strong sense of individualism. Suzanne Juhasz, a biographer of Dickinson, sums up most critics’ idea of Dickinson ideally: “Emily Dickinson is at once the most intimate of poets, and the most guarded. The most self-sufficient, and the neediest. The proudest, and the most vulnerable. These contradictions, which we as her readers encounter repeatedly in her poems, are understandable, not paradoxical, for they result from the tension between the life to which she was born and the one to which she aspired” (1). Dickinson poured her heart and soul into over 1,700