Essay on Comparing Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

     Ralph Waldo Emerson and Emily Dickinson were two of America’s most intriguing poets. They were both drawn to the transcendentalist movement which taught “unison of creation, the righteousness of humanity, and the preeminence of insight over logic and reason” (Woodberry 113). This movement also taught them to reject “religious authority” (Sherwood 66). By this declination of authority, they were able to express their individuality. It is through their acceptance of this individuality that will illustrate their ambiguities in their faith in God.

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe are two of the biggest poets in American Literature from the 1800s. They had many things in common from their writings about death and sadness, because of their unfortunate losses in life, to the fact that they were both born in Massachusetts. They were also different in many ways. They were different in the way they looked at life and wrote about their experiences from it. While it is obvious they had many differences, they also had many things in common from their lives to their styles of writing making them amazing writers.

While both are famous trailblazers the two are vastly different. Incipiently, both poets Emily Dickinson and poet Walt Whitman were well known poets one is considered to be one of America's greatest and most original poets, taking definition as her provience and challenging the existing definitions of poetry and a poet’s work, Whitman on the other hand was considered to be a latter day successor to Homer, Shakespeare and Dante, creating monumental work through the chatted praises from body to soul, found beauty and ressourance in death. Both poets come from opposite backgrounds, and while they both share inspirational sources, they do so in distinctive ways. Analyzing two seperate poems from Emily Dickinson and Whitman, I will be comparing and contrasting the poems as I go through

Death; termination of vital existence; passing away of the physical state. Dying comes along with a pool of emotions that writers have many times tried to explain. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two pioneer poets from the Romantic Era, that introduced new, freer styles of writing to modern poetry at the time. Both Whitman and Dickinson have similar ideas in their writing, but each has a unique touch of expression in their works. Both poets have portrayed death in their poetry as a relief, a salvation, or escape to a better place- another life. They have formulated death as a positive yet ambiguous state. In Dickinson's "Narrow Fellow in the Grass" and Whitman's "Wound-Dresser", there exists a link

Two Poets, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are probably two of the most influential people in American poetry. They are regarded as the founders modern American poetry. Walt Whitman (1819-1892), for the time was breaking new ground with his diverse, energetic verse with regards to subject matter, form and style whether talking about overlooked objects in nature such as a single blade of grass or even our own hearing. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) while living a life of seclusion, never really leaving her birthplace, was very adventurous internally. She was well read in English literature, often deeply exploring her own thoughts. While Dickinson and Whitman are referred to as the founders of modern American

Poetry Comparison Dickinson uses capitalization and punctuation to set the mood and convey emotion in her writing. “My life closed twice before its close-” (Life) by Emily Dickinson compares death to separation from a loved one and wonders if immortality will be just as painful (Owens 358). The main themes of this poem are death and separation. “There’s a certain Slant of light-” (Slant) by Emily Dickinson is a poignant description of the feelings of loneliness and despair that come and go in people’s lives (Owens 358). The themes of this poem are loneliness and despair.

Nature has an undefinable meaning as the theme is utilised in literature, and it has been a topic of reflection within the Romanticists since the beginning of the era. Romanticism and nature and inextricably linked ideas. Poets; Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman wrote during the romantic era, and both drew heavily from aspects of nature in their work. Nature can be paralleled against several things, including humanity and the idea of life and death. The contrast between the natural world and the artificial world, and what this means for society, is also strongly eluded to in Dickinson and Whitman’s poems. Each poet uses nature as the backbone to their poetry in several instances. Dickinson’s, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”, (Dickinson, 19) and “My Life Has Stood A Loaded Gun”, (Dickinson, 69) are strong examples of this. Whitman’s, “Song of Myself”, (Whitman, 29) and, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, (Whitman, 255) are also poems that show the connection between nature and romanticism. Poets, Dickinson and Whitman engage with romanticism in a creative and constructive manner through the utilisation of the natural world.

Have you heard of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman? They are both poets that changed how poetry was written and are still celebrated for their works to this day. With their use of romanticism their poems touched the hearts of others through personification and imagery. Although Dickinson and Whitman both use personification and imagery, they differ in uses of other poetic devices.

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson both have been hailed as original and unique artists. They each have distinctive voices that many have attempted to replicate and have been unable to do so. Whitman wrote in epic like proportions; he developed his own rhythmic structure, creating complex lines and stanzas. Whitman's style of free verse become synonymous with his name and works, and helped distinguish him as a great American poet. By using free verse poetry, Whitman tore down

In Dickinson’s poems, her characters are almost always more introverted. In the poem “I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--”, she talks about dying alone in the lines “The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air” (Dickinson 24). However, in “Song of Myself”, the narrator is drastically different. The narrator is full of life and happiness, as shown in the line “I am satisfied-- I see, dance, laugh, sing…”

Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson both had different and similar views, which influenced how they wrote their poetry. Their social context, life experiences, and gender are reflected in their poetry. Emily Dickinson focused a lot on death and her struggles of being a woman during her time. Her poems often described the inner state of mind. Waltman attempted to combine universal themes with individual feelings and experiences, such as his personal experiences with the Civil War. Whitman and Dickinson are two great poets who both were very similar but different in more ways than one, and they were both very influenced by who they were, and their life experience. Their poems were both “small in theme yet has it the sweep of the universe.”

Oh how do I compare thee… During the nineteenth century also known as the antebellum period, two poets began to separate themselves from the traditional methods of writing poetry yet still capturing their readers with their unique styles of writing. These poets were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. These two poets led different lifestyles. From what I had read the poems that they wrote had similarities that to me were based on common themes such as, Nature, death, and immortality, with that being said their differences definitely outweighed their similarities.

Whitman and Dickinson have a lot of similarities, but they also have their differences. In this paper I am going to explain to you how those two are the same… but different. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were both poets of the nineteenth century and Romantic Era. The similar poems that they both wrote were based on nature, immorality and death.

Prominent poets of the nineteenth century, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson share a preoccupation with spirituality, freedom, and death, which characterizes many of their works. In the poems ‘A Woman Waits for Me’ by Whitman and ‘Title divine, is mine’ by Dickinson, they use a similar approach to these shared subjects. However, they tackle their respective poems from differing positions of social power, which places them in opposition to each other. Though both poets conceptualize spiritual union through earthly union, marriage and intercourse respectively, Whitman relies on patriarchal norms to legitimize his argument while Dickinson subverts them by claiming power for herself.

Walt Whitman is well-known for being much different than the conventional poets of his time; these differences extend from his personal identity he constructs through his new American poetry, photos, and reviews of himself. The first major difference between Whitman’s poetry and conventional poets of this time was the location of his publishing. For example, famous poets of the time, such as Richard Blackmore (Richard Doddridge) and Alfred Tennyson (Lord Alfred), were being published in England; whereas, Whitman was being published in America. In addition, the lack of structure in Whitman’s poems can be seen as the next major difference between Whitman and conventional poets of this time. Whitman is known for being the creator of