Essay Differences Between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman was an American poet whose free verse brought a new style and uniqueness to American poetry. “Free verse is poetry organized according to the cadences of speech and image patterns rather than according to a regular metrical scheme. The meter is irregular and its rhythms are based on patterned elements such as sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs, rather than on the traditional units of metrical feet” (“Free Verse Encyclopedia” 1). You can see his free verse style through his literary works such as “Leaves of Grass” and “Song of Myself”.

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.

The lives of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson have many similarities and differences. Here, we will focus on the similarities in their lives in order to bring to attention a correlation between Whitman's poem I Saw in Louisiana a Live-oak Growing and Dickinson's poem # 1510. Both poets wrote during the time of Romanticism, even though Whitman was Dickinson's senior by some eleven years. This however did not influence the way the writing styles of many of their poems coincided.

Whitman was able to change people’s views on life and was able to give people something that they wanted and were looking for in his creation of a new writing style. His writing about real life experiences connected him well with the common man, which is another aspect of the Romantic period. Whitman is also thought of as the “father of free verse.” He enjoyed using free verse because it could further distinguish him from other writers of the past, and of his time.

In the poems written by Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau who is also known as Walden both illustrates the concept of being lonely and embracing nature. There are multiple themes that show up in poems according to the Romanticism such as individualism, natural beauty, and emotion. In the poem by Emily Dickinson titled “The soul selects their own society” explains that society makes people go into isolation, although everyone has their own choice to whether or not they decide to be more involved in society. Like in lines one through four it states “ The Soul selects her own Society--Then--shuts the Door--To her divine Majority--Present no more--” (page 200 in English Collection Text Book grade 11) On page 212 in the English Collection Text Book grade 11 ;Introducing symbols that follow along such as loneliness and nature in Walden poems. Everyone is their own person; no one can control what they do; everyone has the right to make their own decisions. In the poem titled “from Where I Lived, and What I lived For“ written by Henry David Thoreau; the poem states”However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults even in paradise.

How can a strong, hearty man, and a somewhat sickly, isolated woman share very similar ideals? How could such a stark contrast of people both have the same interpretations of life? The answer to this question is Emily Dickinson, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, they were very similar, and despite Dickinson’s very isolated life, she knew Emerson and his ideals very well. Due to this, some of her poetry reflects his transcendental beliefs, including Non-conformity, importance of nature, and simplifying life. Down to her core, she was very similar to Emerson, wanting to live a simple life, and a love for literature.

I'm Nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson reminds me of the song, "You belong with me" by Taylor Swift. These two works speak of the author being behind the scenes in life. The writers are unnoticed by society and watch life from the back of the room. Content to watch life play out for others, without the inconvenience of social rules and etiquette. Swift proudly sings "She's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers" (Swift). Dickinson and Swift, in reality, are nothing alike, Swift is a brash famous woman, while Dickenson was a recluse. This work is excitedly unemotional while imparting wisdom. Dickinson's poem playfully speaks of human's social fears through voice, conventional symbols, and stanza.

From a formal perspective, Whitman is known as someone who have perfected the free verse while Dickinson preferred slant or partial rhyme schemes as well as irregular punctuation and capitalization. As far as length is concerned, Whitman wrote long and frequently intricate poems whereas Dickinson’s poems are rather shorter and more

“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman is the recollection of a speaker that attended an astronomer’s lecture only to be bored and leaves the room to enjoy the stars without scientific analyzation hindering their natural beauty. On the other hand, “324” by Emily Dickinson demonstrates the role of nature in the speaker’s personal connection to religion and God instead of attending Church and sermons. Although their topics seem so unlike, the poetic devices within them have both similarities and differences. Whitman’s and Dickinson’s poems bear many differences, including structure, meter, and rhyme, while remaining alike in their use of imagery to convey like attitudes towards traditionalism and nature.

Emily Dickinson is the creator of some of the most famous works in American poetry. Throughout the 1800s, the author dedicated her life to poetry. She used metaphors in an advanced way and displayed power through her unique use of diction. Emily’s immense power with words derived from her determination. Dickinson’s determination to achieve individuality and power is exemplified through her complex poetry and derived from the events that occurred in her life.

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

Emily Dickinson was born December 10th, 1830. She, along with her siblings was raised very religiously. When Emily was 17 she attended college, but returned home due to falling home sick. When she returned home, she helped care for her aging parents. She kept most of her writings to herself, until after her death, and her sister discovered some of them hidden under her bed. She read some, and saw the value in them and published them. Walt Whitman was born may 31st, 1819. He attended school for only six years; however, he enjoyed reading so he continued studying on his own. He moved to NY when he was 22, to become a journalist. While being in NY, he also began writing poetry. Even know both Whitman and Dickinson were regarded as great poets in their times, their writing varied in style and form.

     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 Dickinson is one of the most interesting female poets of the nineteenth century. Every author has unique characteristics about him/her that make one poet different from another, but what cause Emily Dickinson to be so unique are not only the words she writes, but how she writes them. Her style of writing is in a category of its own. To understand how and why she writes the way she does, her background has to be brought into perspective. Every poet has inspiration, negative or positive, that contributes not only to the content of the writing itself, but the actual form of writing the author uses to express his/her personal talents. Emily Dickinson is no different. Her childhood and adult experiences and culture form

Emily Dickinson was a poet who used many different devices to develop her poetry, which made her style quite unique. A glance at one of her poems may lead one to believe that she was quite a simple poet, although a closer examination of her verse would uncover the complexity it contains.