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Emily Dickinson And Edgar Allen Poe

Decent Essays

Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe were both nineteenth century gothic poets known for their lifelong fascination with the theme of mortality, but their style and approach to writing could not be more contrary. Although death is inevitable, the idea of it was a painful subject for many in this particular day in age; death and illness was much more common. These two poets not only spoke about death in the majority of their literature, but they were obsessed. Poe and Dickenson were from around the same time period and region, and the way they spoke about mortality had different effects in their communities. Dickenson’s free-flowing style in her writings about death and nature was elegant and subtle, while Poe wrote articulate and flamboyant tales of horror and insanity. These poets may have had similar interests, but the way society received their work was completely different.
Dickinson and Poe’s distinct styles of writing each contributed to society in different ways. Dickinson’s writing style abandons the traditional poetic structure; it could be paralleled to the style of an impressionist painter. Her poems are like highly intellectual fragmented thoughts on paper. She capitalizes words and puts dashes wherever she pleases. When reading her literature, you are given a sense that she is very observant of the subtleties of life. This could be very comforting to the people of the nineteenth century, because dealing with death was the norm. Conversely, Poe’s writing style

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