Emily Dickinson Literary Devices

explores. They are also themes that she found in the Genesis narrative of Adam and Eve in

People and the landscape are inextricably linked and consequently each play a role in shaping the other. The texts we have studied show the implications for the individuals present based on their treatment of the landscape, highlighting the connection between the two. Both Judith Wright in her poems “Brother and Sisters” and “The Hawthorne Hedge” as well as Michael Wilding in his short story “As Boys to Wanton Flies” showcase the emotional ties between the individuals and the landscape. Both composers, through their chosen text demonstrate how the individuals are connected, influenced and shaped by the landscape showing that they are not merely inhabitants but are a part of their chosen landscape. This has been done to highlight the involvement

Imagery is a common form of technique used in poetry in which the author uses visualization to demonstrate a vivid scene for the readers. In the poem, “Digging”, he discusses his father’s aging figure and recreates the feeling of the passage of time by mentioning his grandfather digging in a similar fashion. When Heaney says, “Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds; Bends low, comes up twenty years away”, he is most likely referring to a past memory of his father, indicating he has passed away twenty years ago. Heaney vividly remembers his father digging, and compares his father’s digging to his own penmanship when he says at the beginning of the poem, “Between my finger and my thumb/ The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”, and at the end of the poem when he says, “Between my

Don Kerr’s "Editing the Prairie" is a poem about the various landscapes, or lack thereof in Saskatchewan. Kerr presents the prairie in a sarcastic, critical way that many prairie people can make connections to. Though his outlook on the prairies seems rather bleak, Kerr’s poem presents very strong sarcasm, point of view, and effectively use parallels between poem structure and prairie topography. In order to further understand and appreciate “Editing the Prairie”, one must critically analyze how these components mentioned above play a role in this poem.

Emily Dickinson was an exceptional writer through the mid-late 1800’s. She never published any of her writings and it wasn’t until after her death that they were even discovered. The complexity of understanding her poems is made prevalent because of the fact that she, the author, cannot expound on what her writing meant. This causes others to have to speculate and decide for themselves the meaning of any of her poems. There are several ways that people can interpret Emily Dickinson’s poems; readers often give their opinion on which of her poems present human understanding as something boundless and unlimited or something small and limited, and people always speculate Dickinson’s view of the individual self.

As evident by the title of this poem, imagery is a strong technique used in this poem as the author describes with great detail his journey through a sawmill town. This technique is used most in the following phrases: “...down a tilting road, into a distant valley.” And “The sawmill towns, bare hamlets built of boards with perhaps a store”. This has the effect of creating an image in the reader’s mind and making the poem even more real.

The narrator believes you do not have to attend church to be spiritual and that common practice can be done in a peaceful place such as the orchard in her yard. The last two lines of the poem state, “So instead of getting to Heaven, at last- / I’m going, all along” (Dickinson 639). I interpreted this as the long journey to heaven has become a huge part of her life. It is not just a look into the future, but a continuous look in the present. The symbols Dickinson uses in this poem are by far the highlight of this short piece of poetry. In the first stanza, a bobolink and orchard are used to replace things that modern churches value as sacred and holy. Those natural occurrences are used by Dickinson to show her love for nature. More examples of this are shown in the second stanza. The narrator uses her own “sexton” to call her holly time instead of a brass bell to call church service. This is important to analyze as yet another natural occurrence that highly defines the authors writing style.

Imagery was also used in the poem.  I found that the yellow in the first line represented that the future the writer was facing was bright and warm regardless of his choice.  The undergrowth was, as undergrowth in any forest, damp and dank smelling, but not necessarily unpleasant, just something that the writer would have to face.  The image of traveling through a forest also brings to mind thoughts of birds in flight, chirping and singing.  Squirrels dashing through trees, rustling leaves and dropping the occasional acorn or nut also create an image of sight and sound.  The sun reflecting through the trees, casting shadows and creating pockets of warm and cool air and the occasional breeze stirring through the trees are also brought to mind by this poem.  The end of the poem brings to me

Approaching Emily Dickinson’s poetry as one large body of work can be an intimidating and overwhelming task. There are obvious themes and images that recur throughout, but with such variation that seeking out any sense of intention or order can feel impossible. When the poems are viewed in the groupings Dickinson gave many of them, however, possible structures are easier to find. In Fascicle 17, for instance, Dickinson embarks upon a journey toward confidence in her own little world. She begins the fascicle writing about her fear of the natural universe, but invokes the unknowable and religious as a means of overcoming that fear throughout her life and ends with a contextualization of herself within

The woman in the poem feels as if she is being forgotten by her husband and children. As she gets older, she experiences loss of loved ones until she is seemingly alone. Not surprising whatsoever, Gwendolyn Brooks has made yet another relatable poem. Whether they admit it or not, everyone in their lifetime feels as if they are lonely in some hard times. Brooks has the ability to create a character that portrays a complicated feeling incredibly well, which is a quality that every writer would wish to accomplish. Brooks’ talent as a writer is heightened in this poem, mostly because she shows how much she truly can transform her writing into a complex poem for audiences to think about. In doing this, she uses personification to add to the creativity of this poem in the line “the grasses forgetting their blaze and consenting to brown.” This is symbolic for autumn and the aging of a person’s physical features, because just as plants age from spring to fall, people age from a child to grow wrinkly, shriveled and no longer full of youth. Brooks incorporates repetition into this specific poem. For example, in this piece of poetry she repeats “I am a woman,” ”it is summer-gone,” and writes “I am cold in this cold house this house.” All of these uses of repetition emphasize the development from a younger woman to the older-age of womanhood. The manner Gwendolyn Brooks goes about writing this poem hints to the

Michael Salvucci Mrs. Comeau English 10 Honors Death, Pain, and the Pursuit of Peace Although Emily Dickinson’s poetry is profoundly insightful, her poems have a very confinedpan of subjects and themes. Most likely due to her early life and social reclusion, Dickinson’s poetry is limited to three major subjects: death, pain, and on a somewhat lighter note, nature. Dickinson’s poetry is greatly influenced by her early life as she led an extremely secluded and pessimisticlife. In her early adult years the poet spent one year studying at female seminary, from 1847 to 1848. Dickinson’s blunt pessimistic attitude is shown in a letter, written to a friend, as she says “I am not happy…Christ is calling everyone here, all my companions have

Dickinson’s letter is to the world, which ignores her, tells of Nature’s message about her works, and asks the world to judge them kindly. However, since this most likely was not actually written for people to read, it is Emily’s own acceptance of her work, written only for herself. This emotional plea with herself helps the readers see her dedication and passion for her writing. This letter can also be seen as Dickinson’s acceptance of rejection, when a few of her poems were submitted for publishing, and denied. She was confident enough to know that her poetry was incredible, and that men involved in publishing were too closed minded to allow her work to be printed. Dickinson is creatively able to place two different meanings into one poem, depending on how the reader choices to perceive it. By intertwining the idea of nature into her poem, while refereeing to it as something else, her abstract meanings can be taken at different levels.

(14, 18). During this poem, Dickinson wants us to simply see her version of a person's trip during death. The imagery is supposed to lead us into seeing what the author is describing.

Two of Dickinson’s universal techniques are metaphor and the fresh application of language; both techniques result in powerful images, and can be seen in two of her poems that focus on nature themes, “ A Bird came down the Walk” and “narrow Fellow.” She closes the poem, “ A Bird” with a stanza equating flight through the air with movement through water,

I am going out on the doorstep, to get you some new—green grass—I shall pick it down in the corner, where you and I used to sit, and have long fancies. And perhaps the dear little grasses were growing all the while—and perhaps they heard what we said, but they can't tell!