Emily Dickinson,Why She Is An American Poet Essay, Research Paper

Emily Dickinson, a creative poet during the mid-nineteenth century, wrote what many

consider to be truly American poetry. To understand why Dickinson is considered a

brilliant writer of American poetry, one must know about the time period in which she

wrote her poetry. Dickinson wrote during the era of American literature known as the Age

of Expansion (Perkins 869). This was during the first half-century after the Civil War to

the First World War which was approximately 1865-1915 (Perkins 869). During this time

period, American literature went through many drastic changes. American writers

progressively moved from romanticism to realism (Perkins 870). Realism was a much

more realistic interpretation of humanity and its destiny (Perkins 870). This new approach

addressed a larger and more general audience than the writings of the Romantic era

(Perkins 870). Although Dickinson is considered a writer from the Age of Expansion, her

style of writing combined elements from the Romantic and Realism eras (Perkins 872).

Emily Dickinson was from the Amherst village which possessed a deeply rooted identity

from Puritanical America (Perkins 872). Dickinson wrote with such a style and

compassion that her poems are still among the most popular of all American poetry today.

All but a few of her poems were published after her death. This is a great symbol of

American Patriotism for the fact that she wrote from the heart and not for a paycheck. All

of the elements combined were poured into everyone of her works and because of this,

Dickinson is a symbol of American poetry.

Throughout Emily Dickinson?s poetry there are three main themes that she

addresses: death, love, and nature. Another aspect of Emily Dickinson?s work that

fascinates many critics is the importance and the impact of “the word” in her poetry. In

Donald E. Thackrey?s essay “The Communication of the Word,” he talks about how “the

power of the individual word, in particular, seems to have inspired her with nothing less

than reverence” (Thackrey 51). Dickinson approached her poetry inductively, that is, she

combined words to arrive at whatever conclusion the patterns of the words suggested,

rather than starting out with a specific theme or message. Instead of purposefully working

toward a final philosophical point, Dickinson preferred to use series of “staccato”

inspirations (Thackrey 51). Dickinson frequently used words with weight in her work,

and as a result her works usually cannot be grasped fully in one reading without

dissecting each word individually. Often Dickinson would compile large, alternative

word lists for a poetry before she would come to a decision on which word was “just

right” for the impact she wished to achieve (Thackrey 52). For example, this poem

displays Dickinson?s use of alternative, thesaurus-like lists:

Had but the tale a thrilling, typic,

hearty, bonnie, breathless, spacious,

tropic, warbling, ardent, friendly,

magic, pungent, winning, mellow

teller

All the boys would come?

Orpheus?s sermon captivated,

It did not condemn.

Eventually, Dickinson came to rest on the word “warbling,” but one can see the

meticulous care that she put into the decision on which word to use. Another poem of

Dickinson?s that shows her compositional method is “Shall I Take Thee?” the Poet Said.”

In this poem, Dickinson discusses from where the power of the world comes.

“Shall I take thee?” the poet said

To the propounded word.

“Be stationed with the candidates

Till I have further tried.”

The poet probed philology

And when about to ring

For the suspended candidate,

There came unsummoned in

That portion of the vision

The word applied to fill.

Not unto nomination

The cherubim reveal.

In the preceding poem, one can see the artistic style come through her composition. The

best representation of that particular idea comes from the author Donald Thackrey when

he says,? It is significant that the revealed word comes “unsummoned” in a flash of

intuition?.and yet the implication of the poem is that the revealing of the word must be

preceded by the preparatory, conscious, rational effort of probing philology?She

[Dickinson] herself was well aware that inspiration, while all-sufficient when present,

seldom came even to a great poet?(Thackrey 53).Emily regarded the words she used as

living entities that could have “being, growth, and immortality” (Thackrey 54). This

attitude toward language comes through clearly in the following six-line poem about the

nature of the “word.”

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

The idea that the word comes from the experience behind it takes precedence over

the notion that a word is wasted when the vocal chords stop moving. Words have

connotations that encompass the “entire circumference” of the idea in addition to its

denotative worth (Thackrey 54). The complexity of the single, written word defined the

limits of communication between human beings and, therefore, symbolized the isolation

of the individual?a concept that can be seen in Dickinson?s personal, reclusive life.

“The Love of Thee?a Prism Be?: Men and Women in the Love Poetry of Emily

Dickinson,” an essay by Adalaide Morris, a feminist critic, examines how Dickinson

views love with an allegorical neatness created in her poem “The Love of Thee?a Prism

Be” (Morris 98). Emily Dickinson believes that it is the prismatic quality of passion that

matters, and the “energy passing through an experience of love reveals a spectrum of

possibilities” (Morris 98). In keeping with her tradition of looking at the “circumference”

of an idea, Dickinson never actually defines a conclusive love or lover at the end of her

love poetry, instead concentrating on passion as a whole (Morris 99). Although she never

defined a lover in her poems, many critics do believe that the object or focal point of her

passion was Charles Wadsworth, a clergyman from Philadelphia. Throughout Emily?s life

she held emotionally compelling relationships with both men and women. The

differences in the prismatic qualities of each type of relationship come through in

Dickinson?s prism imagery. Morris summarizes these differences in her essay:

In one [male prism] the supremacy of the patriarch informs the rituals of courtship,

family, government, and religion; in the other [female prism], the implied equality of

sisterhood is played out in ceremonies of romantic, familial, social, and even religious

reciprocity (Morris 103).

In her poetry, Emily represents the males as the Lover, Father, King, Lord, and

Master as the women take complimentary positions to their male superiors, and many

times the relationship between the sexes is seen in metaphor?women as “His Little

Spaniel” or his hunting gun. The woman?s existence is only contingent to the encircling

power of the man (Morris 104). It could be noted that the relationship with her father

created some of the associations that Dickinson used in her work, her father being

involved in government, religion, and in control of the family. Dickinson?s linked

imagery in her male love poetry focuses on suns, storms, volcanoes, and wounds (Morris

100). There are always elements of disturbance or extremes and explosive settings. There

are also repeated examples of the repression of love causing storm imagery to become

“silent, suppressed” volcanic activity, something on the verge of explosion or activity. Of

course, in the repressed individual the potential for explosion or action can be very

dangerous, and frequently in Dickinson?s work this kind of love relationship ends of with

someone receiving a wound (Morris 100).

The Imagery of Emily Dickinson, by Ruth Flanders McNaughton, in a chapter

entitled “Imagery of Nature,” examines the way the Emily Dickinson portrays nature in

her poetry. Dickinson often identified nature with heaven or God (McNaughton 33),

which could have been the result of her unique relationship with God and the universe.

There are a lot of religious images and allusions used in her poetry, such as the rainbow

as the sign of the covenant God made with Noah. Dickinson always held nature in

reverence throughout her poetry, because she regarded nature as almost religious. There

was almost always a mystical or religious undercurrent to her poetry, but she depicted the

scenes from an artistic point of view rather than from a religious one (McNaughton 34).

One of the most obvious things that Dickinson did in her poetry was paying minute

attention to things nobody else noticed. She was obsessed with the minute detail of

nature?paying attention to things such as hills, flies, bumble bees, and eclipses. In these

details, Dickinson found “manifestations of the universal” and felt the harmony that

bound everything together (McNaughton 33). The small details and particulars that

caught her eye were like “small dramas of existence” (McNaughton 39). Each poem was

like a tiny micro-chasm that testified to Dickinson?s life as a recluse. Dickinson?s created

“dramas” were not static, but everything from the images she used to the words she chose

for impact contributed to a “moving picture” (McNaughton 39).In the following poem,

Dickinson writes how nature acts as a housewife sweeping through a sunset:

She sweeps with many-colored brooms,

And leaves the shreds behind;

Oh, housewife in the evening west,

Come back, and dust the pond!

You dropped a purple ravelling in,

You dropped an amber thread;

And now you?ve littered all the East

With duds of emerald!

And still she plies her spotted brooms,

And still the aprons fly,

Till brooms fade softly into stars,

And then I come away.

Dickinson artistically shows the “sunset in terms of house cleaning” (McNaughton

36). The themes of domestic life and housewifery are displayed in the preceding poem.

Only somebody with the observational powers and original creativity like Emily

Dickinson could see something so unique and refreshing in a sunset. Dickinson also saw

nature as a true friend most likely because of her time spent alone with it. She describes

nature as a show to which she has gained admission. Dickinson saw friendship and

entertainment in the world of trees, bees, and anthills. “The Bee is not Afraid of Me” is an

excellent example of Dickinson?s communion with nature.

The bee is not afraid of me,

I know the butterfly;

The pretty people in the woods

Receive me cordially.

The brooks laugh louder when I come,

The breezes madder play.

Wherefore, mine eyes, thy silver mists?

Wherefore, O summer?s day?

Also, consider the minute detail that Dickinson pays the world of bugs and insects.

Convicted could we be

Of our Minutiae,

The smallest citizen that flies

Has more integrity.

And part of another poem:

And then he drank a dew

From a convenient grass,

And then hopped sidewise to the wall

And let a beetle pass.

Each of the previous four lines creates images and scenes from a kind of “miniature

painting” that Dickinson works to create (McNaughton 39). More is achieved through the

use of precise description than could be done by examining the philosophical aspects

behind a nature. Dickinson always felt as if she were one of them, the creatures of nature,

and she felt more at ease with her world of crickets, dew, and butterflies. Even though

spending life as a recluse seems like undesirable to most people, our world owes a debt of

gratitude to Emily Dickinson for the way she introduced us to her world of nature in such

a different and special way.

It is quite obvious that if anyone portrays American poetry, Emily Dickinson

does. Not only did she blend as an American poet in the Age of Expansion, but she stood

out with her own originality. She was able to stand out as a brilliant woman in a unsteady

and chauvinist time in American History. Emily Dickinson?s works have been a model

for perfection and originality of American poetry for many years and are showing no

signs of ever fading away.

Works Cited

McNaughton, Ruth E. The Imagery of Emily Dickinson. University of

Lincoln, Nebraska, 1949.

Morris, Adalaide. “The Love of Thee?a Prism Be.” Feminist Critics Read

Emily Dickinson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. 98-113.

Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in

Literature.Boston: McGraw Hill College, 1999.

Thackrey, Donald E. “The Communication of the Word.” Emily Dickinson:

A Collection of Critical Essays. Sewall. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall,

1963. 51-69.

McNaughton, Ruth E. The Imagery of Emily Dickinson. University of

Lincoln, Nebraska, 1949.

Morris, Adalaide. “The Love of Thee?a Prism Be.” Feminist Critics Read

Emily Dickinson. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983. 98-113.

Perkins, George and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in

Literature.Boston: McGraw Hill College, 1999.

Thackrey, Donald E. “The Communication of the Word.” Emily Dickinson:

A Collection of Critical Essays. Sewall. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall,

1963. 51-69.