Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are two writers during the late 19th and early 20th century. They are often referred to the founders of American poetry. Both writers have many similarities and differences from each other, but neither of them can be imitated through their style. They have influenced many during and long after the Romantic era of literature. A common theme through each of their following poems is that some aspects of nature cannot be taught or learned, but only understood through…
Grazing in the fields, roaring in the jungles, or wriggling in the dirt, “Nature’s People” are found everywhere. Throughout history, people have admired nature and its beautiful creations, especially animals, and Emily Dickinson is no exception. In “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”, Dickinson simply admires a snake, personifying it with interesting metaphors and unusual word choices. Although she respects a snake in her poem, she also feels as if he is a sly, chilling, and devious creature.…
Growing up next to a cemetery, Emily Dickinson was no stranger to death. Continually exposed to death, many would believe she would fear death and not write about it. One famous poem of Emily's “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” proves this untrue, as she personified Death as a gentleman. For one surrounded by death, this personification may seem surprising. However, using this along with creative literary devices, Emily created a noteworthy poem. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” has an…
When examining modern music and poetry, there is a common theme between the two especially when adding in the element of protest poetry. Artists such as Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar more recently pushing for change and calling awareness to the issues surrounding their communities, very closely relates to the protest poetry written in the 20th century. They both have the same agenda and address the same issues even though the way and tone in which it’s delivered differs from one another. Poets…
I thoroughly enjoyed reading and understanding the literary work, Our Town by Thornton Wilder. The play begins in 1901 by illustrating the simple lives of ordinary people in Grover’s Corner, New Hampshire. Wilder has created the element of purity by using small town Leria 7 characters as a universal theme. Each of his three act represents a different aspect of life staring with the simplicity of daily living through the struggles of love, marriage and then death. He opens his…
Emily Dickinson’s “Eden is that Old-fashioned House” is a very short, yet interesting poem. This poem alone describes Dickinson’s poetry style in great detail. It’s calm and mild, yet relatively depressing and sad. Dickinson talks about how the home is not the house itself, but the people around it. She refers to the Garden of Eden, and how that was the first “home” ever. She compares it to the home she lives in now, and how it as has been around in her family for a long time. The title “Eden…
Emily Dickinson was a great poet from the 19th century. During her lifetime only about a dozen out of the thousands of poems she wrote, were actually published. Later in life she spent the vast majority of her time in her bedroom fixating on the darker topics of the mind. Dickinson uses metaphors and stanzas to expand on mental illness and to better grasp death. Emily Dickinson uses metaphors to help grasp the idea of death and put mental illnesses into perspective. In poem “340”, she compares…
Time is of the Essence Rosalia De Castro’s poems offered several interesting comparisons within her poems. De Castro’s poems, “[I well know there is nothing]” and “[The ailing woman felt her forces ebb]”, created a new perspective and interpretation of the its meaning in its entirety. In “[I well know there is nothing]”, the lines, “Well because we are so, clocks that repeat forever the same”, contain the source domain “we”, and the target domain refers to the “clocks” (De Castro 6-7). In this…
Some may say that the quiet and secluded are the most threatening. In Emily Dickinson’s case this statement is true. Not in the manner as harmful or dangerous, but in the way that she was better than most poets. However, no one knew it until after her death because she never published any of her work. Today she is considered one of the most prominent figures of American Literature. Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10, 1830 to the leading family in Amherst. Edward…
Titanic In english class, we were given the poem “Titanic”. The poem was written by David R. Slavitt. Slavitt had a tough life as a kid. His mother was murdered by a teenaged robber. His experience with his deceased mother probably made him write about dark stories and poems. The poem is about how people would want to go on the Titanic and go through the same death that the people on the Titanic went through. By dying with a lot of people rather than dying alone, which is what most people do. I…