Emily Dickson poet’s work
Response paper
Biography
Emily Dickson was born in 1830 and studied at the Amherst Academy in 1834-1847. Emily encountered separation and loneliness given that she experienced loss of loved ones and isolation during the Civil War. Her parents died and she lived a lonely life and she could not agree with the ideal of social obligations which was a movement by American women to search for mental and spiritual freedom (Dickson, 1). Her work reflects isolation and challenges the traditional beliefs and, she focuses on nature as the source of beauty and pain.
Response
After reading Emily Dickson's poet's work, my general impression is that Emily is one of the greatest poets. In her work, Emily is concerned with life and in specific her own life. She incorporates the themes of the inner world, death, pain, God and religion, love and nature in her work (Dickson, 1). For example in the poem ‘I felt a funeral in my brain', Emily explores the psychological state and individual consciousness and how she experienced danger and loneliness. In the poem ‘I heard a fly buzz when I died', and the poem ‘ I died for beauty but was scarce', Emily presents the theme of death and the reader notices that death is feared and avoided but on the other hand, death is the path for a new life since she entered a new phase of life (Dickson, 1). In both poems, she touches the theme of death but in an optimistic and pessimistic manner. She talks about the reality of death and despite the fear of death, the poet represents hope and calmness. In the poem ‘after great pain, a formal feeling comes' the poet presents the theme of emotional pain and the suffering human's beings undergo. The pain of separation creates the desire for union and the need to end the suffering (Dickson, 1). In general, Emily is was a prolific writer who focused on the escaping pain that occurred as a result of death and separation.
The major thing that I noticed in the poems is the power of life. Emily indicates that real life is full of sadness, depression, and disappointment. However, the figurative language, rhyme, images, and symbols in her work tell that the difficulties of life are a path for a spiritual journey where one achieves joy and happiness (Dickson, 1). I have also noticed that in Emily's poet work, there is a relationship between work's form and content and the relation builds an inner harmony thereby stating clearly the poem's subject matter. Even though Emily's work covers various topics or themes including nature, love, death, and others, her main objective in writing the poem is to view the world and make a sense of the world (Dickson, 1). Generally, the reader is able to depict the reality of life and the meaning of death.
I love Emily's poems because I can easily relate her theme with real life especially the themes of pain and sorrow. Personally, I have experienced pain from separation and death of loved ones but every time I relate the poems with the situations, I learn that there is life after death. Another thing is that I love poems because they build personal motivation. When one understands the deep meaning of the poem, one can gain a new perspective of life and spiritual medication especially when one is in the midst of difficulties.
Work cited
Dickson Emily. Poems by Emily Dickson. Library of Alexandria, 2013
