Poems Of Emily Dickinson

Emily was indulged in her "eccentricity" by her family. She was a profound and intelligent poet, and her preoccupation with her writing seemed a harmless enough outlet for her peculiarities. Dickinson neither completed many poems nor prepared them for publication. She wrote her drafts on scraps of paper, grocery lists, and the backs of recipes and used envelopes.

Benjamin Newton was one of the first people to recognise the poetic capacities of Emily, and encouraged her to write poetry. The works of other poets, in particular Emerson, were important for Emily Dickinson in opening up spiritual ideas beyond the strict Calvinism. Emily had innovative views and unorthodox beliefs, but she often doubted her own convictions; thus influences of Emerson and other poets were of great importance.

Writers contemporary to her had little or no effect upon the style of her writing. In her own work she was original and innovative, but she did draw upon her knowledge of the Bible, classical myths, and Shakespeare for allusions and references in her poetry. She also used contemporary popular church hymns, transforming their standard rhythms into free-form hymn meters.

Dickinson's poems were written using unusual meter and rhyme schemes that went against the established norms, but she continued to write her poems her way throughout her life time. She had an uncanny sense of expression when it came to the subjects of mortality, love and hope. Dickinson found irony, ambiguity, and paradox lurking in the simplest and commonest experiences. The materials and subject matter of her poetry are quite conventional.

Her poems are filled with robins, bees, winter light, household items, and domestic duties. These materials represent the range of what she experienced in and around her father's house. She used them because they constituted so much of her life and, more importantly, because she found meanings latent in them. Though her world was simple, it was also complex in its beauties and its terrors.

Her lyric poems captures impressions of particular moments, scenes, or moods, and she characteristically focuses upon topics such as nature, love, immorality, death, faith, doubt, pain, and the self.

Emily Dickinson wrote more than 1700 poems in her lifetime, Only seven of Dickinson's poems were published during her lifetime, Early editors of her poems took the liberty of making them more accessible to nineteenth- century readers when several volumes of selected poems were published in the 1890s. The poems were made to appear like traditional nineteenth-century verse by assigning them titles, rearranging their syntax, normalizing their grammar, and regularizing their capitalizations.

Not until 1955, when Thomas Johnson published Dickinson's complete works in a form that attempted to be true to her manuscript versions, did readers have an opportunity to see the full range of her style and themes. Her work received critical acclaim and popular success.

SELECTED WORKS: POEMS BY EMILY DICKINSON, 1890 (ed. by T.W. Higgins and Mabel Loomis Todd) POEMS: SECOND SERIES, 1891 POEMS: THIRD SERIES, 1896 POEMS OF A LIFETIME, 1914 SELECTED POEMS, 1924 (ed. by Conrad Aiken) THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, 1955 (ed. by Thomas H. Johnson) THE LETTERS OF EMILY DICKINSON, 1958 THE COMPLETE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, 1960 (ed. by Thomas H. Johnson) THE MANUSCRIPT BOOKS OF EMILY DICKINSON, 1981 (2 vols., ed. by Ralph W. Franklin) NEW POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, 1993 (ed. by William H. Shurr) OPEN ME CAREFULLY: EMILY DICKINSON'S INTIMATE LETTERS TO SUSAN HUNTINGTON DICKINSON, 1998

Because I Could Not Stop For Death

Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality. We slowly drove—He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility— We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess—in the Ring— We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain— We passed the Setting Sun— Or rather—He passed Us— The Dews drew quivering and chill— For only Gossamer, my Gown— My Tippet—only Tulle— We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground— The Roof was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— Since then—‘tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity—

The speaker of the poem: the poet herself who calmly accepts the death The adressee: general audience The tone of the poem: the overall tone of this poem seems mixed In the first 3 stanzas the tone: joyous and happy In the 4th stanza the tone: contemplative; the speaker is confused about her existence in the world In the last 2 stanzas, the tone: sad; the speaker perceives the reality and becomes calm when she realizes her destiny

The Theme of The Poem Death and life after death. Death does not come at a suitable time therefore the speaker wants to reveal experiences throughout different periods in life, which happened many centuries ago, going through the different stages in her life, now she is capable to resolve her past and prolong onto death peacefully.

Paraphrase of The Poem Stanza 1: Because I could not stop for Death— Not ready to die He kindly stopped for me— Death arrived in its own good time The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality. The journey to the grave begins in Stanza 1, when Death comes calling in a carriage in which Immortality is also a passenger.

Stanza 2: We slowly drove—He knew no haste The carriage drove along at an easy, unhurried pace, perhaps suggesting that death has arrived. Death is taking her calmly and slowly away. And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility— She stopped all her daily works for death’s politeness. In this way, she rewarded him by putting away her struggle and her freedom.

Stanza 3: We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess—in the Ring— On the way of her journey, the speaker viewed children playing in a ring on break time in School. We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain— She saw the fields of grain looking at her with great interest. We passed the Setting Sun— She percieved with her eyes that the sun is setting on the way of her journey. So, the day ended.

Stanza 4: Or rather—He passed Us— The speaker is uncertain about her existence in the world. Now, she feels that her life symbolised by the sun is passing by. The Dews drew quivering and chill— As night appeared to be falling, cold dew is settling in. For only Gossamer, my Gown— My Tippet—only Tulle— The speaker dressed in a light gown and cape or tippet made of tulle which is a kind of thin, transparent, open material. In the 19th century, when people died, they usually wore these kind of dresses and with this she figures out that she is dead.

Stanza 5: We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground— The speaker and death reached a house which was her own grave. She is now dead. The Roof was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— She could hardly see the roof and the cornice because she is now buried in the earth. They are only visible above the pile.

Stanza 6: Since then—‘tis Centuries—and yet Feels s horter than the Day Centuries have passed since her death and naturally, centuries are longer than a single day. However, the poet feels centuries are shorter than the day realizing that she is dead I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity— The word “surmised” means that the woman guessed, through intuition, the answer to the mystery of human existence. She is in shocking situation at the end of her journey. She looks at the heads of the horses and sees that they are pointed “toward Eternity,” and suddenly she remembers that Immortality has been sitting beside her all along.