Today: Emily Dickinson! Closer reading of “I Started Early—Took my Dog—” How to read a Dickinson poem #510-511

Emily Dickinson

Schedule/Notes Assignment You will be able to use your notes for the final Passage Analysis test.

Ballad “A simple narrative poem, often of folk origin, bearing romantic and sentimental character, composed in short stanzas.” French origin, means: "dancing song". Traditional ballads were stories and romantic tales set to melody and rhyming, written to be sung to music. Four-line stanzas (also known as a quatrain). Normally, only the second and fourth lines rhyme in a Ballad stanza. There is usually a refrain (repeated line or verse) linking everything together. The tone of a Ballad is often tragic with the language being simple and impassive. Source: http://www.writeawriting.com/poetry/ballad-poems/

Syntax Definition: the way in which words and sentences are placed together in the writing. Sentence structure. In English, syntax usually follows a pattern of subject-verb-object agreement (ex: “Ms. Gerrity spoke to us.”) but sometimes authors play around with this to achieve a lyrical, rhythmic, rhetoric or questioning effect (“To us spoke Ms. Gerrity”). Dickinson uses “inverted syntax” (ex. “No one he seemed to know-”)

Diction Definition: The choice of a particular word or words, as opposed to others. The word choices a writer makes contribute to the author's style and determine the reader's reaction. Ex.: a writer could call a rock formation by many words--a stone, a boulder, an outcropping, a pile of rocks, a cairn, a mound, or even an "anomalous geological feature." When analyzing literature, we ask Why that particular choice of words? What is the effect of that diction? Let’s just say Dickinson knew exactly what she was doing with word choice- so THINK ABOUT THEM!

anaphora [a‐naf‐ŏ‐ră], A literary device in which the same word or phrase is repeated in (and usually at the beginning of) successive lines, clauses, or sentences. Example from Dickinson: Mine—by the Right of the White Election! Mine—by the Royal Seal! Mine—by the Sign in the Scarlet prison Bars—cannot conceal!

Types of Rhyme SLANT RYHME Exact Rhyme- see/tree Identical Rhyme- sane/insane Eye Rhyme- through/though Vowel Rhyme- see/buy Imperfect rhyme- time/thin Suspended Rhyme- thing/along Exact Rhyme- see/tree Internal Rhyme vs External Rhyme Dickenson’s rhymes are infrequent, she chooses to use types of rhymes that were no accepted until the 19th century and are now used readily by modern poets.

Rules as we know it…think again Dickinson eliminated inessential language and punctuation from her poems; she disregarded grammar rules thus creating incomprehensible or riddle like poems. Dash- may emphasis a missing word or to replace a comma or a period; or a pause Capitalization- for no apparent reason

Enamored with language… Some of her lines are definitions Hope is the thing with feathers Pain has an element of blank Renunciation is a piercing virtue

Reading Poetry Literal Level Analytical and Symbolic Level

Taking notes on “I Started Early” Read through the poem, each time focusing your notes on the specific question After reading it a few times, you will have a wider grasp of the style, themes, poetic choices and scope of analysis needed to begin an analysis of this poem

#520 “I started Early—Took my Dog—” Generate three questions you have about the poem. Note any rhetorical devices we have spoken about today anaphora, caesura, diction, syntax

2nd Reading Who is the speaker? What is the speaker’s attitude toward the sea in the poem (identify where you see this)? Does it change (mark where)? Which words or images suggest a shift in her thinking (mark as ‘shift’ in margin next to the shift)?

What makes the sea recede at the poem’s end (find the motive and identify which words, punctuation, theme, style, etc. aid in this identification)? 


Dickinson’s poem loosely adapts the ballad form Dickinson’s poem loosely adapts the ballad form. Like a song, it uses rhythm, rhyme, and repetition to tell its story. What effect do the rhymes (and later on in the poem, the slant rhymes) have on the story she tells here (mark the poem up for rhyme: both internal and end, and find the slant rhyme)?



How does Dickinson’s use of dashes and capitalization help to create a sense of suspense in the sea’s growing danger (find these and mark them, then identify in margins the effect)?

Artistic Representation How did the visual help, distract, change, or encourage your own understanding of the poem?

Does the poem have more meaning, now, than when you first read it? Literal Meaning Symbolic Meaning Laws of Nature Sexuality Death Something else???

With Vendler’s Guide by your side, go down the steps to annotate poem #510 Be sure to annotate: Speaker Setting/Situation Abstract/Real Syntax Meter Rhyme Scheme Imagery Climactic moment Rhetorical Devices