Emily Dickinson POET OF PARADOX
Literary Devices Exact Rhyme: two or more words have identical sounds in their final stressed syllables One/Begun Slant rhyme: a close, but not exact rhyming sound, meant to disturb the reader’s ear and draw emphasis One/Stone Eye/Majority Assonance: the repetition of similar vowel sounds in a line of poetry Hope is a thing with feathers (“i” repeated) Paradox: a statement that seems to contradict itself but suggests some important truth; a contradiction that can be explained as true.
Literary Devices Consonance: repetition of constants in the middle or ends of words in a line of poetry Some late visitor entreating entrance at my door Personification: when an object, animal, or idea is given human characteristics Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me Inversion: changing the natural order of words to fit rhyme scheme or meter Inebriate of Air—am I
Themes in Dickinson’s poetry Dickinson’s poetry explores the relationship between Love and loss Faith and Doubt Death/immortality (does it even exist) and Life Nature and Humanity The power of God and The power of the individual imagination