1. Emily Dickinson
POET OF PARADOX

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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