Lauren Carbone 11-2

English III

Mr. Fiorini

March 8, 2009

 

Poetry Supermarket, Emily Dickenson

 

http://www.poetry.com/GreatestPoems/poem.asp?id=66  

1.)    Emily Dickenson the writer of the poem 712, was not only known for her great works of writing, but her life style of imposed social seclusion as well. She lived in almost complete isolation from the outside world, but was still prominent in her intelligence as a young student and had an extremely deep devotion to the religious aspects in her life. Religion was a very crucial issue during the 1830 era Dickenson had lived it. One of the greatest beliefs of this time was Calvinism, which basically concluded that the majority of humans were to be damned to hell with few saved. Emily saw religion reflection more upon the beauty of nature with a brighter outlook, opposed to people being punished for their wrong doings. These were all aspects of Emily Dickenson’s life I found to tie into her poetry, as well as pose questions regarding her life style and how it came out in her poetry.

 

One of the first things I realized after reading Emily Dickenson’s poem 712, was how she mentioned a wide range of places she had passed while on this carriage ride. I found this to both contradict and tie in with her life of seclusion because the poem named many things she has seen such as the sun setting and fields of grain, but these aspects all seemed so limited which brought my attention back to her life of isolation.  Another thing brought to my attention was the opening line in her poem “Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.” I think this brought in the religious aspects of her time because it’s as if it’s signifying that death is coming but she can not stop it, and in her real life situation she could not stop Calvinism but she could live on her own beliefs.

 

 

2.)    In reading the Poem 712, I found that although Emily Dickenson lived a life of Simplicity and seclusion, her poetry was very powerful and delivered a message that could be dwelled upon and also left some uncertainty for me personally as the reader. Another thing I noticed about her writing was how she used small phrases, but these small phrases obtained a lot of powerful thoughts like in her statement “I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity“, which can invoke multiple different ideas and theories as to what she is implying. When I read this poem I imagined her tone to be rather soft but also relatively eerie due to how she is speaking of death. I’m sure that there could be numerous interpretations of the theme of Dickenson’s poem, but in my opinion it was about what eternity after death could be. I say this because of how she opens the poem with basically walking into death and ending with eternity.

 

Hope is the thing

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all,

 

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

 

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

 

3.)   After reading this poem I took great interest in the message being delivered, which is how hope is something that dwells inside of everyone and it is capable of getting you through even the most difficult times life brings on. People should reach out for this hope for inspiration and motivation to never give up for whatever it is they are fighting for.

 

4.)   In my opinion not much of Dickenson’s work seemed to make me think of her as a distinctly American poet other then the sense of freedom I personally felt as I read her poems. What brought upon this feeling of freedom to me was how she openly discusses things in her own manner with no imposing judgments of others. I often relate American culture to freedom, which is what brought upon this thought. In general I don’t really find much of an American style in the writings of Emily Dickenson.