Ms Cotter's Class

“Dickinson’s use of an innovative style to explore intense experiences can both intrigue and confuse.” 

Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of Emily Dickinson on your course. 

Poems: Hope is the Thing with Feathers, I Felt a Funeral in my Brain, I Heard A Fly Buzz When I died, A Bird Came Down the Walk, The Soul has Bandaged Moments, I Taste a Liquor 

Overview of the question: 

Innovative style: This refers to Dickinson’s unusual punctuation (the dashes), her seemingly random capital letters, her use of metaphor (comparisons), personification,  vivid imagery 

Intense experiences: (her themes) Fascination with death, mental suffering, moments of elation, love of nature 

Intrigue: What is intriguing about her poetry? – Her descriptions of suffering, fascination with death, metaphors, personification 

Confusing: Her personification of abstract ideas (turning hope into a bird, turning the soul into a woman) – her unusual punctuation, unusual sentence structure- the lack of available information about her personal life

The poetry of Emily Dickinson is instantly recognisable. Not only is her unconventional punctuation a trademark of her poetry, but her intense and varying themes, which range from dark and rather morbid to playful and bright, are indicative (they represent) of Dickinson’s frequent and intense highs and lows. I found her fascination with death intriguing, and her use of metaphors and personification to express her thoughts and experiences fascinated me. Her poetry appears simple; but this is deceptive. She explores abstract concepts (death, mental suffering, hope, the soul) and this can challenge readers who search for meaning in her poetry. 

Dickinson appeared to have a morbid fascination with death. In I Felt a Funeral, the poet uses an extended metaphor (in this case, a funeral) to describe the death of her sanity and sense of reason. Dickinson’s innovative and unconventional style is extremely evident in this poem. Dickinson describes the feeling of mourners ‘treading’ in her head. The repetition of this word, separated by one of her signature dashes, adds to the sense of suffering and torment, as does the long vowel sound created by the ‘ea’ in the word treading. The mourners take a seat, and the speaker is once more tormented by the sound of ‘beating-beating-‘ until she feels her mind is ‘going numb.’ Again, the repetition here is effective, and the dash once more adds to the sense of perpetual (continuous) suffering. The speaker hears the mourners ‘lift a box and creak across (her) soul.’ This is a particularly dark and intense statement and indeed, the poem becomes rather challenging and confusing from this point. Dickinson describes the heavens as ‘a bell’ and all that exists is an ear to receive the torturous tolling of the bell. At first, I found this concept rather confusing. However, the speaker is being tormented by the overwhelming sound in her mind, which represents her mental suffering. Once I understood this comparison, I found it intriguing. 

Her fascination with death is also explored in I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died. The poem is bizarrely written from the perspective of someone who has already died. She describes the stillness in the room as being like ‘the stillness in the air between the heaves of storm.’ I particularly like the assonance here, as I feel it creates a calming and still atmosphere. The simile is particularly effective, however, as it suggests that the stillness is not a comforting one; rather there is an expectation that something is going to happen. There is a sense of anticipation created, as the people in the room wait for ‘that last onset – when the king be witnessed-in the room’. There is no climactic religious experience, however, as the speaker dies. Instead, the last thing she will see and hear is a fly. The fly fills the speaker’s senses with ‘blue-uncertain- stumbling buzz’. Once more, the assonance here is particularly effective and coupled with the dashes, it adds to the sense that the fly is stumbling haphazardly around the room. The onomatopoeic word ‘buzz’ also helps the reader to hear the last sounds heard by the speaker. 

For me, Dickinson’s fascination with death, explored in her inimitable style is intriguing, as it is a rather morbid subject. 

Dickinson’s poetry reflects a mind that is clearly rather troubled. She describes intense states of mental sufferings and uses either metaphor or personification to express a deep sense of torment. In I Felt a Funeral, Dickinson describes a complete mental breakdown. In the final stanza, she states ‘and then a plank in reason, broke and I dropped down, and down-‘ In the final line, the speaker states that she ‘finished knowing’, which alludes (refers) to the death of her sense of reason.

Dickinson also explores intense mental suffering in The Soul has Bandaged moments. Dickinson describes the intense highs and lows experienced by the soul, which she firstly personifies as a woman and then compares to a bird. Once more, these comparisons may appear confusing to readers, but the personification of both the soul and fright in the poem aid the reader in relating more closely to the sense of terror expressed in the poem. In the first stanza, the poet uses the word ‘bandaged’ to suggest images of weakness and vulnerability. The soul is personified as a weak and fragile woman, frozen by fear. This fear is aptly compared to a goblin, who caresses the soul’s ‘freezing hair’. The uncomfortable imagery here (fear is sipping from the mouth of the soul) suggests that Dickinson viewed fear and doubt as something that is intrusive, but also seductive. It has a power over the soul. Any happiness experienced by the soul is short-lived, as ‘The Horror welcomes her’ once more. The capitalisation of the word horror emphasises its importance in the speaker’s life. While I was initially rather confused by the abstract concepts explored in this poem, I began to understand them and relate to them after a few readings of the poem. I found Dickinson’s use of personification and metaphor fascinating. 

Not all of Dickinson’s poems explore extreme states of depression or suffering. Indeed, Dickinson also describes intense happiness and elation in her poetry. Most of this happiness seems to derive from Dickinson’s strong appreciation of the natural world. Again, her innovative and characteristic style conveys her love and sense of excitement for the natural world. Dickinson seemed to particularly appreciate birds, as they appear in three of the poems I have read and are associated with freedom and escape in each of these poems. In Hope is the thing with Feathers, the poet uses a metaphor to compare hope to a bird which ‘perches in the bird sings a perpetual tune, signifying the enduring power of hope. The poet describes hope as being at its most comforting during times of adversity, which the poet likens to a ‘gale’. The sibilance in this stanza, created by the repeated ‘s’ sound in the line ‘and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm that could abash the little bird…’ is soothing and reinforces the comfort offered by hope. I found this to be one of Dickinson’s more accessible poems, but it has had an enduring impact on me, as I found the metaphor used by the poet very intriguing. 

A Bird came down the Walk is similarly accessible, particularly at the beginning of the poem. In fact, the simple rhyming scheme is comparable to a child’s nursery rhyme: ‘A bird came down the walk/ He did not know I saw/he bit an angleworm in halves and ate the fellow, raw.’ The language used by the poet is initially simple and playful, as she describes the bird drinking dew from a ‘convenient grass’ and hopping ‘sidewise… to let a beetle pass.’ The imagery in this poem is also particularly beautiful, as she describes the bird’s ‘velvet head.’ I admire the poet’s skilful use of assonance, as she describes how the bird ‘unrolled his feathers and rowed him softer home.’ The water imagery is explored further in the final stanza, as she compares the bird’s flight to ‘oars divid(ing) the ocean’. The complexity of the language here contrasts with the simplicity of the language in the opening stanzas, and conveys the poet’s appreciation for the bird’s flight. 

Dickinson’s enthusiasm and passion for the natural word is perhaps most evident in The Soul has Bandaged Moments and I taste a liquor never brewed. Despite being an otherwise dark and restrictive poem, Dickinson does describe moments of intense elation in The Soul has Bandaged moments. She describes the soul as having ‘moments of escape’. This elation is so intense, however, that it almost appears manic and reckless. The soul bursts free from its confines and ‘dances like a bomb’. I found this simile rather confusing, but on reflection I realised that Dickinson is possibly conveying the danger posed by excessive happiness and celebration. In the next stanza, the poet describes the bee returning to its favourite flower in order to reinforce the feeling of elation experienced by the soul when it is content and carefree. The word ‘delirious’ once more conjures up images of intense and almost excessive happiness. This sense of ecstatic happiness derived from nature is also explored in one of Dickinson’s most playful poems, I taste a liquor never brewed. This time, however, there is no sense of restriction; the poem explores excess and indulgence. It is possible that this poem is written from the viewpoint of a bird, who becomes inebriated by the beauty of the natural world in the summer. I particularly enjoy the beautiful imagery in this poem, which is intensely celebratory and bright. The poet describes flowers as ‘tankards scooped in pearl’ and as ‘inns of molten blue’. The bird is ‘reeling- thro endless summer days-‘, becoming intoxicated from nectar. Again, the sibilance in the last stanza is wonderfully euphonious (it sounds really nice) ’till Seraphs swing their snowy hats and saints to windows run’. The image of the ‘little Tippler leaning against the sun’ is comical, and reflects the intense and almost religious experience of the poet’s sense of wonder for the natural world. 

I agree that Dickinson’s innovative style, coupled with her exploration of intense experiences can both intrigue and confuse readers. Her fascination with death, her descriptions of intense suffering and her appreciation of the beauty of the natural world (a world she willingly shut herself off from) are fascinating to me as a reader and this fascination is only reinforced by her inimitable style. Her quirky use of punctuation, her expert use of metaphors and personification, and her vivid and memorable imagery all add to Dickinson’s enduring appeal as a poet. While her exploration of abstract concepts (such as death, suffering and hope) and her sometimes complex language can be rather challenging to comprehend, reading the poetry of Dickinson has been a wholly rewarding experience.