Uniqueness of Emily Dickinson Poetry

People put limitations on their lives; what is truly tangible, may not seem the slightest possible to reach because of the inability for one to break away from the thoughts of society surrounding them. Emily Dickinson, and poet to nearly 1800 poems, beautifully created poems that connect with those who read her poems. Emily Dickinson is such a well known poet for the uniqueness of her poetry, and how she was able to fit so many different meanings with the use of a smaller amount of words. Emily Dickinson's Because I Could not Stop for Death and Hope is the Thing With Feathers are two poems that hold lots of meaning, connecting with the author's life and her views on various subjects. The creation of these incredible poems by Emily Dickinson started in the early years of her life all the way until the end, and even after her death when they were published. Growing up, Emily Dickinson was very intelligent and showed it through her schooling and particularly her creation of writings at a young age (Pettinger). As for Dickinson's religious beliefs, which held a major part in her poetry, she did not grow up in a family that was heavily religious and so she for the most part excluded heslelf from religion and conventional religious beliefs (Poetry Foundation). In the later years of Emily Dickinsons life, she absented herself from a public life and became sucluded and isolated (Biography.com). There are many different thoughts on why Dickinson isolated herself, such as depression or anxiety, but during this period of isolation she wrote the majority of her poems. Emily Dickinson's poems show her separation from religion, through the uncertanties in many of her poems (Pellinger), as well as her thoughts on the reality of life shown in the tones, themes, and form of her poems. Death should not be feared, but rather accepted. In the poem, Because I Could not Stop for Death the author, Emily Dickinson utilizes diction to insinuate the speaker's tone of acceptance towards the day of her own death. The speaker at first is very calm and accepting of Death kindly stopping for her and picking her up in the carriage. She is not worried about where she is going and why the man (symbol for Death) had come for her. Going along willingly, the speaker and the courteous man slowly drove in no rush to arrive to an unknown destination. Once they passed and paused in front of a house, the speaker surmised where she had been driven by this man, and why she was taken there. The speaker came to a conclusion about the events that took place, and rather than becoming worrisome, she remained calm and accepted the fate of her life and is accepting of death. Death is unexpected, and although a person may not be ready for death, death is ready; one must embrace this inevitable end to life. In the hardships of one's life, hope is still abundant. In the poem Hope is the Thing With Feathers, the author, Emily Dickinson, uses a bird as a metaphor for hope throughout the poem. She uses this metaphor throughout this entire poem to relay to her audience that the concept of hope perches in the soul of all people, and endures through all. That this bird sings and never stops even when faced with hardship. The importance of Emily Dickinson's use of a bird to show hope and endurance is that, this concrete symbol of a bird highlights the abstract idea of hope. This poem gives importance to the bird that attaches to the soul of all peoples and, in all the storm(s) and through all extremity, hope remains there to give strength, and never asks for anything in return. The prominence of hope is abundant in one's soul, and despite all of the hardship one faces, hope remains perched within to help aid life's overwhelming complexity. The poems Because I Could not Stop for Death and Hope is the Thing With Feathers both contain multiple meanings and ways one can perceive the works. As a whole, Emily Dickinson has influenced many from her valuable works that leave philisophical questions for readers to interpret and understand in their own way. The works of Emily Dickinson hold true value in poetry and impact the poets and novelists of today.

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