Brothers,
Emily Dickinson is well known for--as far as I'm concerned--two things:
1. imagism: her imagery; the images she uses to capture a moment in time, or a physical or emotional state of being.
For instance, instead of placing the word "isolation" in a poem about "isolation," she will instead capture the emotions one feels when isolated and use them as an indirect indication of the overall theme of "isolation." Her poetry is therefore suggestive and rooted specifically in man's mental, emotinal, or physical experience of some state of being. More simply, a poem about God doesn't have to include God's name if we were to write one in Dickinson's poetic style.
2. ellipses: the omission from a sentence or other construction of one or more words that would complete or clarify the construction; her thoughts, then, are "elliptical" and this is most evident in her short phrases and the incomplete sentence structures within her verse. You'll notice various dashes and other breaks in lines of her verse that give the reader "pause" to reflect on the images she creates.
All that said, take some time this weekend to read and reflect upon her poems as excerpted in 101 Great American Poems. After parousing some of her work, take one poem that struck you and interpret it.
If you decide to read your fellow classmate's commentary and wish to respond with your own opinion, please feel free to do so. I recommend you doing it, but with discretion, open-mindedness, and respect.
Interpret away,
BRob
p.s. For those of you who have not published your own poetry in the previous blog assignment, please do so. I enjoy reading your work and find in it inspiration for my own.
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16 comments:
The Dickenson poem that I liked the most was "Success is counted sweetest." What I feel dickenson was trying to convey in this poem is simply things mean more to those who have less. Shes saying how a "nectar" tastes best to those who can't afford or get it. I just like the truthfulness in this poem.
Success is counted Sweetest is also the poem i chose for this study. I agree that it shows how much success is needed and respected by the less fortunate because they feel success is their only means to live by. ALso, I think that those more fortunate sometimes do not take succcess as important because we do not feel that same joy of accomplishment as those who really need it to get by
Success is counted sweetest is the poem i have chosen to interpret. I think that Dickinson is trying to say that people who want to succeed need to be determined. People who aren't determined can not understand a determined person's mindset to succeed. She saying that it is hard for people who are determined to describe their feelings of when they finally succeed. At the end, the person's hard work and pain have finally paid off and have succeeded.
I also agree. When we achieve our goals we do not always appreciate what they represent to us. We do not even spend very long thinking about our accomplishments. But when we do not achieve our goals we value so much what it is we have not received or reached. We think about it, we value it and we desire it.
In If I can stop one heart from breaking, by Emily Dickinson, the author is expressing her want for others to have happiness. Emily must have believed that the worst thing that can happen to a person is to have their heart broken, and that you should do anything to prevent this. If a person can keep one person from having their heart broken then they have lived a full life. It seems to me that she probably had her heart broken at one point or another. Although I don’t agree with her she is making a very strong point with this poem. My interpretation is pretty short but it gets right to the point.
I agrree with Joe on some level there. If I may interpret that poem I would say it is about the fact that in the end one's life will be judged by how they interacted with others and if one may maintain positive relations with all then he/she can say that he/she lived a good life.
i like the poem Success is counted Sweetest because it shows how important it is to succeed in life. Wiithout being able to succeed we wouldnt strive for anything. Many people are determined to succeed and that is why they do succeed and why they deserve to.
Success is counted Sweetest, pretty much sums up what everyone wants to do in life, succeed. I like this poem because it stresses what life is all about and how rewarding it is, knowing you have accomplished something beyond measure for yourself, and knowing you done what you needed to do, be what you wanted to be and gotten where you strived to be.
If i cant stop one heart from breaking, is the poem that stuck out the most to me. She is saying that if she could help out someone elses heart then her heart would be happy. I think that there was someone that was close to her and maybe their heart was broken or had somehting go really wrong in their life. I think she is trying to say that she would want to be in that persons place as long as that person wouldnt have to suffer. I think that the person who had to suffer meant a lot to emily and that is why she wrote this poem.
If i can stop one heart from breaking, struck me because of the message it sent. Dickinson is saying if in her whole life time she can't even help one person, she will not be satisfied with herself. She is saying that life should be judged by what you do for others not what you have or who you are. She says she will not be content if she can't help just one person. She wants everyone to do the little things for eachother.
I chose to write about the poem 'If I can stop one heart from breaking'. I think that Dickinson is saying in this poem that if you help at least one person in your life than your life had meaning to it. If you go through your life without doing anything that benefits anyone else than you lived your life "in vain" and your life was wasted.
I think that the poem " I am Nobody who are you?" by emily dickson shows how Emily Dickson would rather be in a reclusive state out of the public eye that live in society. In the poem she refers to being somebody as dreary and dissaporves of living a public life.
the poem i chose was success is counted sweetetst. I think she is saying that success is more understood and appreciated by the ones who never accomplish it then the ones who have. Maybe that the successful forget what success they have, that it is just life for them and do not appreciate what it is. and maybe that for people who achieve never the smallest success is joy for them and that the successful people may not think so it is stil,l success to the peoople who did it
Because I could not stop for Death
My interpretation of this poem is that it is an expression of life. Dickinson writes of "passing the school where children played" and "pausing before a house." To me, all of these things that she's going past with "death" are events in her life. Her life is passing by and she knows that her imminent death is coming ever closer and she is just willing to admit that. She also knows that she won't live forever because "Immortality" is with her very close to "Death" himself. She would have loved to live forever, but death came rolling along and she just went along with it.
if i can stop one heart from breaking
in this poem by emily dickinson, she express how a persons life can be changed for the better by helping out someone els. i interpreted the poem as by heling houst another person, you make a world of difference to them and you also erase all the things you have done wrong.
The poem by Emily Dickinson that struck me was "Success Is Counted Sweetest." This poem gave me the idea that Dickinson had a positive outlook on life, even though for a good bit of time she was considered a recluse. I think that after she stopped being a hermit, she felt a sense of success which inspired her to write more poetry.
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