Emily Dickinson

Word Count: 271

Emily Dickinson's Poems

"Now I knew I lost her -" / "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun" / "The Poets light but Lamps -" / "I would no paint - a picture -" (Dickinson)

    These four poems by Emily Dickinson all contain themes of either art or self-identity. Specifically, "Now I knew I lost her -" and "My life had stood - a Loaded Gun" tackle the topic surrounding identity, and the confusion surrounding the idea. The final two lines of the first stanza of the latter poem mentioned states, "The Owner passed - identified - / And carried Me away" (Dickinson). In the later stanzas of this poem, Dickinson creates a new male identity with which her female persona travels. This relates back to the idea of female writers creating an androgenous personality when writing. The former poem mentioned speaks to the idea of losing one's self and becoming something or someone unrecognizable. The first stanza states, "Now I knew I lost her - / Not that she was gone - / But Remoteness traveled / On her Face and Tongue" (Dickinson). These lines relate that the person looks the same but is completely different.

    "The Poets light by Lamps" and "I would not paint - a picture -" both have themes surrounding the world and ideas of an artist. In the first poem, Dickinson mentions that poets burn themselves out when writing their prose. It is almost as if they give so much to their work that they have nothing left to give. The second poem follows the idea that the narrator would rather be a work of art than to create art. This relates to the idea that art creates a false, perfect reality. This deception leads the audience to want to be a part of the creation by being the subject.

Comments

  1. Julianna HigginsMarch 16, 2021 at 7:37 PM

    I hadn't read some of these poems so I'm really glad you pointed out when Emily Dickinson brought in an androgynous personality into one of her poems because we have talked a lot about this topic in class so it was cool to find it in another piece of writing.

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  2. Rachael BadeauMarch 18, 2021 at 7:14 AM

    I think it is really interesting how you connected all of these poems to the same theme of self-identity. When reading, I hadn't thought of it in this way. In addition, you brought up how the author created a male identity for the female she was writing about. This idea doesn't exactly represent literary androgyny, but it falls into the same category of having women take over roles of men or vice versa.

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  3. Wendell EppsMarch 18, 2021 at 7:22 AM

    The fact that you went ahead and gave an elaborate interpretation on multiple poems written by Dickinson definitely made this a stronger and more interesting blog to read. The poem I chose was "Wild Nights - Wild Nights'' and that also focused on self-identity. It focused more on self-identity in the essence of life, but it still played a pivotal role in the poem as a whole. It seemed as though Dickinson was trying to convey that message of self-identity in her poems which makes sense because it is one of those things that can truly make for a heartfelt story and allow for the characters/speakers in the poem to gain a sense of confidence. I find it fascinating that art was also something that seemed to be one of the other themes in the poems of Dickinson. Art can really allow for someone to express who they are or think about who they are and it can serve as a powerful theme in a poem or any other literary work. Fantastic job providing a variety in your blog, it allowed me to deeply conceptualize what Dickinson's style was as a writer and what messages she was trying to get across to her audience.

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