Poetry is able to present ideas and emotions in ways that are striking, even shocking, and that help us see those ideas and emotions from completely different perspectives. This is one of the primary functions of poetry. To understand it better, let’s look at a couple of Emily Dickinson’s poems.

“The saddest noise, the sweetest noise” begins with a something of a paradox. Right away we ask ourselves how a noise can be sad, sweet, and mad all at the same time. Then we learn that the poet is referring to the birds, and we remember the many times we’ve heard birds. Perhaps we have never paid much attention to them, but the poem helps us think about them in new ways. The poet also speaks of “night’s delicious close.” Here is another idea that is striking. The concepts of “night” and “delicious” don’t normally go together, yet in the poem, they are fitting. We hear of the “magical frontier” between March and April as well. The poet then turns rather melancholy as she guides us into thinking about the people we have loved who have passed away. Our hearts break as we are reminded of them by the birds and the springtime. We can see, then, how the poet touches our minds and hearts with her imagery and language, getting us to think in new ways.

In “I gave myself to Him –,” Dickinson helps us to think in new ways about a person’s relationship with God. The poet speaks in economic terms, which can be somewhat shocking, yet it provides us a new way to see this central relationship. Earthly wealth “might disappoint,” but the “great Purchaser” deals in love. There is both risk and gain, the poet says, and a “Sweet Debt of Life,” for she can never repay God for all he has given her. Again, poetry shows us something that might be quite familiar in a new way that helps us catch a fresh glimpse and a new perspective.

It’s poetry’s ability to provoke both thought and feeling that makes it so powerful. Discuss this statement in relation to Dickinson's "I gave myself to Him—" and "The saddest noise, the sweetest noise."

“I gave myself to Him—” provokes feeling in that it is a love poem and thought in that it forces us to think about what the speaker's true attitude to love really is.

By the same token, “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise” provokes both thought and feeling in that it shows us the beauty of nature while at the same time inviting us to consider the in-between places, such as the “magical frontier” between winter and spring, that taint natural beauty with a sense of loss.

“I gave myself to Him—” is undoubtedly a love poem. And as love poems invariably tend to do, it provokes certain emotions. Yet at the same time, Dickinson's use of financial metaphors, implying that the speaker's giving herself to her lover was some kind of business transaction, causes us to stop and think, to wonder about the speaker's true attitude to love.

The paradoxical nature of “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise” is introduced by its very title. On the one hand, Dickinson presents us with the joys and beauties of nature. In doing so, she stirs the emotions. Yet she also stimulates our intellects by inviting us to consider the change of seasons as a metaphor for the sad impossibility of regaining lost lovers.