Emily Dickinson

This three-stanza poem by Emily Dickinson relies on a number of literary devices for its effectiveness. It begins with an aphorism--a statement of truth expressed in a concise, witty manner....

As with so many of Dickinson's works, the theme of individual identity and alienation is expressed in a profound manner in this particular poem. The fundamental idea of being different is...

The "purple Host" of the poem is a symbol of whoever has met with success today; it could be a conquering army, as seems literal, or it could be any person or group that has triumphed,...

Dickinson is saying that the Now should be treasured and celebrated. The Now means the present. Every past and future moment was at one time, or will be, a present; a Now. Each moment in the past,...

The final stanza is a continuation of an extended figurative comparison that begins a couple of lines before the final stanza. The full comparison states: And he unrolled his feathers, And rowed...

In this poem, Dickinson presents two paradoxes, or statements that contradict themselves. The first is that people with "much madness," or who are insane, show a great deal of sense. In fact,...

Emily Dickinson used three types of rhyme: First is exact rhyme. Take the poem "Because I Could Not Stop For Death," for example. Examples of exact rhyme is me/Immortality in the first stanza. She...

Another educator already focused on the stylistic elements of the poem, so for my analysis, I will focus on the meaning and significance of Emily Dickinson's "There is no Frigate like a Book,"...

Like many other Emily Dickinson's poems, "It dropped so low — in my Regard" wasn't published until after her death. Like many other of her poems, "It dropped so low — in my Regard" is enigmatic,...

When Dickinson says, "Witchcraft was hung, in History," she seems to mean that modern thinkers no longer believe in witchcraft; it is a thing associated with history only. It is considered to be a...

In the Biblical story of Noah and the ark, after forty days on the water, Noah needs to know if there is a place to land where life can start again. He sends a dove out to search. She returns with...

Dickinson's view of nature in her poetry can be examined through two of her poems regarding this subject: "Nature is what we see" and "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." In "Nature is what we see,"...

One way to identify and analyze tone is to look at the writer’s word choice, which we refer to as diction. Emily Dickinson’s poem “Success is Counted Sweetest” is, like most of her poems, very...

A frigate is a ship, and in her poem, Emily Dickinson is comparing it to a book because of a book's capacity to transport readers to places far and wide in their imaginations. Dickinson says,...

There is an element of mystery surrounding the subject of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, her desire (or lack of desire) to see her works published, and whether her poems were published with or without...

You have come up with some very good thoughts to start you off. Essentially, this poem is all about the conflict between honesty and superficial masks that we wear in society. The poem deliberately...

The persona in "Wild Nights! Wild Nights!" is a lover--we'll assume a woman--who yearns to be united with her beloved. The liaison is imagined, not real, because the subjunctive "were I with thee"...

Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of Emily Dickinson's irony and sarcasm is her short poem "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" First, saying "I'm Nobody" is verbal irony, because everybody is...

The narrator in "Because I could not stop for Death" faces a problem many people have: she is too busy to die. Nevertheless, Death (personified) stops by to pick her up, and thus they begin their...

Both Whitman and Dickinson were American individualists. Dickinson was the more conservative of the two. She lived a rather reclusive life and rarely left the house. In a similar fashion, her poems...

Emily Dickinson is widely regarded as a Romantic poet. That said, this idea does not keep critics and readers from examining her and her work from a Confessionalist's point of view. According to...

Emily Dickinson’s poetry has always been rife with metaphors and imagery, and “Where ships of purple gently toss” is a great example. The “ships” have been interpreted as flowers in a garden and...

"It Sifts from Leaden Sieves", by American lyric poet Emily Dickinson, considers the attributes of snow. Snow softly falls as if icing sugar that dusts a plain dessert to enhance its visual appeal....

This poem is describes what goes on in a house in which someone has recently died. The tone is matter of fact, much like a reporter would notice details. Without mentioning death, she describes...

Waiting for your beloved in the uncertainty of his or her return could be the most tormenting experience. The speaker is undergoing precisely the same agony. She’s not sure when her beloved is...

Dickinson also employs irony, created when what we expect to happen differs significantly, or is even opposite, of what actually occurs in reality. In this poem, the speaker claims that it is...

The poem that you're quoting is not number 432, but 729, and it is often called "The Props Assist the House" in reference to its first line. The "house" that is being described in this poem, while...

In Emily Dickinson's poem "The Brain Within Its Groove," the speaker seems to be saying that the brain runs smoothly in its groove as long as thoughts run evenly: The Brain, within its GrooveRuns...

Emily Dickinson wrote many poems about death. Two of the most unusual of them are "Because I could not stop for Death" (479) and "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died" (591). Both of these poems relate...

I have to use the word "appreciate" instead of "like" when it comes to Dickinson's poetry. As others have mentioned, her works are generally short and simple to read but have enough complexity to...

Emily Dickinson's personal life comes through in the themes of her poetry as well as in its style. Common themes of her work include death, grief, nature, love, and introspection. Dickinson grieved...

In this poem, the switch from merely literal to symbolic seems to take place in the first line of the third stanza, when Dickinson shifts from discussing "Dark" (in the first two stanzas) to...

In Emily Dickinson's short poem, "Heart! We will forget him," the speaker uses an apostrophe, speaking directly to her heart. And she also personifies her heart as something that will, with her,...

Emily Dickinson examines the themes of mental anguish, fear, loneliness, anxiety, and internal conflict throughout her poem "One need not be a chamber to be haunted." Throughout the poem, Dickinson...

Walt Whitman's poetry expresses an enlarged vision that encompasses the universe in a broad way, in expansive outward gestures and long poems. In contrast, Dickinson's poetry is interior, dealing...

In some poems, Dickinson seems distrustful of the majority, as though it is much safer to rely on one's own wits and ideas and to avoid those of the majority altogether. Take the poem we refer to...

At first glance, you would think there would not be many: Dickinson wrote comparatively tiny poems that fiercely articulated a turbulent internal life; her intended audience, if there was one...

This is a brief but powerful poem on the theme of trauma and its ripple effects on a person's life. Dickinson describes a "wound," unidentified, which grew sufficiently large that every part of her...

There is a very famous poem titled "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918). It also became a very famous song, which we heard so often over the years that we became pretty sick of it. Here is the...

1. It seems that the speaker is observing the scene from outside, probably from a nearby house ("opposite" her own), but this speaker also seems to see herself as apart from the rest of the...

This short poem by Emily Dickinson comprises seven lines and has an ABABCBB rhyme scheme. The meter of the poem is also irregular, with the first line having a pattern of stresses equivalent to...

Emily Dickinson's poem beginning with the line "It dropped so low -- in my Regard" is open to a wide variety of interpretations.One thing we can note is that she juxtaposes concrete objects with...

In the poem "I am nobody, who are you?" Emily Dickinson takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the idea of collective voice versus minority voice. Her tone is cheeky and confident in the sense that she is...

Helen Vendler, in a splendid commentary on Emily Dickinson’s poem “What Soft—Cherubic Creatures—” (see link below), has explained the poem's basic premises. The speaker is in the company of...

Emily Dickinson's poem entitled "He ate and drank the precious words" comes from her collection of poetry under Part One of "Life". It is number twenty-one in the collection. Please remember that...

This nature riddle by Emily Dickinson was published in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1924, and in that version, the answer was provided beneath the poem in parentheses. The poem...

Finding the last poem written by Emily Dickinson provided some interesting information. Dickinson published only a few poems during her lifetime; and other than in Amherst, Massachusetts, Dickinson...

Consistent with the theme of redefinition, Dickinson is able to redefine the individual's relationship with their social order. In the second stanza, she refers to the idea of being "dreary" in...

In this poem, Dickinson's speaker describes the way the beautiful days of late summer mimic the days of early summer in June. For a moment, nature's soft beauty can deceive a few birds—and the...

The tone of the poem "I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson is rapturous. However, although the poet seems to be describing the rapturous feeling experienced with intoxication or...