Emily Dickinson Questions and Answers
Emily Dickinson
Who is the "purple Host" in Emily Dickinson's poem "Success is counted sweetest"?
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,...
Emily Dickinson
How can I explain the quote "Forever is composed—of Nows" by Emily Dickinson in an everyday situation?
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,...
Emily Dickinson
In Emily Dickinson’s poem "It dropped so low — in my Regard," what is "it"? What two things are compared? How much of...
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,...
Emily Dickinson
What is the significance of nature in Emily Dickinson's poems?
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,"...
Emily Dickinson
What are the literary devices used in the poem "Success is counted sweetest"?
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....
Emily Dickinson
Read the poem "Nature is what we see," and write a response to it that includes your understanding of the poem and...
In this Emily Dickinson poem, the speaker briefly records, first, what she sees, as if she is jotting down quick notes. She lists such things as a hill, a squirrel, and a bumblebee. These very...
Emily Dickinson
What are the poetic devices that Emily Dickinson uses in her poem "There is another sky"?
Considering that "There is another sky" speaks of a worldly place (Amherst, Dickinson's home) and an otherworldly place, heaven, the main poetic device is metaphor. The speaker describes a worldly...
Emily Dickinson
What kind of rhyme did Emily Dickinson use in her poems? a. exact rhyme b. slant rhyme c. no rhyme d. all of above
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...
Emily Dickinson
"Witchcraft was hung, in History, / But History and I / Find all the Witchcraft that we need / Around us every Day."...
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...
Emily Dickinson
What's the theme of the poem "A not admitting of the wound" by Emily Dickinson?
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...
Emily Dickinson
How does Emily Dickinson use irony and sarcasm?
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...
Emily Dickinson
What is the tone of "Success is Counted Sweetest" by Emily Dickinson? This is for a project. I was thinking that...
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...
Emily Dickinson
How does Emily Dickinson's personal life reflect in her poetry? And why can her work cause such an impact on literature?
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...
Emily Dickinson
How does Emily Dickinson use feminism in literature in her poems?
Emily Dickinson has many personas in her poetry. Cynthia Griffin Wolff, in "The Many Voices in Dickinson's Poetry" says: One poem may be delivered in a child's Voice; another in the Voice of a...
Emily Dickinson
Why were so few of Dickinson's poems published in her lifetime? a. she did not like editors b. publication did not...
There were many reasons why very few of Emily Dickinson’s poems appeared while she was still alive. Her poems were extremely unusual for her period in syntax, style, approach, and punctuation,...
Emily Dickinson
How could Emily Dickinson be regarded as a confessional poet, with reference to 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
In the poem "Success is counted sweetest" in the third stanza, what is the ear "forbidden" to hear?
The last stanza of this excellent poem by Emily Dickinson seals her argument that success can only be savoured and understood most by those who, ironically, do not succeed, by giving us an example...
Emily Dickinson
What are the literary devices used in "If I could stop one heart from breaking" by Emily Dickinson?
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
What is an analysis of the quote: "witchcraft was hung in history, but history and I find all the witchcraft that we...
This very short poem by Emily Dickinson, numbered 1583, is an example of Dickinson's use of ambiguity and understatement. The assertion that "witchcraft was hung in History" probably refers to the...
Emily Dickinson
Can you tell me the importance and the main idea of "The Brain Within its Groove" and how does this poem reflect the...
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
When was Emily Dickinson's first poem published?
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...
Emily Dickinson
Is there a rhyme scheme in "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant" by Emily Dickinson? Does this poem use slant rhymes?
The rhyme scheme of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Tell all the Truth but Tell it slant—” seems relatively straightforward at first. Line 2 clearly rhymes with line 4, while line 6 obviously rhymes with...
Emily Dickinson
What is the theme of Emily Dickinson's poem "There is another sky"?
The above answer discusses the contextual factors surrounding this poem, and its likely connection to the physical place that was Amherst at the time of writing. Divorced from this biographical...
Emily Dickinson
Purple Host
After researching many scholars' opinions on the notion of the "purple Host" in Emily Dickinson's poem, the truth of the matter is that we can only speculate the true meaning of its symbolism....
Emily Dickinson
How do we summarize the poem "Trees" (stanza wise) by Emily Dickinson?
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...
Emily Dickinson
"Emily Dickinson is more a rebel than a pessimist." Explain. If I want to give reference from her poem which will...
Emily Dickinson can be viewed as a rebel because she challenged many traditional notions that people had at that time. For instance, in her poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," Dickinson...
Emily Dickinson
In the poem "Success is counted sweetest," what can a soldier of the "purple Host" not do?
The "purple Host" Emily Dickinson refers to in this poem are the soldiers of the victorious army that "took the Flag today," that is, won the most recent battle. Although they are outwardly...
Emily Dickinson
What does "purple" refer to in Emily Dickinson's poem "Where ships of purple - ; gently toss"? What is the meaning of...
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...
Emily Dickinson
Analyze Emily Dickinson's poem number 348: "I dreaded that first Robin, so—"
As are many of Dickinson's poems, "I dreaded that first Robin, so--" is essentially an elegy centered on the tension between life, as represented by nature, and death, as represented by the...
Emily Dickinson
What is the speaker's attitude toward self and society in “There is a Solitude of Space” by Emily Dickinson?
In her poem “There is a Solitude of Space,” Emily Dickinson presents a speaker who deeply values privacy and juxtaposes this important quality to the requirements of society. Although the speaker...
Emily Dickinson
Questions regarding the poem "There has been a death in the opposite house" by Emily Dickinson. 1.why speaker must...
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...
Emily Dickinson
What is the pun in line 6 of Emily Dickinson's poem "Apparently with no Surprise"?
God is not 'moved,' either by the suffering of the flower, or of humanity, in Emily Dickinson's poem 'Apparently with no surprise.' Although the poem seems to be superficially about one of her...
Emily Dickinson
What is a critical appreciation of the poem "I'm 'wife'—I've finished that—" by Emily Dickinson?
In "I'm 'wife'—I've finished that—," the poem's speaker, a married woman, compares her life now as a wife to her former life as a "Girl," or single young woman. She says in the first stanza that...
Emily Dickinson
How does Emily Dickinson use individuality in her poems?
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...
Emily Dickinson
Until 1955, editors published “corrected” versions of Dickinson’s poems in which dashes had been deleted, rhyme and...
Dickinson's unusual punctuation and rhyme ("near-rhyme" or "slant-rhyme," in which the rhymes are inexact) are an integral part of her means of expression. Look, for instance, at The Soul selects...
Emily Dickinson
Are there any examples of synecdoche, metonymy or apostrophe in Emily Dickinson's "'Why Do I Love' You, Sir?"?
One can find apostrophe, metonymy, and possibly synecdoche in this poem by Emily Dickinson. Apostrophe is a dramatic or formal address, often to an inanimate object, such as , "O Life!" However, it...
Emily Dickinson
Provide an analysis of the poem "They shut me up in Prose-" by Emily Dickinson.
"They shut me up in Prose-" consists of three quatrains, which are stanzas of four lines each. In the first stanza, the speaker uses a metaphor to liken being forced to think in prose—to think...
Emily Dickinson
How does the idea expressed in "While We Were Fearing It, It Came" relate to Dickinson's style as a poet?
Dickinson's poem "While I was fearing it, it came" uses the conventional ballad or common measure we expect to find in her poetry. This is the alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic...
Emily Dickinson
Do you enjoy reading the poems of Emily Dickinson? Why or why not?
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
Compare and contrast the tone in these poems: I'm Nobody! Who Are You, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, and Because I...
I was tempted to pass this question up...tone is one of those things that can be a bit subjective and requires some thought. All in all, I find it to be one of the harder elements of fiction to...
Emily Dickinson
What kind of meter did Dickinson write in, and why did she use it? I must write a poem in Emily Dickinson style, It...
Emily Dickinson wrote in what is known as "common meter". Common meter includes alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Dickinson probably chose this meter because it was...
Emily Dickinson
Explain the meaning of the following line in “I'll tell you how the Sun rose”: “The news, like Squirrels ran.”
The news to which Emily Dickinson refers in “I'll tell you how the Sun rose” is the dawning of a new day. The word “news” is particularly appropriate here for two reasons. First of all, because a...
Emily Dickinson
What does the poem "Pink, Small, and Punctual" by Emily Dickinson mean?
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...
Emily Dickinson
In the poem "Success is Counted Sweetest" by Emily Dickinson, what poetic devices can be found in it?
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...
Emily Dickinson
What is the message and themes in Dickinson's poem "One need not be a chamber to be haunted"?
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...
Emily Dickinson
In the poem "Heart! We will forget him," the heart takes the lead here and has to do with the signficance of warmth...
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
What was the title of the last poem by Emily Dickinson?
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...
Emily Dickinson
Explicate Emily Dickinson's poem "This Was a Poet—It is That"?
Dickinson uses a metaphor when she describes the “amazing sense” that poets “Distill” from “ordinary Meanings” as an “Attar”; an attar is a really intensely fragrant oil produced from flower petals...
Emily Dickinson
In the poem "There Is Another Sky," what are two literary devices used in the line "I hear the bright bee hum"?
The most obvious stylistic literary device used here is consonance. This is the repetition of identical or similar consonants in neighboring words whose vowel sounds are different. In "There Is...
Emily Dickinson
How can one understand Emily Dickinson's poem "It dropped so low—in my Regard"?
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...
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