Emily Dickinson--A Precursor Of American Modernistic Poetry

Emily Dickinson, a recluse whose poetry was not published until after her death, wrote altogether 1,775 poems of startling originality and freshness. Since the complete edition of her poems was published in 1955, Emily Dickinson and her poetry attracted more and more attention from the common readers as well as the literary critics. She is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and the most original poets in American history. This thesis attempts to explore the modernistic characteristics of Dickinson's poetry and its influences over American modernistic poetry.To start with, the thesis gives a demonstration to Emily Dickinson's modernistic thoughts of art and poetry and modernistic characteristics in the themes of her poetry.In all her life, Dickinson had been pursuing unconventionality and individuality. She showed little respect for traditional principles of writing poetry. She insisted that a poet should be thoughtful and spread the truth. She gave splendid definition to poetry in which she focused on intuition and image. Brought up in a traditional Puritan family, pessimism and introspection of Calvinist style rooted in Dickinson. In the meanwhile, Dickinson accepted the doctrine of Transcendentalism. The inner contradiction resulted in the extraordinary complexity of the themes of her poetry. Psychological description is an important feature of Dickinson's writing. She is also a pioneer to emphasize on people's mental activity that appears frequently in the works of twentieth century writers.After discussing the modernistic characteristics in the contents of Dickinson's poetry, the thesis analyzes the new forms of Emily Dickinson's poetry from three points: her inventive use of punctuation, her not titling her poems, and herinnovation in rhyming. She used punctuation with a fresh way and achieved wonderful effects in transmitting a certain meaning and forming a special rhythm. Her inventive use of punctuation was an integral part of her exploration of language. Dickinson did not title her poems, which required the reader to provide a context him/herself. Dickinson was not confined to the traditional rhymes. Instead, she employed assonant rhyme creatively. Her rhythm varies on the basis of hymnal stanza.Then, the thesis illustrates Emily Dickinson's new techniques such as the Gothic atmosphere in her poetry and her wide use of image and metaphor. Dickinson introduced Gothic to her poetry and applied many images of ghosts and goblins. Dickinson was an expert in creating images. Her texture of language is solid with peculiar metaphors and distinct images. Dickinson's lines are usually short and condensed, and her wording is economical but implicative. In addition, she employed common American speech in her poetry.Finally, the thesis explores how Emily Dickinson's modernistic thoughts and new writing style influence her fellow modernistic American poets. As principal members of the Modernist Revolution, Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell benefited a lot from her fresh and hard images and her determination of pursuing individuality and originality. William Carlos Williams and other American poets who have broken their lines in places other than those suggested by syntax, meter, or natural breathing are, consciously or unconsciously, the formal descendants of Emily Dickinson. Dickinson's poetry is impregnated with startling grammatical and poetic inventiveness, showing a determined intransigence against conventional of her time. All these features make her poetry a great treasure in American literature. Dickinson's works have had considerable influence on modernistic poetry, and she is regarded as a precursor of American modernistic poetry.