Paradoxical Soul And Rebellious Spirit In Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Emily Dickinson, a recluse whose poetry was mostly not published until after herdeath, wrote nearly 1,800 poems of startling originality and freshness. EmilyDickinson and her poetry attract more and more attention from the common readers aswell as the literary critics. She is now widely regarded as one of the greatest and themost original poets in American history.Dickinson's poetry covers a wide variety of subjects. She deals with theprofoundest subjects in poetry: love, nature, death and religion. Divided into fivechapters, the thesis attempts to probe each of the themes in Dickinson's poetry.Chapter One discusses briefly how Bible, Puritanism and Transcendentalisminfluence Dickinson and her poetry. Bible fountains Dickinson's poetry creation.Puritanism and Transcendentalism also have great influence on Emily Dickinson's lifeand her poetry. Puritanism allows Dickinson to remain grounded in her faith of God,while Transcendentalism permits her to view herself as an individual. Dickinson wassearching for a medium between her conflicting beliefs of Puritanism andTranscendentalism all through her life.Chapter Two focuses on Dickinson's poems on love. By her thirties Dickinsonstayed at her home and withdrew from visitors. She developed a reputation as a myth.Though Dickinson never married, she speaks of love as if she felt it over and overagain.Chapter Three studies Dickinson's poems on nature. Dickinson sees nature as atrue friend. She views nature as her sole companion. She always pictures nature as herhometown and gives an affectionate description of everything she was familiar with.But on the other hand, Dickinson also writes of the indifferent and destructive powerof nature. She sensitively learns that nature is often capricious, disinterested or cruel.Moreover, nature shows great indifference to the sufferings of man and other animals,and makes the poet frightened. Chapter Four mainly analyzes Dickinson's poems on death. Her poems offer acreative and refreshingly different perspective on death. Her attitude is ambivalent.Death is a terror to be feared and avoided, a trick played on humanity by God, awelcome relief, and a blessed way to heaven. Immortality is often related to death.Chapter Five expounds Dickinson's poems on religion. In her unconventionaltreatment of religious themes, she disregards the doctrines and the conventionallyaccepted Christian God and dogma. She is an opponent of organized religion, yet sheoften writes about religion.The thesis ends with a conclusion, in which it is stated that the innercontradiction results in the extraordinary complexity of the themes of her poetry.Dickinson always gives herself to the moment and her poems are filled with suddenchanges and inconsistency of ideas. Ambivalence is more than a poetic strategy forher, for it goes to the heart of her uncertainty about life and corresponds to her honestpersonality and her willingness to give herself to the moment. She becomes rebelliousby deliberate and conscious choice. The unique world outlook of Dickinson comesinto shape gradually.