Emily Dickinson Poem Analysis

The poem "Nature, the Gentlest Mother" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. This poem is a discription of mother earth and how she takes care of all of her children and her household (Dickinson). Nature is "impatient of no child" which is a symbol of how Mother Earth takes care of all of her children and people on the planet even when her own children harm her. When she means harm her, she means things like pollution and global warming and things of that sort. Mother Nature however will never turn her back on her children, she will always be there for them. Nature is an aid to her children. She is there in the hills and forests in a way to aid the travelers of these lands. This could mean lots of things. A reader could take these noises as wind or as aninmals in the forest or as a number of different things. They are all signs and beings of nature.

In the third stanza of this poem, there is a use of personification. Emily Dickinson is describing all of the flora and fauna, and she describes all of the critters that are on the Mother Nature's planet. They are known as natures household and assembly (Dickinson). The Mother Earth takes care of her children with days from summer by providing nice weather to the critters and the trees. This is the time of the year when agriculture flourishes in comparison to winter where it does not. Mother Nature could make a harsh winter year round, but she does not because she is taking care of her household.

Emily Dickinson says that nature, or mother nature, has an effect on every creature that is on her planet. Dickinson says that it is the smallest cricket or the most unworthy flower still gets taken care of by mother nature. She uses a lot of personification in this poem because she gives human like traits to all of nature and its beings. None of these things actually have human like traits. There is also a lot of imagry in this poem because it is very descriptive. All of her descriptions are very animated and life like and strong. She creates all kinds of images, such as children sleeping, a very small cricket, and an unworthy flower otherwise known as an ugly flower. She presents rhyme in her final stanza, but only with two different lines, the second and the fourth. The rhyme scheme is not constant, but the rhythm is. Her poems are pretty different from other poets because there is not common rhyme schemes in them. She uses a simple beat to match what she was familiar with.

Emily Dickinson has a good way of capturing her readers with many poetic devices. The most common devices used are personification, imagry, and occasionaly a simile or metaphor thrown in the mix. Emily Dickinson captures her readers with out being confusing and using too many poetic devices. She is a very smart and good poet.

Dickinson, Emily . "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 29 Mar. 2012.

Journal #28: Emily Dickinson I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Emily Dickinson's poem, I Heard a Fly Buzz when I Died, is a very interesting poem. Out of all of the things that were going through her head before she died, she was thinking about a fly. She could have been thinking about all of the things that all ordinary people usually think about before they die. She could have been worried about giving away all of her possessions or worried about her finances, but she was worried about her keepsakes. She said that she "willed my keepsakes, signed away what portion of me I could make assignable" (Dickinson). This means that she had already gone through the process of giving away her material goods that she could. Emily Dickinson's poetry can be read differently every time that you read the poem. She could have been talking her being able to see the light like the light in heaven at the end, but we really did not know. The fly was interrupting her because she was on her way to death and the fly got between her and the light. The very first sense to go when you die is your sight. As soon as she looses her sight, she immediately switches her focus over to her hearing. After her sight is gone, she was only there to focus on the things that she can hear. She was preparing herself for death and she was already to the point where she could not see, so she was peacefully on her way to death and she was interrupted by this really annoying buzzing sound in her ears. I would have been really mad if I was about to be dead and there was a really annoying buzzing in my ear. I hope that when I die, there are not any flies around. Because if I heard that stupid little fly when I was about to die, I would probably freak out and come back to life just to kill that little fly!

Journal #27: Dickinson Poem Tunes

Many of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of many well known songs. This is because they have a very rhythmic beat and they can be sung with the classical folk songs. Emily Dickinson was not around when all of these songs were written, but her poems were written with that same musical beat. These songs have a typical beat and it goes really well with her typical rhyme scheme. She was the first poet to start writing in this rhythm because she wanted to be different than the typical poetry style of the time. It was really ironic that her poems can be read to the tune of "Amazing Grace" because she was not involved with the Christian Church because she did not want to be. The only reason that she was even involved in the church was because of her family's influence. I found it really weird that the song that fits the best was Amazing Grace. Emily was not an involved member in the church and her poems seem to fit really well with many different church hymnals. I figured that because she was not involved in the church that she would not write poetry that went with the same beats and rhythms. Maybe she thought she was coming up with something original but she really was not. She would have known the songs if she went to church and actually paid attention. She probably was not too concerned with with paying attention because she did not have a very strong relationship with god. The reason that it seems really ironic that her poems go with songs that were really important to society is because she was disconnected with society in her seclusion. She must not have liked being around people because she did not go out just for any occasion. She secluded herself from society, but the she went and wrote poetry to the tunes of many popular songs.

Reflection: Emily Dickinson Writing Style

Along with Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson was also considered a "tweener." Also, like Walt Whitman, she was in between the two writing eras of Realism and Modernism. Being grouped with Walt Whitman and Walt Whitman only, Emily Dickinson's works were very popular. If I was asked to name a female poet that I have learned about in High School, I would probably name Emily Dickinson. She wrote very strong and emotional poems. That characteristic made her writings not fit in with the style of the Realism time period. She gave way too much detail and used too much emotion to have her poems classified as Realism writings. It is very unusual that Emily Dickinson did not want her writings published. She only showed her writings to her sister Lavinia (Glencoe Literature). Lavinia sometimes edited the poem before she published them after Emily's death. This means that we really do not know what the exact thoughts of Emily Dickinson were because it is possibly that her sister went back and changed some things after she died. The Before You Read section in the Glencoe Literature book said that her sister Lavinia eliminated dashes, undid capitalizations, and completely changed some words. Emily Dickinson was a Christian because her family pressured her into it. She lived in a very religious time period, and her family thought that their Christian faith was very important. Another reason that she joined the Christian Church was because she was very close with her sister and her sister was very dependent on the teachings of Christianity. Dickinson often wrote of love, life, death, nature, and would often question immortality (McChesney). The subjects of her poems makes it really hard to put her into a category because she does not fit the Realism period of the Modernism period. She did not fit in to the Modernism time period becuase her writings seemed to keep a steady rate and the writings of other Modernist writers seemed to jump back and forth on controversial topics. In the Modernism time period, writers were said to have been trying something new. This means they were purposely trying to write like that of no other previous author. The Modernist writers were trying something new simply because they were trying to get all of the attention and glory for coming up with a new great writing era. A modernist writer believed that a real person who is both thoughtful and real does not fit into society because it is mindless after the first world war we had. Emily Dickinson did not feel this way therefore she did not fit directly into this literary period. I do think that Walt Whitman could have been classified as a Realist/ Transcendentalist because his writings were very similar to those of the other Realism and Transcendentalism writers. I cannot say the same for Ms. Emily Dickinson however. Emily's writings were unlike anyone else's from the time and I think that she does deserve that title of "tweener" because she really did not fit the characteristics of the Realism period or the Modernism period.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. "Before You Read: Whitman's Poetry." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 455. Print.

McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Reflection: Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman began a revolution in poetry when he first published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855. Whitman's poetry was realistic, free flowing, and shocking candid (Glencoe Literature).Whitman was the first poet to write extensively in free verse. Free verse is an unregulated form that sounds like the cadences in everyday speech.

Walt Whitman was considered a “tweener.” This title was given to him simply because he was between two periods of Literature. He did not fit all of the characteristics of Realism, but nor did he fit all of the characteristics of Modernism, he was considered to be a “tweener.” Most of the Realism writings were more structured than the writings of Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman’s writing looks like he did not revise anything. Most of his poems are telling some sort of story and go on in the cadences of normal speech. Most examples of Realism writing pertained to real life events or events that could actually happen. In Realism writings, the authors got straight to the point. There was no sugar coating reality. “Whitman's poetry was certainly revolutionary, not only for its expressive language and free verse but also for the intensity of his emotions when discussing his prominent and pervasive themes of love (spiritual and physical alike) and democracy (collectively for the nation and individually for each person's own self-fulfillment). He believed America needed a new poetry, one that related to and embraced more people; Whitman felt that he was the poet who could supply that type of verse”(Connors). Connors backs up the idea that Whitman’s writing was too descriptive for the Realism period.

Whitman may have started the Modernism period. Because his writing was “revolutionary,” he was causing a change in the style of Literature in that era. The writers of the Modernism time period were more of the risk-taking style. They were willing to try weird things in their writing. Modernism writing was not always written in a logical fashion. Because it was a controversial time for religion, there was not always equality amongst the different religions. This may have caused some of the authors to not always tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Walt Whitman fell more into the style of Realism than he fell into Modernism. Whitman knew much information on the topic of politics. Politics was a big topic of discussion in the Realism time period. The Realism time period was a good time to talk about politics because the authors were not dancing around the points. This allowed the public to actually know what was going on in the government system.

Whitman's style of free verse poetry was closely related to the ideas of the Transcendentalist writers, even thought they were popular before his time. Walt Whitman used nature as a major topic of many of his poems, which would be a typical topic for Transcendentalism writers to use. I think that if I had to choose and put him in a time period, it would be the Realism/Transcendentalism era. His writing has both characteristics from the Realism period as well as the transcendentalism period.

Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= BCWWh02&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 21, 2012). 

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. "Before You Read: Whitman's Poetry." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 408. Print. 

Reflection: Walt Whitman: On The Beach At Night Alone

"On the Beach at Night Alone" was a good poem. Walt Whitman uses so many different literary tools that his poems are really easy and fun to read. In the second line He refers to the ocean as "Old Mother" (Whitman). This shows that he agrees with Emerson and Thoreau about the importance of Nature. This seemed to be more like the Romanticism writers because he was really descriptive. In the time of the Realism writings, the authors seemed to be giving way less detail on the elements and Nature, so I can tell that this was not a part of the writings in the time of the Realism period. Whitman was really into giving the details. While the speaker was on the beach at night he saw the stars and the planets and the moons. I feel like he made the reader use almost all of their senses. When I read about the waves crashing in on the beach, I immediately could hear the sound of the waves crashing in from when I was in vacation in Mexico this summer. I could also seem to smell the salt. When I am at any beach, one of the things that I like the most is the smell of the salt water. I’m not sure what makes it so relaxing, but the smell is one of my favorite things about the beach. One other thing that I notice at the beach actually happens after a day at the beach. That is feeling the tightness of your skin after a day in the salt water and being in the sun all day. Whitman seems to have quite a few poems that deal with Nature. Because he wrote during the Naturalism time period, most of his poems are related to Nature. I love nature and I feel like it is still very influential in the world today. People do not seem to always treat nature with the best intentions, and nature come back to bite people in the butt. 

Huff, Randall. "'On the Beach at Night Alone'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0300&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 12, 2012).

Whitman, Walt. "On the Beach at Night Alone, by Walt Whitman." Poetry Archive. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.poetry-archive.com/w/on_the_beach_at_night_alone.html>.

Reflection: Emily Dickinson: Heart, We Will Forget Him

The poem, "Heart, We Will Forget Him!" was a very interesting poem. It was about how Emily lost a man in her life. She was basically making a plan with her heart about how they were going to cope with their loss. She was speaking to her heart as if it was an external force. She was telling her heart that it was going to have to forget about the warmth of her heart. She knew that her heart was going to miss the warmth of this man. Because she was living in seclusion, she knew that she was not just going to randomly run into him on the street because she never leaves the comfort of her own house. I think that Emerson and Thoreau had similar ideas to those of Emily Dickinson. They were all individualistic. This means that they all valued the individual over society and others. I can definitely relate this idea to Emily Dickinson because she was so individualistic that she stayed at her house every hour of everyday. This shows me that she cared more about herself than society because she did not ever care to go explore any of the things that society had to offer. In the poem at the end she tells her heart that whenever it is feeling down, it can just remember him (Dickinson). This is kind of ironic because the title says that she and her heart are going to forget him. The idea of the poem kind of goes with the philosophies of Thoreau. He said that he was not one to conform. This poem was written about the loss of a man. Because this poem was written, it tells me that she had a hard time making the adjustment when he was gone. Dickinson also had a simple way of living. She was home all of the time, so she did not really have a complex lifestyle whatsoever. Although Dickinson was more realistic in getting to the point of her stories than Emerson and Thoreau, they did have some similarities in writing style.

Dickinson, Emily. "Heart, We Will Forget Him!" The Literature Network. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/829/>.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True

Reflection: To Build a Fire: Jack London

Jack London's "To Build A Fire" was a very strong story about nature. Nature plays a huge role in this short story. In the style of Naturalism, authors wanted to show that Nature was really strong. They are proving that in order for you to get along in life and have a good time, you need to respect nature and you will you be treated back nicely by nature. In Naturalism the authors really wanted to show the strength and power that Nature holds. I think that Jack London was really trying to illustrate the fact that Nature was going to kill this man just because he thought he was stronger than nature. Because he decided to walk out into -75 degree temperature in the Arctic, Nature was going to show him whose boss. In Naturalism, authors focused on an accurate, almost clinical, record of a character struggling to survive some form of displacement from his or her surroundings (Sommers). This was represented in the story because the man was definitely at a displacement of his surroundings. He was never used to resorting to building a fire to save his life. Because he was going to have to take his shoes off to warm up his feet, he needed to build a fire. This was a life or death situation because without his feet he would not be able to make it back to civilization. At the end, the author makes nature the “winning team” because he showed that nature was stronger than man and that men should never mess with nature. I think that this story showed some of the beliefs of Emerson. Emerson believed in the quality of self reliance. This means that you kind of value yourself over anyone or anything else. I think that the man in this story was definitely self reliant because he was going out into the wilderness thinking that he was going to more big and bad than nature. Emerson believed that you learned through experience. I think that the guy in the story probably would have learned his lesson if he lived. Emerson thought that you would have to mess up somewhere along the lines in order to better yourself and learn lessons.

Sommers, Joseph Michael. "naturalism." In Maunder, Andrew.Facts On File Companion to the British Short Story. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CBSS450&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 8, 2012).

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." American Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Columbus: McGraw Hill, 2009. 601-614. Print.

Reflection: Richard Cory : Edwin Arlington Robinson

I think that the poem Richard Cory was really sad. It sounds like he had everything going for him. He was rich and it sad he was admired by others and he seemed to be a nice gentleman. He said good morning to others and he seemed to brighten everyone’s days, but I guess he was a little insecure inside because he committed suicide at the end I the story. I was honestly expecting a happier ending to the poem because everything was going so perfectly for him until the very last like where it said that he went home and shot a bullet through his head. This is really sad because I know some suicides really happen like this in real life. People see the victim as being really confident in everything they do, but in reality they are just really good at hiding their inner emotions. This went against the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau because they were into individualism. They believe that you could have a successful life just by living up to your full potential. I think that suicide is a very selfish thing for anyone to do. Just because you think that it is going to help you, it really hurts all of you friends and family more that you were suffering in the first place. I guess that the idea of Realism was accepted in the Realism time period. The characteristics of Realism say that Realism works will show the imperfections of life. I think that this situation would have been an imperfection. It also says that Realism was showing life as it really is, not as people think it should be. I think that they should not have talked about this man committing suicide, but that was how life really was, so they were not going to sugar coat the truth at all. This guy, Richard Cory was definitely more concerned about himself than anyone else around him. It was really selfish to kill himself because it negatively affected so many other people.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "realism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW480&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 21, 2012).

Reflection: Darling : Anton Chekhov

The Darling was a story about a woman who had married several different men. Some of the men that she married died. People called her darling because she was well liked and she had always had a love for people. When she was young, her father died. She inherited her families townhouse and she lived there with her husband Kukin. Kukin was always in a sort of haze because he did not like how the weather was so gloomy. He was a theater owner, so he had to go to Moscow to hire some actors. While he was gone, Olga was informed that he had passed away. She was very upset, but she quickly moved on to the next man, Vasily Pustovalov. This man was a timber merchant and she was really fond of him. They eventually had a son together. Pretty soon after the son is born, Vasily developed a cold which turned into a really harsh long term illness. Olga is left alone again. She is depressed and lonely.

I believe that this story was sad. I think that it would be really hard to have two husbands back to back that died. Once she got over the first one and got comfortable with the second one, he died too. I cannot even imagine having my husband die let along having two that both died. After the second husband I think that it would be really hard for her to get married again. I think that if I was in her shoes I would never get married again. She clearly has bad luck with her husbands, so she should just stay away. Because she was such a nice person that everyone got along with, people loved her. She was that person that everyone knows and admires. I think that it would be especially hard on her because of the fact that she knows so many people. All of these people could be asking her how she is doing and that could get to be a little too much for her to handle.

She always needed a man though. Emerson and Thoreau were really set on being individuals. They said that you can find all of life’s answers in yourself and nature. She really relied on her husbands in the story, so she did not ever have to be an individual. 

Chekhov, Anton. "Chekhov Stories." SparkNotes. SparkNotes. Web. 06 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/chekhov/section7.rhtml>.

Chekhov, Anton. "The Darling." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2000. 557-66. Print.

Reflection: I Will Fight No More Forever : Chief Joseph

“I will Fight no More Forever” was a very short piece. The work is about a man is too tired of fighting. They never really tell us what they are fighting for or who they are fighting against, so all we know is that people are dying and they do not want to fight anymore. They are really sad because three of their powerful leaders have died in the battle and they feel like they should all be done fighting. I am not sure if there is a deeper meaning behind this piece and if there is, I may or may not be missing it. He says that the young is all that is left. All of the elders have died, and the decisions are left for the younger generations. I think that this work is basically bashing the ideas of Emerson and Thoreau. They both believe that people should always persevere and fight until the end, but these Indians are ready to give up. They have been fighting for a very long time and many of their important leaders have passed away. People are freezing because the weather is really harsh. The chief was really self-centered. I think that the chief should have gone and continued to fight because that was his job. He was using the idea of self reliance and that character trait is not good to have in a warrior of any kind. He was going to give up the war simply because he does not want to fight anymore and so he wants peace. I think that it would be wonderful if we could have peace in the world, but you know that is not going to happen any time in my lifetime. I do not agree with the idea of war. If everyone in the word would just grow up we would not ever have to fight. I think that all conflicts can be solved without physically fighting. It makes people look really immature when they cannot solve an argument verbally and they have to physically fight it out. I think that it would be bad to have a leader like Chief Joseph because he gave up and did not fight for what he thought was right.




McCloskey, Mary. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Welcome to Georgia State University. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. <http://www2.gsu.edu/~eslmlm/chiefjoseph.html>

Reflection: Spoon River Anthology by: Edgar Lee Masters

Spoon River Anthology is actually a collection of epitaphs. This is just simply a collection of poems that are all about different characters in a small town and how they are all related in some way. It reveals life how it really is. This is a characteristic of Realism. They were really into telling about life how it really was. They were not concerned with sugar coating the truth. This was a really good representation of the Realism period. In Lucinda Matlock, Lucinda just tells you about her life and how she lived into the age of 96. She says that the younger generations complain about everything and she also says that the younger generations do not live life to the fullest. She views the younger generation has a way lower importance than her own generation. Emerson was really interested in the difference between the levels of people. He says that we are all missing something. A major inspiration for Spoon River Anthology was Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, a work to which Masters was introduced by William Marion Reedy, editor of the St. Louis magazine Reedy's Mirror that first published many of his poems (Becker). He says that all people are missing something. No body is perfect, so they have to have something wrong with them. Each person has their own unique balance of these four basic energies: fire (warmth, inspiration, enthusiasm), earth (practicality, realism, material interests), air (social and intellectual qualities), and water (emotional needs and feelings)(Ralph Waldo Emerson General Characteristics). I think that it is really interesting that Edgar Lee Masters was from Illinois. He lived only about a hour away from where I am right now. His works are actually well known and he lived really close to us. This goes to show that not all famous people come from like New York or California. I think that this collection of stories was really interesting and I think that I may want to read more of these in my spare time.


Becker, Geraldine Cannon. "Spoon River Anthology." In Anderson, George P., Judith S. Baughman, Matthew J. Bruccoli, and Carl Rollyson, eds.Encyclopedia of American Literature, Revised Edition: Into the Modern: 1896–1945, Volume 3. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL1405&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 2, 2012).


Masters, Edgar Lee. Spoon River Anthology. New York, 1951. Print.


"Ralph Waldo Emersongeneral Characteristics." Ralph Waldo Emerson Characteristics. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. <http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/Ralph_Waldo_Emerson/Characteristics.asp>.