Powerful Lady, Powerful poems
Emily Dickinson is considered America's best-known female poet and one of the foremost and influential authors in American literature of the 19th century. To many people she is a legendary figure because of her unusual life, her simple but passionate poems and her profound spirit. She was born in a well-off family in Amherst Massachusetts and never got married. She devoted almost all her lifetime to writing as a recluse. She loved to wear in white and that might be the source of her writing inspiration. Although she didn’t experience much in her life, she always stood at a high level and saw the whole world more clearly and thought of the problems more deeply as she kept her heart innocent in her own small world and didn’t influenced by the complex society. Her poems are uncontested and illuminating which covers a wide range: nature, life, death, love, friendship, success, failure, morality, religion, etc. and show her specific view of nature, power of her creativity and lively imagination. She challenged to conventional standards in a constructive way and formed a new style that her poetic lines are sometimes very short and with a lot of dashes. The images she chosen are quite vivid, sharp and intense. All these thought-provoking poems like a mirror of the society not only the society of her age but also the society today and completely cry out many people’s innermost feelings and lead them to have a deep thought of their lives and see clearly ahead a black wall of night. Therefore let’s have a good taste of her wonderful poems.
Who knows the feeling of success better, the winner or the loser?
Of course the winner! We will hold this answer without any hesitation when we come to this question but in Success is counted sweetest Emily showed us another reasonable voice. She thought the loser knows the meaning victory better than the winner as the loser has won this knowledge by paying so high a price. Though he suffered such defeat, he can still heard the distant strains of triumph which shocked him so much and made him learn much deeper about what did the success mean to him which the winner couldn’t feel. Therefore in his mind the strong desire to win still catches his eyesight. In this poem Emily presents an abstract conception of success by using concrete and vivid images (“nectar” metaphorically represents the thing that is desired and “purple Host” refers to the winning team) and sharp contrast between the winner and the loser. After reading this poem we will consider more about what does success really mean and will have a comprehensive and deep understanding of success throughEmily’s homily.
Who are we, we are nobody or somebody?
In many people’s lives, they try their best to be somebody and many of them lose themselves in the way of pursuing success. They want to be somebody but actually they are nobody and have few friends. Yet the speaker in Emily Dickinson's poem said "I'm nobody!” and it’s “dreary to be somebody”. A "nobody," is not forced to be "public." He does not have to face the scrutiny or disapproval of people who are likely to be jealous of him popularity. He does not have to play games, put on an act, or keep trying in order to be a “somebody”. He can be himself and be comfortable. What's more, he is not alone. In this poem----I am no body! Who are you? Emily Dickinson teaches us a lesson that we are just ourselves not anyone else. If we can find ourselves and be ourselves well then we are someone. Besides, the language of this poem is simple, concise but meaningful. In the second stanza the author used a simile to indicate a “someone” who desire to catch attention of public and gain a lot of admirers like the “frogs” which make noise in an admiring bog. Emily’s use of irony and contrast “nobody” and “somebody” also reveals her strong will of being only “nobody” and despise towards “somebody”.
We should tell all the truth but why should we tell it slant?
It seems contradictory that the poetess told us we should tell all the truth which means we should be honest but then she said “tell it slant” means do not tell all the details about the truth. After reading this poem for several times, we will discover the poetess’s intention of saying so. It presents the background of that age that women couldn’t receive education and go out for work to make women’s minds simple and so can be easily controlled. In that society the truth and the falseness were sometimes reversed so if you tell all the truth you would be a public enemy of the whole society and would come to no good. The second line of the poem “Success in Circuit lies” well express the frailty of human beings, this frailty prevents people from facing some truth and facts. By connecting the word success to lies, Emily suggested that lying is the only sure road to accomplishment so people must be blind when they face all the truth. Till now we still should keep this suggestion “tell all the truth but tell it slant” in our minds as it is still impossible for us to remove the root of the frailty of human beings.
Hope is the thing with feathers perches in our soul.
“Hope” is quite a common theme which next to “love” in all the poems around the world. In the poem Hope Emily said hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. Here she used a metaphor to connect the hope with bird and vividly showed us that a life without hope just like a bird with broken wings that can’t fly. Therefore we should keep hope in our soul no matter we are in the “Gale” or in the “storm” or in the “chilliest land” to guide us to final destination. This poem is also written in a simple and easily understanding way but the meaning it expresses is very positive. It encourages people to be more optimistic and live with hopes. Hope is really a good thing which never asks a crumb of us. Contrast to the content of the poem, the format of this poem is also very special. Almost in each line of the poem there is a dash at the end, it can be used as a pause or transition to indicate the changes of emotion or tune and also makes the whole poem be more rhythm.
With appreciating Emily’s poems, we are lead into a purer world where we experience the true feeling of success, of being nobody, of telling truth and of keeping hope all the time, ect. We are shocked by her simple but meaningful words. This powerful lady used these powerful words to make us stand higher to see more clearly of this Vanity Fair.
