Beloning Speech- Emily Dickinson

Belonging is the idea of being part of something where you are accepted. Individuals are accepted through the relationships and connections made with other individuals, groups and family. These ideas of belonging can be explored through the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In her poem, “This is my letter to the world,” Dickinson demonstrates the element of her desire to belong through a metaphorical letter. This desire can similarly be seen through her poem “I had been hungry all the years,” in which Dickinson uses another human experience and desire, that of "hunger" to represent her uncontrollable need for belonging. Another of her poems, “I died for beauty” explores the idea of dying for personal ideals and the connection that can be made through death.

An individuals desire for belonging can be affected by the society in which they are associated with and to whom they are connected. In Dickinson’s poem, “This is my letter to the world,” reveals her desire to belong and also the way society has prevented her from developing that impulse. This is accomplished as the persona reflects upon her feelings through a metaphorical “letter to the world.” Dickinson attempts to internalise the views of her society and, upon failing to do so, retreats further within herself where she finds a sense of belonging.

The line “The simple news that Nature told, with tender majesty,” demonstrates Dickinson’s reverence for nature and the hope that people will be able to hear her message through it, which is personified as the negotiator between Dickinson and her society. In this poem, Dickinson uses metonymy to represent her society as “hands I cannot see.” This demonstrates her alienation with society and her need to simplify them into something she is able to comprehend.

The poem “I had been hungry all the years” explores the intense emotional state of the persona as she seeks a feeling of belonging. After an extended period of denial and absence, the persona wishes to make contact with society and gain inclusion as they believed their ‘time had come to dine’.

The first stanza begins with ‘I had been hungry all the years’ and begins the poems extended metaphor about hunger and is illustrated by the food motif throughout. ‘I had been hungry’ is a metaphor for longing to belong in society that the persona has felt for ‘all the years.’ The use of first person narration in ‘I had been hungry all the years’ symbolises the personas long desired yearning for inclusion within society. In the fourth stanza the line ’As berry of a mountain bush’ is an unusual simile used to sum up how the persona is feeling, uncomfortable and unwanted. ‘“I had been hungry all the years” explores the idea that there are benefits to not belonging.

Emily Dickinson’s ‘I Died for Beauty’ explores the mortality of humans along with their connections. Dickinson challenges the idea of needing to live for such connections as she implies that the inevitability of death will eradicate ones connections along with them. The poem focuses on two corpses with the common association of dying for an ideal. The imagery created with the moss covering the corpses’ lips signifies that what they had spoken and fought for was overpowered by nature along with their identities. Dickinson introduces the harsh reality of the inevitable through the morbid imagery and symbolism within the final stanza as the responder is positioned to be reminded of the power of nature to eliminate ones connections to the world.

Throughout the three selected Emily Dickinson poems, it is clear that they demonstrate the strong, human desire to belong that is present in all of us. Using various literary and poetic techniques, these poems show how identity can affect the personal experience of belonging by exploring the idea that we can only truly belong if we have a strong sense of identity.