Comparing Walt Whitman And Emily Dickinson's Poetry

During the early 19th century, there were several writers in American literature at the time that had a great impact on society, two of them being Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Although they were both very impactful after their lifetime because of their poetry exemplifying the change going on in America, many couldn’t see that change while they were living. Both poets had many differences and similarities that are shown in their poetry. In order to determine the similarities and differences of Whitman and Dickinson’s poetry, one must look at their background, themes, and style of their poetry. Whitman was a very unique man, conforming to none but his own ideas. One can see his personality coming out in his poetry by looking at his background,
Special in their own ways, Whitman went outside himself and helped during the civil war while Dickinson stayed inside almost all the time as seen in “O Captain! My Captain!” and “I heard a fly buzz”. Somehow, though extremely different life stories, they seem to find similar themes, even if those themes are not depicted in the same ways. For instance, while Whitman focuses on connection between body and soul in “From Song of Myself” when he marks, “I loafe and invite my soul”, Dickinson focuses on the parting of body and soul in death in her poem “My life closed twice before its close” as she writes, “Parting is all we know of heaven, \ And all we need of hell.” Their style is just drastically different while Whitman’s is all over the place in “O Captain! My Captain!”, Dickinson’s “The Soul selects her own Society” she has a set forum she writes in, using dashes and structure as she writes, “The Soul selects her own Society — \ Then — shuts the Door —.” Through their lives and poetry, it varies on how and when people look at it, but there are without a doubt many similarities and differences between these two first-rate