Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson was a poet in the mid-eighteen hundreds. She mostly lived as a homebody, but was not an introvert. She had friends and liked to talk to people, so she was usually lonely, because she liked to stay at home. Many of her poems are about her loneliness and isolation. One poem that shows her lonesomeness is “The Loneliness One dare not sound”. Another one of her poems is called “I like to see it lap the Miles”. Also, the poem “If You Were Coming in the Fall” talks about a man that left her and how she lost him (“Emily Dickinson”). These three poems show how great of a poet Emily Dickinson was. Also, these three poems show how well rounded of a poet she was when it came to themes; loneliness, nature, and lost love. “The Loneliness One dare not sound”, which was written in eighteen sixty-three, is about the obvious loneliness that Dickinson goes through on a daily bases. In it Dickinson says: “I fear me this – is Loneliness” (Dickinson, 13). Dickinson is afraid of loneliness, just like how a small child fears the monster under their bed. She cannot get rid of it and she cannot escape it either. Dickinson fears that it will encompass her whole being and swallow her completely. She talks about how immense loneliness is by saying lines like: “As its Grave go plumbing / To ascertain the size” (3-4) and “Its Caverns and its Corridors” (15). Showing the reader that loneliness has “Caverns and Corridors” confirmations just how vast it can be. Dickinson says: “The Loneliness whose worst alarm / Is lest itself should see –” (5-6). Meaning that the first showings of loneliness will not be seen in the beginning, but the poem continues with: “And perish from before itself / For just scrutiny –” (7-8) illustrating that if she were to accept the loneliness then it would “perish” and go away. Dickinson then continues with: “The Horror not to be surveyed – / But skirted in the Dark –” (9-10). Dickinson realizes that it should not be recognized, but

Cited: "Emily Dickinson." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2013. Dickinson, Emily. "I like to See It Lap the Miles." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. By X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 12th ed. N.p.: Longman, 2012. 690-91. Print. Dickinson, Emily. "If You Were Coming in the Fall." The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1960. 249-50. Print. Dickinson, Emily. "The Loneliness One Dare Not Sound." The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1960. 379. Print.