There's A Certain Slant Of Light Analysis

Comparison between “There’s a certain Slant of light” and “London” When make a comparison between Emily Dickinson’s “There’s a certain Slant of light” and William Blake’s “London”, differences and similarities can be found through thinking about the historical backgrounds of the two poems, the ways to express the theme, the rhetorical devices and punctuation used, and the religious points used in the poems. The similarities and differences between Blake’s “London” and Emily’s “there’s a certain Slant of light” can be easily found since both of them are about revolution. These revolutions which are written in the two poems erupted in different countries and has different objectives. “London” is based on the economic revolution in France.
In winter afternoons, lights are dazzling, and they can be reflected by the surface of various stuffs, implying the light is powerful and it leaves people a sense of dysphoria and powerless. Therefore, the winter light brings a sense of oppression. In “Heavenly Hurt, it gives us- / We can find no scar,” (5-6), Emily Dickinson uses personification because actually, lights cannot hurt people. To some extent, the Emily Dickinson uses metaphor in these sentences too; she compares the things that oppress people to the light in the winter afternoon, implying there is something else that hurt people psychologically. “it” represents the light in the winter afternoons; however, those lights are not only the lights in the natural world but also something else that oppresses people at that time. Combing with the background, these slants of light can be the traditional ideas on women such as women should cook at home and tend to their husbands or fathers all day. Things are different in William Blake’s “London”. In “London”, Blake
In “there’s a certain Slant of light”, the speaker uses personification for many times. For example, “Heavenly Hurt, it gives us-” (line 5), in these sentences, as discussed before, “it” represents the slant of light in the winter afternoon; however, light cannot hurt people heavily. Therefore, the speaker must use personification to describe that the light hurt people. Secondly, “the Landscape listens- / Shadows- hold their breath-” (13-14) uses personification since only living lives can hear and breath; landscapes and shadows cannot do such things because they are nonliving. Therefore, the speaker must use personification to say that the landscape can listen and shadows can breathe. Emily Dickinson uses other rhetorical devices in “There’s a certain Slant of light” too, such as simile, for example, “When it goes, ’tis like the Distance / On the look of death-” (15-16) and “The oppresses, like the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes-” (3-4). The situation is quite different in William Blake’s “London”, because William Blake does not use these rhetorical devices in “London” but uses metaphor. For example, sentences “And the hapless Soldier’s sigh / Runs in blood down the Palace walls.” (11-12) uses metaphor. In these sentences, the sigh of the soldiers because of powerless and discontent turns