Choose ONE of Dickinson's poems (but NOT #254- "Hope is the thing with feathers" because we discussed it in class) to analyze in depth.
Begin your entry with the poem #
1. Summarize what the poem is about in your own words.
2. Discuss significant stylistic qualities of the poem (rhyme, meter, repetition, interesting word choices, etc)and what they emphasize.
3. Analyze the thematic qualities in details- pull pieces of the poem into your analysis!
Sign your name.
** If you do the same poem as someone else, be sure that you bring something NEW to the discussion / analysis
#288
ReplyDeleteThe narrator of this brief poem is expressing how they enjoy anonymousness even describing themselves as "Nobody". They state how unfathomable it would be to be "Somebody", or known and public, with admirers.
A key feature of this poem is the capitalizing of the first letter in the words Nobody and Somebody. This is the narrator's way of saying that the anonymous, the banal are as important and equal to the famous and known. The nonlinear rhyme scheme and meter further elaborate the narrator's point of being an outcast, an unknown. The word choice, while simple, is effective in expressing this point of enjoying anonymousness. The way the narrator uses lines such as "Don't tell! They’d advertise -- you know!" seem to have a winking quality, almost laughing at the vanity of those seeking fame.
Later on the narrator describes the dreariness of being "public-- like a frog." Fame-seekers are amusingly compared to frogs here. Frogs are known for puffing their chests out to sizes that cause them to look ridiculous, just as the poem's narrator is amused by the inflated ego of those who bask in fame. It is likely this poem is a commentary by Dickinson, likely criticizing other writers of her time who were writing for fame and fortune, rather than writing from the soul as they should be.
-Ben Hyatt
Ben- excellent insights and astutely expressed! Great way to start it off.
ReplyDeleteLC :)
And 24 hours later, still the only one...
ReplyDeleteHello? Class? Where are you?
ReplyDeleteI'm here ms. coppens haha...Jasmin Martin
ReplyDelete#328:
The narrator seems to be observing a bird as it performs its daily routine. The process of catching the food, and eating it; the cycle of life for a bird. Not only the eating process but the life afterwards, leaving the place where the food was found to return to its niche and familiar environment, passing by the other insects in nature along the way.
Dickinson word choice sets not only the scene, but also creates imaginery allowing the audience to see what she is observing. She also gives the bird a gender ("he") revealing a sense of belonging and familiarity to the bird, as if she had seen the same bird before and they know each other. Also, the use of similes, creates a comparison between nature and human society. She relates the bird's actions to human emotion characteristics. One thing that stuck out to me also, is the random capitalization. It is different compared to other poets of her time and even poets now. The capitalization at first seems to be random at first but reading the poem over again it seems as though she meant to capitalize certain words. The words that she wants to jump out at you adn make you stop and think. She purposely capilatizes "Angleworm", "Cautious", "Ocean".
The thematic message of this particular poem is nature and the everyday cycle of the things that live inside of nature. The bird is the main focus in the beginning but throughout the poem it seems as though she incorporates all living things. From the bird to the worm to the butterflies, and even the ocean life itself.
jasmin
1052
ReplyDeleteThis poem seems to show Dickinson’s pondering of God and spirituality. Through it she seems to show faith, which is a necessary element in any sort of spirituality. She shows this when she says, “I never spoke with God/ ...Yet certain am I of the spot.” This aspect of spirituality is often all that people have to go by—the fact that they have an undying faith for their beliefs. Dickinson here shows her confidence in her beliefs, and how she is comfortable with them.
Stylistically, she follows a loose rhyme pattern, as well has having a sort of rhythmic feeling to the poem. Thirdly, she does use repetition at the beginning of the poem in order to convey her feeling of inexperience, which helps to later display the faith she has in her beliefs. And, of course, she uses her characteristic unnecessary dashes.
#511
ReplyDeleteThis poem has great examples of imagery, repetition, capitalization and love. A woman in love with a man, “you”, she is separated from and doesn’t know when they will be reunited, if ever. She will wait for centuries to see, “you.” Emily Dickinson does a good job of hiding the fact that this woman is in pain of the loss of her love by making it a happy love poem. Even though she may never see this person ever again, she is still willing to wait, “If only Centuries, delayed, I’d count them on my Hand, Subtracting, till my fingers dropped Into Van Dieman’s Land.”
Megan
#441
ReplyDeleteThis poem is about how Emily Dickinson's actual personality is not what it seems to the people who know her. She says she wrote this poem to let the world know who she really is but still nobody will know because they will never see this poem. She says she does not want her family and friends to see it or any of her poems because she thinks they will judge her and think badly of her. This poem is in hymn meter and rhymes. She uses metaphors like, "To hands I cannot see--" which represents the people she does not want to read her poems for they would presumably judge her wrongly.
-Reilly
280
ReplyDeletein this poem emily dickinson discusses how someone would feel while they were going braindead. she describes a funeral, with mourners and a burial of a casket. it is very symbolic because of all the details about the funeral such as when she states, "then i heard them lift a box and creek across my soul" then in the last stanza she describes a supportinjg plank of the casket broke and she fell into other worlds.
Andy Jessiman
#712
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the poem discusses a soul riding through life with Death and watching it go on without them. A few stanzas rhyme in the beginning, with "me" and "Immortality" (possibly to emphasize how one can not die after death). The poem mentions how though the narrator "could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for me", which might be a point of how people are always trying to run from their demise until it eventually happens.
-Maddy Fitzsimmons
441
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, this poem is written about the lover that Dickinson never really had. Amongst others, many people find it hard to find true love and marry that person. "Her message is comitted to hands i cannot see" means to me that the desire to find true love is a common one that you must be accepting of, a siplistic theme of Transcendentalists.
Chris Maier
#632
ReplyDeletethe poem describes the equivalency of the mind towards the earths wonders and god himself. THe rhyme scheme of the poem is not rhyming, but then it has a rpetitive feeling to it. The poem descirbes the mind to god by saying it is "pound for pound" depicting it as a item that can be measured on the same scale as god.
(*_ArjunViswanthan_*)
oh crap it posted twice!!!! ignore the second one!!!!!!!! for soem reason it said that it wouldnt post cause it was being dumnb but it DID post sooooooo your blogg thingy LIED to me..... but ya the first ones better just an fyi
ReplyDeleteArjun VIswanathan
#258
ReplyDeleteThis poem was about the inner conflicts of people. It shows how people are opressed by God, and that they are not necessarily supposed to follow him. The poem seems like it ends randomly, but it fits. It's almost like a cliffhanger, which suits the poem. "There's a certain Slant of Light, / Winter Afternoons -- / That oppresses, like the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes--" This shows how the idea of God can be opressing to people who are not open to that ideology.
Ed
#632
ReplyDeleteThis Poem is about just how amazing the brain is and about how there are no limitations on imagination and about how the mind is a part of god.
This poem does not have a ryhme but it does have a powerful repitition that emphasizes the brain and its unlimited ability.
The themeic message of this poem is to think out side the box, to free your imagination and to relize your own potential.
-Josh Painter
#280
ReplyDeleteIn this poem Emily Dickinson is describing how it would feel as a person to be brain dead. She is also describing in detail the lowering of a casket into the ground. This is very sybolic with all of the detail that she uses to descibe the funeral and bariel of the casket. "And i dropped down,and down--and hit a World,at every plunge..."
Evan Marchetta
1
ReplyDelete# 288
ReplyDeleteIn this poem, the author refers to herself as nobody. She asks the person if they are also nobody. This means she sees herself as no one. She feels insignificant and she likes it. She says how it would be bad to be someone. She likes being unknown and insignificant. She also uses rhyming in the poem.
Neal
#441
ReplyDeletein this poem Emily Dickinson is saying that she is talking to the world to accept her for who she is and nonobe else. This is how nature had chosen her to be and she loves the way nature has made her. She believes that nature feels strongly about who she is and she wants the world to see her as nature has made her, a lovely special person that no one else is like.
Sheanah
288
ReplyDeleteIn this poem emily dickenson is talking about this person being isolated and cut off form society and just being a no one. Also it is saying no one jnow her or him in society because they are just saying are who are you? or are you nobody?. There are 2 people now and theya are dreaming about frogs because frogs are isolated just like them in the month of june.
It does not have very good qualities because it is sad and does have rhythmm becasue they are always bringing up the nobody. The qualities are it is someone who is an outcast and transitions well with the nobody.
-Ben Brossi