Emily Dickinson

In my mind, Emily Dickinson’s poetry is definitely simply deceptive. If I were to write poetry that was eight lines long, there is no way it would ever be taught in an American Literature classroom years later. Emily Dickinson, however, was able to write poetry that allows each student in our class to speak for five minutes on one poem alone. There needs to be a lot packed in to each poem for that to be a possibility. Each poem has different interpretations and meanings with each line.

                Even though there are multiple meanings and interpretations, each poem is relatively easy to read. There are not many words that will trip you up. When Dickinson is assigned for a class, you can feel the entire class exhale with relief. The poems are easy and fun. If someone wants to read them simply for enjoyment, I think that it is possible. You can read Emily Dickinson without diving in to the depths of every single meaning. That is why she is simply deceptive. Her simple style and short poems and easy rhyme schemes could lead her readers to believe that her poetry is not all that deep. However, when you dive into her poems, you see how deep they really are. Dickinson includes allusions from mythology and geography. She also likes to throw in a capitol letter in places they should not be. I don’t know what her reasoning is for this, but multiple teachers and professors have been unable to answer me when I ask about it, so I would have to say she is being deceptive. I don’t think it really matters if you think Emily Dickinson is simply deceptive or deceptively simple. Either way you decide to read her poems is a way to enjoy her poetry and learn from it.

Whitman's Got Wit, Man

One of my favorite strophes from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is number fourteen. It reminded me a bit of “To a Waterfowl,” by William Cullen Bryant. I like the appeals to nature that Whitman makes in this strophe. The image of wild geese flying through a cool night struck me as refreshing, almost relaxed, which was then contrasted by the “sharp-hoof’d moose of the north” in the next stanza. I can imagine geese squawking when Whitman uses the onomatopoeia: “Ya-honk.” Whitman uses multiple comparisons in this strophe, his first coming just after the onomatopoeia: “and sounds it down to me like an invitation.”

Whitman also uses repetition of noises in this strophe. He uses alliteration like “find its purpose and place up there” and “as they tug at her teats,” as well as ending repetition in his line “What is commonest, cheapest, nearest, easiest, is Me.”

What I like most about this strophe, again, is the appeals to nature. I love how Whitman chose to listen closely to the gander to “find its purpose and place up there toward the wintry sky.” I like how chose a wide range of animals to represent the nature that he loves. From a huge moose to a tiny chickadee, Whitman observes nature and puts it into his work.

Another strophe I like is number seventeen. One reason (but not the main reason) I like this strophe is that it is pretty short. There are not many words in terms of length, but there are also not very many different words used. Whitman employs anaphora in this strophe, repeating phrases in the beginning of lines. He doesn’t just use one phrase to repeat, but he chooses three phrases and uses them at different points in the strophe. These repetitions show a sequence in the strophe and make the words more powerful.