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Compare & Contrast Emily Dickinson Poems

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Compare & Contrast Emily Dickinson Poems
Let’s Be Glad Mirrors Only Show Us Our Reflection and Nothing Else

“Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearances only.” (Samuel Butler). The countless hours we all spend in front of the mirror getting all gussied up to go out, the extra hours in the gym, the tears we cry and sometimes we don’t even know why—all the extra things we do in our house to make sure that when we go out, we don’t get judged. We make sure that when we go out, we only let people see what we want them to see. Everyone has something they hide from the world, some more than others. Aside from the show we put on, how much do we really know about the people in our lives. After putting on a show for so long, do we even know who we are without the show? We should all be glad that there isn’t a mirror that exists somewhere that shows you who you really are underneath it all. Emily Dickinson’s poems “A wounded deer leaps highest” and “To fight aloud is very brave” touch on this idea of outward appearances versus inward appearances and the importance behind both of them. Focusing just on outward appearances and its importance, these two poems metaphorically tell us how our outward appearances speak louder than inner.

Outward appearances are more important because it shows that you’re just strong on the outside as you are on the inside, more importantly is shows that your stronger to fight through it as opposed to hiding it all inside and not standing up for yourself. In the poem, “A wounded deer leaps the highest” the first line: “a wounded deer leaps the highest,” is saying that when you’re hurt or wounded, you’re only going to leap higher to show that you’re not going to let it tear you down. You can learn from the situation, maybe even laugh and smile about it, instead of sitting where you fell and crying about it; you can fight through the tears, walk with your head held high. You get back up once you fall and it shows everyone that you’re a fighter and you don’t give

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