Comparing and Contrasting Emily Dickinson vs Langston Hughes

Traditional Poet vs. Free Verse Poet
Emily Dickinson vs. Langston Hughes
Chela M. Thomas
September 15, 2013
Stratford University

Abstract
This paper is comparing and contrasting two poets, a Traditional Poet vs. Free Verse poet, Emily Dickinson vs. Langston Hughes. Research includes samples from their poems, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” and “Dreams”. Comparing and contrasting the poets to show how different they are in their poetry.

Traditional Poet vs. Free Verse Poet
Emily Dickinson vs. Langston Hughes
My purpose in comparing and contrasting these poets, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes, is to depict out how different they are in their poetry.
Emily Dickinson, in reading some of her poetry, “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”, I had to read it a couple of times before I could get a good understanding of what she was trying to say. Dickinson says ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’, she’s describing hope as a bird (1). Her rhyme scheme ABCB, and some carryover rhyming words (1). She used a lot of metaphors in this poem as well, Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul. Emily Dickinson seemed a little down to me in her poems. She seemed more depressed then down. In ‘Hope is the Thing with Feather’ she says the bird never offered her a crumb. It’s also stated that Dickinson sounds like she preached a lot in her poems also. They often were from Psalms or religious hymns (1). In reading more about Emily Dickinson, I think she contradicted herself with her religion also. Dickinson’s poetry criticizes God not by speaking out directly against him, but by detailing the suffering he causes and his various affronts to an individual’s sense of self (1).
Langston Hughes,