Diction and Syntax in Emily Dickinson's Poetry

Emily Dickinson: Poetry Essay

One of the most acclaimed American poets, Emily Dickinson—the reclusive, heartbroken genius—asserts her position among such greats as Walt Whitman through her extremely individual style. Her unconventional meter, heavy-handed employment of dashes, and seemingly random capitalization are the trademarks of a body of poetic work notable for its deeply sensitive exploration of the human condition. By avoiding the flowery and romantic style of poetry common during her time, Dickinson has been able to provide her readers with a clear and illuminating vision of the world through her eyes. Three of her more popular poems, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?,” “Heart, we will forget him!,” and “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” all speak to Dickinson’s strengths as an innovative and gifted poet by portraying those qualities for which her poetry is so well-known. Living a mostly hermetic life for many years, Dickinson shut herself away from the world, maintaining social contact only with close friends and relatives through letters. This loneliness resonates in her poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?,” but in the end, takes on a somehow positive tone:
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you-- Nobody-- Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise, you know.

How dreary--to be-- Somebody!
How public--like a frog--
To tell one’s name-- the livelong June--
To an admiring bog!

Despite being branded a “Nobody,” which is apparently looked down upon by some unknown “they,” the speaker and her new-found companion brush off the more acceptable position as a “Somebody” as a tiresome task. By capitalizing “Nobody” and “Somebody,” Dickinson personalizes a person or being who otherwise might be completely anonymous to the reader—who would be, in fact (aren’t all “nobodies” anonymous?) If one reads the poem without the dashes, the rhythm and meter sounds obvious and plain. The unusually placed dashes, however, break up the previously traditional-sounding meter, and make it sound almost more like an actual hushed conversation between two “nobodies.” “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” may be short in length, but it is not lacking in depth. As only one of many examples of Dickinson’s skills, this poem deals with a familiar topic in an unfamiliar manner by way of Dickinson’s unique writing style. Rumors abound among historians and Dickinson aficionados as to the truth about her romantic life. Because she was so private, there is no way for us to ever know what really went on behind closed doors. The amount of her work dedicated to romantic, even passionate love, leaves us plenty to speculate about. The poem “Heart, we will forget him!” is an attempt to reign in the boundless, tempestuous passions of the heart in only a handful of lines.
Heart, we will forget him!
You and I, Tonight!
You may forget the Warmth he gave--
I will forget the Light.

When you have Done, Pray Tell me
That I my Thoughts may Dim--
Haste! lest while you're Lagging.
I may Remember him!

While usually known for her copious use of dashes, Dickinson here seems reserved. Without so many jarring cuts through her verses, the poem seems to take on a more conventional style—the way many of the ever-popular love poems were written at the time. This particular love poem, however, is anything but conventional. Instead of reaching out to a romantic interest, the speaker is reprimanding herself for once loving him. Even the first sentence is a direct command. By breaking the “forgetting” into smaller tasks (“you..the warmth/I... the light.”) makes it seem less human, more like an exceptionally painful chore. Many of the capitalizations here do seem completely random, but certain choice words should be noted: the capitalization of “Tonight,” especially when followed by an exclamation mark, make the speaker’s task of forgetting much more urgent and pressing. If it’s that necessary to forget him, the speaker must have endured a good deal of pain with him. “Warmth” and “Light” capitalized also suggest a kind of personification—these weren’t just qualities of her former love interest, but were tangible things he gave her. We’ll only ever be able to guess as to how this poem sprung from the life of a quiet young woman living in almost complete solitude—however Dickinson devised this poem, though, is irrelevant. It still speaks to us after nearly a hundred years, making it a staple of this literary classic.
Another recurring subject in Dickinson’s work is that of death. Growing up with her window overlooking a cemetery, and having suffered several sudden and unexpected deaths within her family, this is not surprising. What makes Dickinson’s treatment of such a common subject is her individual style shaping a subject that everyone knows about.
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading--treading--till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through--

And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum--
Kept beating--beating--till I thought
My Mind was going numb--

And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space--began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here—

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down--
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing--then—

In “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” the reader seems to follow the speaker’s plunge into insanity. Instead of using dashes to break up her meter, as she usually does, the dashes here add to the spoken cadence of the verses, lending the chilling quality of some unknown evil slowly approaching. The last line uses the dash to particularly frightening effect. Without a period, the poem stops as if at an edge: the speaker has jumped off a figurative cliff and plunged directly into madness. The capitalization of all the nouns gives a sort of larger-than-life sense to all of the objects or concepts she mentions—a bit like Alice in Wonderland after she’s taken the shrinking potion. Dickinson’s particular style enhances the tone and mood of “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” is a spooky poem for the reader and an excellent example of Dickinson at her finest. Dealing with themes and subjects that have been revisited and rehashed many times in all kinds of literature, Emily Dickinson made these subjects her own by dealing with them in a unique and unfamiliar style. The majority of her poems were published posthumously, so she spent her entire life never knowing what an impact she was to make on American writing. All of her stylistic quirks are now regarded as the workings of a master poet, and she will be forever regarded as one of the best poets America has produced.