Emily Dickens
Monika Pietrzykowska
Emily Dickinson and Civil War in selected poems
Emily Dickinson was very much affected by the American Civil War. During the four years of conflict (1861-1865), she wrote nearly 850 poems. This number amounts to almost half of her entire works and more than four times what she had written before this period.
Emily Dickinson wrote four poems directly influenced by the war:
"They dropped like Flakes",
"It don't sound so terrible—quite as it did" ,
"It feels a shame to be Alive" , and "When I was small, a woman died" .
In 1862 an extremely traumatic event in Dickinson’s life took place. A young man named Frazar Stearns the son of William Augustus Stearns, the current president of Amherst College was killed during the Battle of New Bern in North Carolina. The Stearns were very close to the Dickinson family. Many of their friends had gone off to fight, but not one of them had died before. This shock about the reality of war most likely prompted Emily Dickinson to write her poem ,,It feels a shame to be Alive”. This poem is as important today as it was during the Civil War. It not only is a tribute to the fallen, but also illustrates the survivors’ feelings of loss and guilt.
It feels a shame to be Alive –
When men so brave – are dead –
One Envies the Distinguished Dust –
Permitted – such a Head –
The Stone – That tells defending Whom
This Spartan put away
What little of Him we – possessed
In Pawn for Liberty –
This poem questions the bravery of those who live “When Men so brave – are dead”; When Men so brave – are dead; this was the unmentionable subject during the American Civil War. In that time a man’s honor and bravery was more important than his life, and to question the honor and bravery of a man who survived something so brutal as the civil war was simply not done.
In stanza one, line 1 Alive and line 4 Dust establishes a stark contrast between life and death because each word is capitalized. Therefore,
Emily Dickinson and Civil War in selected poems
Emily Dickinson was very much affected by the American Civil War. During the four years of conflict (1861-1865), she wrote nearly 850 poems. This number amounts to almost half of her entire works and more than four times what she had written before this period.
Emily Dickinson wrote four poems directly influenced by the war:
"They dropped like Flakes",
"It don't sound so terrible—quite as it did" ,
"It feels a shame to be Alive" , and "When I was small, a woman died" .
In 1862 an extremely traumatic event in Dickinson’s life took place. A young man named Frazar Stearns the son of William Augustus Stearns, the current president of Amherst College was killed during the Battle of New Bern in North Carolina. The Stearns were very close to the Dickinson family. Many of their friends had gone off to fight, but not one of them had died before. This shock about the reality of war most likely prompted Emily Dickinson to write her poem ,,It feels a shame to be Alive”. This poem is as important today as it was during the Civil War. It not only is a tribute to the fallen, but also illustrates the survivors’ feelings of loss and guilt.
It feels a shame to be Alive –
When men so brave – are dead –
One Envies the Distinguished Dust –
Permitted – such a Head –
The Stone – That tells defending Whom
This Spartan put away
What little of Him we – possessed
In Pawn for Liberty –
This poem questions the bravery of those who live “When Men so brave – are dead”; When Men so brave – are dead; this was the unmentionable subject during the American Civil War. In that time a man’s honor and bravery was more important than his life, and to question the honor and bravery of a man who survived something so brutal as the civil war was simply not done.
In stanza one, line 1 Alive and line 4 Dust establishes a stark contrast between life and death because each word is capitalized. Therefore,