How Did Emily Dickinson's Life Affect Her Poetry

Emily Dickinson was one of the most innovative and original poets in American history. Her writings were very individualistic taken from both her external and internal world. They explored many themes of great importance to her. The mystery surrounding life, death, and mortality; issues with faith, religion, and nature are some of her more prevalent themes. Rejecting convention, Dickinson fractured from the traditional, structured iambic pentameter widely used throughout the nineteenth century. Her unconventional style alone was not all that contributed to the respect and genius which set her apart from her contemporaries. Her poems were personal and original, utilizing literary devices such as symbolism and metaphors, slant rhyme, alliteration, and assonance. Her often eccentric syntax, unusual punctuation and capitalization, contributed to a more modern and artistic style of poetry not overwhelmingly accepted in her time. It is by these methods; Dickinson
It explains that the truth can be a powerful and dangerous thing if revealed in totality, so one must have faith; therefore the first line says to “tell it in slant.” This is the idea which emerges through metaphorical symbolism and simile. In the second line the capitalized “Circuit” could refer to a circular path, or journey along such a path returning to the starting point, as one takes from birth to death. Another definition I found was that a circuit can be a long deduction of reason. The second line says success in this way “lies.” Delight, in the third line, suggests a satisfaction of the mind, and the truth is a “superb surprise,” not something found on the path of reason. The truth is “Too bright for our infirm Delight,” so the poem could be telling us that the only way towards the truth is to have faith. Faith which will be “eased with explanation kind.” Faith that the “truth must dazzle gradually” and not forced upon us all at once. Without it, “every man be