Emily Dickinson. Her poetry as a way to make sense of the world

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglophone Studies), course: A Survey of American Literature, language: English, abstract: As the first female poet who was included into the regularly male canon of poetry, Emily Dickinson is one of the few popular American poets of the 19th century. Another equally influential contemporary American poet may only be Walt Whitman, whose main work was the poetry collection Leaves of Grass of 1855. Emily Dickinson's collection of poems contains nearly 1800 pieces. They cover a variety of different topics. The motifs of life, love, marriage, nature, faith and death run through her poems like a thread. Dickinson has her very own view on the human ability to make sense of the world. Looking at the world theologically more liberal than other contemporary authors, because she is estranged from religious beliefs, she doubts the ideals of adjustment and perfection and thus tries to attain truth by holding the view that the world is in constant progression. In order to describe this view appropriately, I will first of all give an overview of biographical, historical and cultural facts of Emily Dickinson. After providing this background information, I will introduce some of Emily Dickinson's poetic themes and strategies and analyse selected poems of her. The analyses are intended to underline my findings and serve to give an overview of the stylistic elements Dickinson uses to illustrate her view on the human ability to make sense of the world. I will conclude my outcome by explicating to what extent Emily Dickinson's poetry has been a poetic contribution to American Literature until today.

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