Emily Dickinson Notes for February 25th - February 26th:
Emily Dickinson
“Much Madness is Divinest Sense”
“This is My Letter to the World”
“The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
“A Bird Came Down the Walk”
Five Poems:
1. You are going to divide into groups of four.
2. You will select one of the five poems above and present the poems to the class.
3. You will first read the poem aloud to the class.
4. You will direct the class’ attention to unusual features of the poem (i.e., capitalization, punctuation, etc.)
5. You will discuss for the class the following:
What the poem is about.
The poem’s theme (a statement the writer is making about the world.)
The speaker
The occasion
The audience
The purpose of the poem
The tone (the attitude of the writer towards the subject.)
Look for the following literary devices:
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Imagery
Identify them.
What effect do these devices have on the reader?
Much Madness is Divinest Sense
Jesus
Juan
Cesi
Maryori
This is My Letter to the World
Libby
Ellada
Miwa
Malaysia
Dominique
It is a message to the world.
Uses capitalization of News, Nature and Majesty
She uses capitalization to personalize her message. She feels that Nature is the only thing that will listen to her.
She can only feel the power of Nature.
Her is capitalized. Nature is judging her but sweetly.
She feels that society judges her harshly.
This is my Letter to the World is Dickinson’s statement or declaration.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Kristal
Yasmina
Braziil
Monserratt
She’s dead. She saw her life passing her by. It seemed only five minutes ago she died but it’s actually been centuries.
Capitalized: Death, Immortality, Civility, Cornice, Centuries, Gossamer, Carriage
Tone: Shifts from bright and light to dark;
In the beginning she is describing what she is seeing on the way to the cemetery: the children playing in the school yard – the same school she probably went to; the same school and scenes she has seen a million times during her life. The scenes she describes are sunny, happy one; yet the poem darkens and the turn occurs on line 12: “We passed the setting sun”. The poem darkens and grows chill “The Dews grew quivering and chill - / for only Gossamer, my gown - / My Tippet – only Tulle –“
Gossamer and tulle are light weight fabric; and the tippit is a light weight shawl, not enough to keep out the evening chill.
The Setting Sun passed us – perhaps life has passed us.
The grave is described as a house, “…that seemed a swelling in the ground.”
Literary devices:
Personification: Death has been personified as a coachman who has stopped the carriage (a hearse which carries the casket to the grave) to pick up the narrator.
Metaphor:
The narrator is seeing the future spin out ahead of the horse's ears as they move towards the grave.
It seems just a few moments ago that they (she and the coachman) were in the coach traveling to the cemetery yet it has been an eternity.
The point of view is of the inhabitant of the grave reflecting on her journey to her permanent home. The poem is in past tense: Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me.
The Soul Selects her Own Society
Jocelyn
Jessica
Heady
Flor
The narrator wants to express herself but afraid to expose herself to the world. She doesn’t like to show her inner thoughts.
Tone: Melancholic
Capitalization: Door, Society
Purpose: To express who she is in the world she inhabits.
The Soul Selects Her Own Society is Dickinson’s manifesto to the world.
Vocabulary:
Unmoved: not intimidated, not caring, uninterested
What is the door a metaphor for?
What does the word majority mean?
What are the chariots?
What does this line mean,”An Emperor be kneeling upon her Mat – “
Explain the last stanza.
A Bird Came Down the Walk
Iggy
Pablo
Mehran
Ryan
Describing her walk in nature.
Relates to anyone.
Tone: Calm; marveling at the violence and the microcosm of the natural world.
The poem uses nature as a backdrop.
Simile: “They looked like frightened Beads.”
Audience: To anyone who listens.
Theme of "A Bird Came Down the Walk": There is violence and ferocity in nature.
A small bird bites an angleworm in two and eats him (“the fellow”) raw. By choosing to call the worm a fellow, Dickinson immediately personalizes the worm, giving him a personality, an identity and thereby increases the brutality of the casual violence.
The bird, after ripping the fellow apart, then nonchalantly drinks some dew from a “convenient” grass yet steps aside – with seeming politeness - for a beetle. Perhaps the bird’s ravenous hunger has been slated for awhile or the beetle would have been dinner. Everything in nature is predicated on immediate need. There is a hierarchy in nature for the bird, so fierce a predator to the worm, is now frightened of the large mammal, Dickinson, standing in front of him offering him a crumb, “…They (his eyes) looked like frightened beads….”
Imagery:
“Velvet head”; “…unrolled his feathers…;” “…rowed him softer home…”;
“Too silver for a seam – “; “Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon / Leap, plashless as they swim.”
The air, the dual habitat of the bird, is paralleled to water (“…rowed him softer home…”; “…Oars divide the Ocean,” “…To Silver for a seam” – a wake made by an animal, a fish etc., swimming in water. ”Or Butterflies, off banks of Noon / Leap plashless as they swim.”
The poem goes from the microcosm – of the tiny bird ripping a worm in two and eating the fellow raw - to the macrocosm – the bird has taken flight and is “rowing him softer home than oars dividing the Ocean”.
Vocabulary:
Haste: Speed; quickly, rapidly, with great quickness or urgency.
Leisure: down time; a time of pleasure, rest, ease; kickback
