Emily Dickinson

Although Emily Dickinson showed differences in structure and rhyme than some of the other Romantic poets, I think she generally spoke the same language. That was, in fact, the distinct dialect of truth. One thing I have lived about these last few weeks of reading and commenting has been the raw truth that each author laced into their beautiful and inspiring pieces. I remember some of our first readings from Blake, "Songs of Innocence" & "Songs of Experience", with there resounding honesty. Although these poems were more brutal in comparison, Dickinson still strove to reveal the easy stuff and the hard stuff...so to speak. Particularly, in #1263, the last two lines were profound to me. She writes, "The Truth must dazzle gradually or every man be blind-" I read this as a lesson in vision or foresight. Some people can handle the big picture, but most people cannot. I think that life, or even God, will sometimes only show us exactly what we can handle. Then, once we have conquered that or embraced that with purpose, we begin to see the next step. And each time, these sweet revelations "dazzle" as Dickinson explained. It is always the best idea or the biggest step of faith we have ever taken. Then we see our success and are able to move on and do much more. One other similarity I noticed between Dickinson and the other Romantic's we studied previously, she made several references to faith or eternity or God. Even one poem, #1577, talked about the Bible. #1793 made remarks about heaven and hell. I think these themes or symbols have to do with the Romantic author's respect for nature. They were so in-touch and responsive to the depth that nature brought. I feel a great relation between my faith and nature. I believe that my God created the Heavens and the Earth as it says in Genesis. I can only hope that there is a thread of that conviction in these Romanitc works as well.