Emily Dickinson And Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Poems are like snowflakes. While no two are the same, they all have common structures and themes. One prevalent theme in poetry is that of death, which is present in both â€Å"Because I Could Not Stop for Death† by Emily Dickinson and â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† by Robert Frost. Dickinson perceives death as a gentleman, while Frost perceives death as loneliness, which provides insight on how the time periods of the poems, the genders of the authors, and the authors’ personal experiences influence literature. A major factor of Emily Dickinson’s style of poetry is the time period in which she lived. Emily Dickinson was alive from 1830 to 1886 (Mackowiak and Batten, 1159), during which the Second Great Awakening, Romanticism, and the United States Civil War took place. When Dickinson was a teenager, the Second Great Awakening took hold, encouraging people to take hold of their religion and practice once more. Thomas Ford discusses this in his book Heaven Beguiles the Tired: Death in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson, reviewed by Jack Capps. Capps points out that Ford â€Å"repeatedly asserts that poetry, for Emily Dickinson, was but a substitute for the religious conversion that would have allayed her fears of death and obviated her poetic utterance† (227). Dickinson did not blindly accept what religion told her to believe about death. Christianity depicts the idea of dying in a peaceful way, then spending the rest of eternity in a mystical place. Instead, Emily Dickinson wantedShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Harlem By Langston Hughes1235 Words   |  5 Pagesfollow one of their dreams, but Hughes explains several in â€Å"Harlem†. â€Å"Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening† by Robert Frost is about the loneliness and darkness in his own life. Frost uses the woods in the story as a way to portray his current situation in life. In the poem Frost writes, â€Å"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Lines 13-15). Frost describes the woods as dark and desolate which is a metaphor for how he feels in life. HeRead MoreWinter: A Magical Time of Year809 Words   |  3 Pagesinside by a fire and read a book. The peace and quiet of winter is also what makes it one of the best seasons of the year. The analysis of the following poems â€Å"Now Winter Nights Enlarge† by Thomas Campion, â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† by Robert Frost, â€Å"Like Brooms of Steel† by Emily Dickinson, â€Å"Winter Morning† by William Jay Smith, â€Å"Winter: 10 degrees† by Barbara Novack, and â€Å"Winter Sundayà ¢â‚¬  by Mark Wunderlich will show how they are all related by having winter as a theme. The poem Now WinterRead MoreAnalyzing the Elements of Poetry Essay849 Words   |  4 Pagesnot required. There was a time when rhyming was considered an integral part of a poem, but poetry has evolved. One person who helped this evolution was Emily Dickinson. â€Å"Sometimes she scarcely rhymed at all. And although there was a precedent for this practice. . . the music of her verse was new enough to seem revolutionary.† (Wolff 186) Dickinson did use rhyme, but she showed that it was not required. Song lyrics are many people’s only connection to poetry today. Lyrics, as we all know, make greatRead MoreRobert Frost Wrote The Revered Poem, â€Å"Stopping By Woods1870 Words   |  8 Pagespoem, â€Å"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening† at his home in Shaftsbury, Vermont in 1922. It appeared in his fifth collection of poems entitled, â€Å"New Hampshire,† published in 1923, which won his first Pulitzer Prize. In this poem, the reader is privy to a few mom ents of the thoughts of a man who pauses in the silence and solitude of the winter woods. It’s a poem with such simplicity that a child can commit it to memory and such complexity that scholars repeatedly explicate it. â€Å"Stopping by Woods on aRead MoreThe Poetry Of Children s Poetry Essay2339 Words   |  10 Pageschildren, because it forces them to use their imagination to make sense of it. Nearly every word in â€Å"The Jabberwocky† is a nonsense word, but the poem still creates an enchanting story. The reader may have no idea what a â€Å"Jabberwock† is, or what makes a wood â€Å"tulgey,† but using their imagination, they can create an image of adventure. The second poem is equally as nonsensical, although it does not use quite as many nonsense words. â€Å"The New Vestments† by Edward Lear paints an outrageous picture of a manRead MoreAmerican Literature11652 Words   |  47 Pagesand being on ships? After thinking about these questions , the reader can go back and attach these ideas that a ship implies to the thing to which the ship is compared, and finally try to fit these ideas into the overall meaning of the poem. See Emily Dickinson s poem There is No Frigate Like a Book on page 575 ofStructure, Sound, and Sense. Importantly, poets often place images in opposition to each other. This creates what is known as tension. Tension is often an important clue to the meaning