4. EMILY DICKINSON

British Romantics have influenced many poets that have followed them. Emily Dickinson is one of these poets, but not strictly following the same standards she has her own poetic styles. Emily Dickinson seems to be a poet that uses the voice of an unknown speaker directed at an unknown or open audience. The use of nature to set themes and surroundings is a common influence used by her and other poets. In #359 she uses a bird, which is a part of nature and the bird’s natural undisrupted by man, until the end, characteristics and habits. The use of identifying with human feelings such as in #588 is another influence from British Romantics. By embracing the reader with common feelings and emotions creates empathy for the reader. The language is casual but she uses more of a modern lingo; the British Romantic poems often used words unfamiliar to today’s time and uncommon phrases. Dickinson writes shorter poems, revolving around usually just one main theme and discussing it in different ways. Since they are short they are written without a lot of structure, patterns, or form. They are often short stanzas and might only consist of a few verses sometimes just a single verse. In #39, though it is short, has a simple rhyming scheme that is repeated in both verses by rhyming the last word of the second and fourth lines. Since there are many of her short poems she doesn’t always necessarily follow the same form, outline or structure, and uses a variety of writing and poetic techniques. Dickinson rights a lot about death, the idea and feelings of death and the acts of dying or being dead. She writes more as an “immortal” than simply discussing what it would be like to die. In #591 she speaks of the fly she heard when she died, then reminisces the last moments of her death until she mentions the fly again before dying. This is an abstract way or writing and thinking. As the speaker she continues to have a voice after death. Emily Dickinson embraced the influence of British Romantics and created a style of her very own.