American Poet Emily Dickinson example essay topic
Extended Biography Text To be a poet was the sole ambition of Emily Dickinson. She achieved what she called her immortality by total commitment to the task, allowing nothing to deter her or intervene. Contrary to the myth that she would not deign to publish her verse, she made herculean efforts to reach out to a world that was not ready for the poems she offered; her manner and form were fifty years ahead of her time. The lines from James Russell Lowell's poem 'The First Snowfall' are typical of popular taste in Dickinson's time; compare them with ones immediately following by Dickinson on the same subject (poem 311): The snow had begun in the gloaming, Had been heaping field and highway With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fir and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl. From sheds new-roofed with Carrara Came Chanticleer's muffled crow, The stiff rails were softened to swan's down, And still fluttered down the snow. 1 stood and watched by the window The noiseless work of the sky, And the sudden flurried of snow-birds, Like brown leaves whirling by. An dIt sifts from Leaden Sieves-It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road-It makes an Even Face Of Mountain, and of Plain-Unbroken Forehead from the East Unto the East again-It reaches to the Fence-It wraps it Rail by Rail Till it is lost in Fleeces-It deals Celestial Vail To Stump, and Stack-and Stem-A Summer's empty Room-Acres of Joints, where Harvests were, Re cordless, but for them-It Ruffles Wrists of Posts As Ankles of a Queen-Then stills its Artisans-like Ghosts-Denying they have been-.