For this reading response, I am going to analyze poems by Emily Dickinson. I quote some poems from this poet for analysis because her poems show various themes such as imaginary, tragedy, Bible symbols, etc. When I read Emily’s poems, I amazed at how she picked up the words to illustrate American society in the romantic era. Both social satire and the manifestation of the truth are included in the poems she wrote. So in the response, I will quote 2 Emily’s poems to show some themes that made me amazed.
The first poem that I wanted to analyze is “Wild nights – Wild nights! (269)” When I read this poem I can see that the poet wants to talk about love. From the first stanza, there have many keywords that show the meaning of desire, lust, and love such as wild, luxury. The narrator imagined the most perfect night in the time of happiness with her lover. The word ‘should be’ in the third line conveyed that Emily is disappointed that she is not entitled to live with her former lover. the wild night can happen only with her ex-lover. the word ‘luxury’ informs the lust of the poet and her ex-lover. In the second stanza, “To a Heart in port -” the poet used a metaphor to compare her feelings with the boat in the port and expands that her heart is docked to her lover and the wind cannot blow them so it doesn’t need a compass nor a chart to guide them. In the third stanza, “Rowing in Eden -” there have many words that have connotations. There is the word ‘Eden’ that is a symbol of paradise. The word “The Sea” showed the meaning of love. The poet used the word “Moor” which means to tie a boat so that it stays in the same place (meaning from Cambridge dictionary) to compare the mooring with the close love of her poet and her lover. The poet wanted to say that even if there is a disturbance on the outside, she can still live peacefully with her lover.
The last poem that I wanted to analyze is “Hope is the thing with feathers (314)”. For this poem, the poet uses “feathers” as a symbol to illustrate hope and freedom with a bird. In the first stanza, Emily used a bird to compare with hope. The word “thing” in the first line showed that Emily wants to compare the abstract of hope with a bird. hope is the abstract. It does not have a movement. But when comparing with a bird, we can see the poet wanted to inform that hope is like a bird flying. Feathers represent hope because feathers allow us to fly, and flying can interpret New hopes and the new beginning. the poet used imaginary of a bird to explain the hope. Hope is like a bird that perched in the soul that means the soul is home for hope. In the line “And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all -” Dickinson uses images of birds singing as an eternal hope. In this line “And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard -” the poet explained the song of hope that is the sweetest sound above the sound of a storm and to ensure that the storm will soon be calm. “And sore must be the storm –
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That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm -” Dickinson described agony is the storm that can destroy birds which inspire so many people. In the same way, the person who is pessimistic can destroy the hope of other people. In the last stanza, the poet described that even in the most chill land, hope can still be heard. it means hope is eternal and can find it everywhere. Hope is free and everybody can have hope as long as you let the bird can be fly and let the song be heard everywhere. Don’t lose the opportunity to hope.
