Diction and Syntax in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry

Emily Dickinson: Poetry Essay

One of the most acclaimed American poets, Emily Dickinson—the reclusive, heartbroken genius—asserts her position among such greats as Walt Whitman through her extremely individual style. Her unconventional meter, heavy-handed employment of dashes, and seemingly random capitalization are the trademarks of a body of poetic work notable for its deeply sensitive exploration of the human condition. By avoiding the flowery and romantic style of poetry common during her time, Dickinson has been able to provide her readers with a clear and illuminating vision of the world through her eyes. Three of her more popular poems, “I’m Nobody! Who are you?,” “Heart, we will forget him!,” and “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain,” all speak to Dickinson’s strengths as an innovative and gifted poet by portraying those qualities for which her poetry is so well-known.

Living a mostly hermetic life for many years, Dickinson shut herself away from the world, maintaining social contact only with close friends and relatives through letters. This loneliness resonates in her poem “I’m Nobody! Who are you?,” but in the end, takes on a somehow positive tone:

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you-- Nobody-- Too?

Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! they'd advertise, you know.

How dreary--to be-- Somebody!

How public--like a frog--

To tell one’s name-- the livelong June--

To an admiring bog!

Despite being branded a “Nobody,” which is apparently looked down upon by some unknown “they,” the speaker and her new-found companion brush off the more acceptable position as a “Somebody” as a tiresome task. By capitalizing “Nobody” and “Somebody,” Dickinson personalizes a person or being who otherwise might be completely anonymous to the reader—who would be, in fact (aren’t all “nobodies” anonymous?) If one reads the poem without the dashes, the rhythm and meter sounds obvious and plain. The unusually placed dashes, however, break up the previously traditional-sounding meter, and make it sound almost more like an actual hushed conversation between two “nobodies.” “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” may be short in length, but it is not lacking in depth. As only one of many examples of Dickinson’s skills, this poem deals with a familiar topic in an unfamiliar manner by way of Dickinson’s unique writing style.

Rumors abound among historians and Dickinson aficionados as to the truth about her romantic life. Because she was so private, there is no way for us to ever know what really went on behind closed doors. The amount of her work dedicated to romantic, even passionate love, leaves us plenty to speculate about. The poem “Heart, we will forget him!” is an attempt to reign in the boundless, tempestuous passions of the heart in only a handful of lines.

Heart, we will forget him!

You and I, Tonight!

You may forget the Warmth he gave--

I will forget the Light.

When you have Done, Pray Tell me

That I my Thoughts may Dim--

Haste! lest while you're Lagging.

I may Remember him!

While usually known for her copious use of dashes, Dickinson here seems reserved. Without so many jarring cuts through her verses, the poem seems to take on a more conventional style—the way many of the ever-popular love poems were written at the time. This particular love poem, however, is anything but conventional. Instead of reaching out to a romantic interest, the speaker is reprimanding herself for once loving him. Even the first sentence is a direct command. By breaking the “forgetting” into smaller tasks (“you..the warmth/I... the light.”) makes it seem less human, more like an exceptionally painful chore. Many of the capitalizations here do seem completely random, but certain choice words should be noted: the capitalization of “Tonight,” especially when followed by an exclamation mark, make the speaker’s task of forgetting much more urgent and pressing. If it’s that necessary to forget him, the speaker must have endured a good deal of pain with him. “Warmth” and “Light” capitalized also