Emily Dickinson---A Poet Belongs to Herself
温州师范学院外语系98英本(1)
周丽君
Abstract: Why Emily Dickinson is regarded as one of the greatest American poets
after her death? One of the most important reasons is that she created her own
unique verse form which makes a departure from the traditional poetry of her period
and it seems she doesn't fit to any particular group but to herself.
Key words: technique, particularity, formality, imagery and figurative language.
Although Emily Dickinson was a poet in the Romantic period, her poems are so informal
and personal which makes her poems posses a unique style and artistic charming
.the use of short words, capitalization, unusual pause and the techniques of off-rhymes
all contribute to the particularity of her poems. Here I'd like to talk a bit
about the techniques used in her poetry from two aspects: Formality and language.
Let's start from the technique used in her verse form.
1.Stanza form
The most important source of Emily Dickinson's verse form is the hymnal. Being
greatly influenced by Christian, she liked to read "Bible" and listened
to church hymns from which she took her meters with the rhyme scheme of either
abcb or abab.
2.rhyme
Dickinson was famous for using off rhyme or we call "near rhyme". The
term off-rhyme means that rhyme word don't really rhyme with each other, it is
only a close rhyme with which Emily tried to avoid dullness.
3.Pause
The particularity of Dickinson's poem also lies in the original use of "dash".
She repeatedly uses the dash in order to pursue freshness and dramatic effect.
The dash helps to highlight important words by showing a pause of emphasis, anticipation,
suspense, irony, imagination and mildness of tone.
4.Imagery and Figurative language
Another feature of her poetry comes from her ideas like most poets, she realizes
that she, as a poet, must suggest, and can't tell. She mustn't present her theme
directly but do it indirectly through the use of imagery and symbols. She is good
at the use of metaphors.
To sum up, Emily Dickinson seems to be wholly original and developed her own poetic
form with many peculiar features. These not only make her poetry sent forth a
unique charming along with her keen observation, originality, imagination in the
poetry garden but remains as an invaluable reference for the study of modernism
of poetry.
Biliography:
1.《福建师范大学学报》1993，4
2.美国文学选讲
3.《福建师范大学学报》1994,3
