Dickinson in her short poems makes her feelings and messages more abstract without making them less powerful. In the prelude to the collection of poems, the biography states how Dickinson was a very introverted figure and kept to herself. In 435, a glimpse of her personality is expressed through her thoughts on social behavior. The poet makes a stark and ironic contrast by writing “Assent – and you are sane -; Demur – you’re straightaway dangerous” (Lines 6-7 484 Dickinson). In this written form, those who welcome social norms and duties are the “sane” or inferring into modern ramifications; normal. Those who do not conform are seen as a threat and, even though they may just be expressing their ways, people are punished so, or poetically “…handled with a Chain) (Line 8 484). In this poem, Dickinson is expressing her feelings of being alienated and how not living up to societal expectations is punishable. While she may be describing the struggle of others, Dickinson’s preference to be alone and society’s view upon that is likely to be the subject of 435.

In another of her poems, 449, Dickinson approaches different themes such as death and beauty. For example, the poem ends with an emphatic pair of lines, “Moss had reached our lips; And covered up – our names -“ (Lines 11-12 Dickinson 485). The dashes that Dickinson wrote around “our names” highlights the significance of a lost legacy. The “Moss” in this poem alludes to how death supersedes mortality and eventually consumes all. To pair with the darkness of the poem, Dickinson highlights the theme of beauty. The poem begins with “I died for Beauty” and another reference to “Beauty” is made in line 6. Dickinson’s writing about Beauty in the first parts of the poem but not the end highlights how beauty is temporary and is not forever, just like how everything – even names – are not forever.