Emily Dickinson didn’t have years of education and she mainly isolated herself at home. It reflects in some of her poems she didn’t write as though it was for others but for herself the placement of her punctuation marks or lack there of is an example. Her writing style is experimental because it lets the poems flow and only interrupted the flow when needed to. She didn’t drown her poems in commas and periods.

Dickinson’s writing style allows the reader freedom of interpretation, you take breathers almost where you see fit. The punctuation marks in a poem alerts the reader when to breath and to a certain rhythm. I find that her poems held her own voice. As if I’m reading it while she is writing it, like I am going through the thought process along with her. My poetic writing style is fairly similar to hers because I also don’t use a lot of punctuation marks unless there’s an specific inference to be made. Which I believe she does as well.

There are several Similarities between Keats and Dickinson writing styles, they both write about an unobtainable love. Though one would say their lifestyles were different because Dickinson rarely left her home I would say they both lived a lonely life. Keats health was failing while he was fairly young so many relationships that one would foster he couldn’t. He was in love with a woman and was denied her hand in marriage because of his health. There’s also a lot of references to nature in both writer’s work and this stress of vision. Its interesting that even though Dickinson wasn’t one to leave her home she expressed the beauty of nature as if she sees it all the time. She speaks a lot of dew on grass, birds freely flying and how green the grass is, it seems as if she become one with nature from experiencing it through her window.

After looking at  Dickinsons handwriting manuscripts, I noticed that many of her poems aren’t named but  just numbered. Its very hard to read clearly, 1. Because its through an image and 2. Because of her handwriting. Even so I think its really amazing to see her thought process through these poems some where she scratches words out and starts a completely new line, it makes me wonder how long she must have worked on it. I also noticed that certain things she may have stressed in the manuscript werent often followed through in the reprints. For example in A Saucer Holds A Cup , she has each word of her ending line stressed with underscores but in reprints its stressed as sentence. Continue reading Emily Dickinson poems →

Emily Dickinson’s poetry is often described as “experimental because the way she writes her poems are much like lyrics. I believe her work is described this way because it is her intentions to keep the readers off their toes, filling them with endless desire to read. Also, in the introductory, it mentions that she spends most of her life within the confinement of her home, therefore, it is her poetry that she writes that connects most deeply with the outside world. With poems like song, the meanings are exemplified to a degree that readers can feel the intensity of her thoughts.

Dickson’s work does indeed have a similar poetic style like Keats. She draws on the themes like death, nature, death, love and faith. In “Bright Stars” written by Keats, he’s describing his feelings towards the girl whom he loves almost to death, and in Dickinson’s poem 258 she writes

“Heavingly hurt, it gives us-

We can find no scar

But internal difference,

Where the meanings, are-

She seems to be troubled with emotion thought. In the introductory it also mentions that “some of her work reflects on the pain of unrequited love.” Which is precisely why there is that close resemblance to Keats work.

In the poems, the uses of line break, capitalization and dashes contributes to confusion while reading but at the same time generates a striking thought. Her poems have abrupt interruptions to exaggerate her sudden thoughts. It helps the reader visualize the scenario and can possibly emphasize with what she felt while writing her poems.

After seeing the handwritten version, my  experience was not affected. The only thing that boggled my mind for a moment was while reading “Amherst – Amherst Manuscript # 633 – The day she goes – asc: 13428 – p. 1” I notice that some of her letters are more exaggerated than some in previous. For example her S and T is much larger. So I do suppose that she’s putting some emphasis in certain aspect of her work while writing, which is something we can not see if we don’t see the handwritten version.

Bartleby is a mysterious character who utilizes the method of passive resistance that surprises the lawyer. In the very beginning, Bartleby works diligently and “seemed to gorge himself on [the] documents” (page 301). However, after some time, Bartleby suddenly develops a strategy that involves passive resistance to avoid doing something that he once was working so hard on.The theme that passive resistance can be just as or even more effective than resistance through violence is clearly evident. A very effective and yet simple response of “I prefer not to” from Bartleby causes the lawyer to be startled for he felt that “there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed [him]…” (page 303). Due to the non-violent resistance presented by Bartleby, the lawyer is really patient and is often thrown into the state of self-evaluation that causes him to rethink whether or not his decisions were reasonable. After each of the three encounters with Bartleby, the lawyer asks the other scriveners “what do [they] think of it” as a method of confirming if he did the right thing (page 303).

In addition to this passive resistance theme, there is also this whole mysterious character problem going on. From the very beginning, the lawyer states that he knows little about Bartleby and he believes that “no material exist for a full and satisfactory biography of this man” (page 297). One of the possible reasons that make the lawyer lose his sense of logical reasoning when he interacts with Bartleby may be due to what little is known about Bartleby. For example, the lawyer felt confident to dismiss Bartleby “when [he] entered [his] office, nevertheless [he] felt something superstitious knocking at [his] heart, and forbidding [him] to carry out [his] purpose (310). It seems as though something mysterious about Bartleby that prevents the lawyer to act upon his decisions on firing the scrivener. People have always been known to be afraid of the unknown because they don’t know how to deal with the unknown, which in this case with the lawyer is Bartleby. However, at the very end, though it is known that Bartleby is depressed and used to work at a place opening the mail that were sent to the dead people, there is nothing more known about his past or his background.

Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer” is a powerful choice in this literature. While the meaning of the word is misleading and a source of irritation to his employer and co-workers, Bartleby was stolid and unaffected by their reaction. The dictionary definition of the word “prefer” is, “like (one thing or person) better than another or others; tend to choose” (www.oxforddictionaries.com). Preferring to do something often implies that if one had a choice, one would rather not perform the task, but in the case that one does not  have a choice, s/he will perform the task assigned. However, Bartleby uses “prefer” as a substitute for “no.” The first time Bartleby used his famous phrase, “I would prefer not to,” the narrator could not believe his ears. It took the lawyer a while to realize that Bartleby meant no in a polite manner and he was impervious to reasoning (page 302).  Bartleby chose to be polite yet obdurate in preserving his individuality throughout the course of the story by simply repeating, “I would prefer not to.”  In only one instance, Bartleby said no was when his vision was impaired and he decided not to do any more writing (page 311). His use of the word “prefer” can imply that he used “prefer” when he was physically and mentally capable of participating in examining the papers but he chose not to do so. The fact that he was unable to perform anymore writing because he was physically incapable of doing so, might have been important enough for him to say the word “no.”

Furthermore, involuntarily, everyone else in the office started using “prefer.” Annoyed with Bartleby’s behavior, which was augmented by his sour mood at the time, Turkey derided Bartleby’s use of the word “prefer.” Turkey also stated that he seldom uses the word “prefer,” yet upon asked to quit picking on Bartleby, his response was “Oh certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should” without realizing that he used “prefer” (page 310). I think Melville used “prefer” in his literature to show that a polite yet persistent use of a word can be influential enough for people to question their own individuality. People are bound by societal rules and feel threatened by the few who politely refuse to abide by the rules. Most people follow rules only because they feel they are supposed to, and individuals such as Bartleby implicitly force them to think about why they are doing what they are doing.