2. Emily Dickinson

Without doubt, Dickinson has an innovative and unique approach to language. However, I disagree that she balances beauty and horror in her imagery in order to relieve some of the darker aspects of her poetry. One of the reasons for her popularity as a poet is her unstinting honesty and her refusal to compromise on the ideas and style she wishes to craft. 

An example of her innovative style is her striking use of punctuation, especially the use of dashes and capitalisation, which Adrienne Rich described as ‘jagged, personal and uncontrollable’. This creates an intense experience for the reader where they are confused but also greatly intrigued.

'I Felt a Funeral in my Brain' horrifies from start to finish. The poet does not want the darkness to be relieved. It is a nightmare vision of death. Her unique approach to punctuation added to the intensity of the poem. One of the many interpretations of this poem involves the exploration of death from the dead person's perspective. The ‘Mourners’ are ‘all seated’ as:

‘A Service, like a Drum — 

Kept beating — beating — till I thought

My mind was going numb —’

The dashes here helped to create a sense of disorientation and added to the ambiguity of the poem. The dashes between ‘treading’ and ‘beating’ serve to suggest that the sounds and movements are repetitive and oppressive.  

The idea of one's mind being trapped in one's body as you are being lowered or ‘dropped down, and down —’ into your grave is highly disturbing. The alternative interpretation of the poem being about mental breakdown where ‘a Plank in Reason, broke’ is equally intense. 

The poet manages to disorient the reader through her language choices. When the reader expects a concrete word like ‘bells’, she surprises by inserting an abstract word like ‘Space’. It carries a haunting suggestion of emptiness and depression, which one would normally associate with silence. However, Dickinson again dramatically reverses our expectations. She explains that:

‘As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race’.

The capitalisation here is confusing at first but when you put the capitalised words together, you realise they are the essence of the poem. Despite her religious upbringing, there is little comfort in death. In the final stanza, the speaker drops:

‘And hit a World, at every plunge, 

And Finished knowing — then —’

The capitalisation of ‘Finished’ suggests closure but there is a dash at the end of the line and we are left wondering. Once again, this is deeply confusing for the reader but it is also simultaneously intense and intriguing. This is pure horror and darkness and it is supposed to be.   

'There's a certain Slant of light' is another poem where Dickinson uses her innovative style to explore intense experiences. The poem sheds light on Dickinson’s mental landscape. Her use of imagery is interesting because she uses it to convey theme and tone rather than for mere decorative purposes. The poem opens with a striking simile:

‘There's a certain Slant of light,

Winter Afternoons — 

That oppresses, like the Heft

Of Cathedral Tunes —’

She links the darkness of winter afternoons with the sound of church music that can often vibrate through you. This is very clever; what begins as a visual image is then described in terms of weight and vibration. The blurring of the senses is disturbing, as is the idea that despair is a ‘Heavenly Hurt’ that can ‘scar’ the soul. Her use of capitalisation emphasises the serious nature of the hurt. It suggests that the despair is so intense that it cannot be taught, understood or explained:

‘None may teach it — Any — 

Tis the Seal Despair —’

The dark, dramatic nature of the poem is intensified by Dickinson's use of dark sound effects. However, the poem's ending is both dramatic and disturbing:

‘When it goes, 'tis like the Distance

On the look of Death — ’.

The use of the dash suggests that the despair could easily return, just like a shadow invades the light. The poem is confusing at first but both the style and the subject matter is compelling. There is no balance between beauty and horror. The winter landscape is dark and oppressive.  

Thankfully, not all of Dickinson's poetry is so sombre. Darkness and horror are very far away from her poem ‘I taste a liquor never brewed’ but her approach is still intense and unique. Whilst all of her poems are intense, Dickinson uses an extended metaphor to share her delight with her readers and the result is intriguing, particularly when you consider her conservative and religious background. Her originality is demonstrated by her decision to compare being intoxicated to being euphoric with the beauty of nature. She creates fabulous images of ‘Tankards scooped in Pearl’, ‘endless summer days’ and ‘inns of Molten Blue’. 

The fun in the poem is driven by the sheer energy and excess. Dickinson employs a witty and striking metaphor:

‘When 'Landlords' turn the drunken Bee

Out of the Foxglove's door —’

Her delight continues as she declares when everyone else stops, she ‘shall but drink the more!’ This heady excitement is infectious and one cannot help but feel intoxicated (sorry for the pun!) by it. It is hard not to envy the ‘little Tippler’ leaning against the sun in a state of total abandonment! Personally, I cannot read this poem without intense feelings of delight. 

Dickinson’s unique approach to language continues in 'A Bird came down the Walk’. As always, Dickinson picks an ordinary subject but looks at it in a new and innovative way. This poem is constructed as a narrative with a dramatic moment of discovery for both the bird and poet. She watches him like a voyeur as he ‘came down the Walk’. Our clichéd view of the bird is disturbed as it is presented in a realistic manner:

‘He bit an Angle Worm in halves

And ate the fellow, raw’. 

The sounds, length and punctuation of the lines mirror the bird's restless movements. She vividly portrays the bird with ‘rapid eyes’ like ‘frightened Beads’. Once again, Dickinson builds the drama of their possible meeting. She offers ‘him a Crumb’. She employs beautiful imagery to suggest the bird's departure and this adds to the intensity of the experience.

The final poem I will discuss demonstrates how Dickinson’s horror in her imagery is never compromised. ‘The Soul has Bandaged Moments’ is a really disturbing poem and Dickinson combines her unique approach to language with vivid imagery to appall the reader. The poet capitalises ‘Bandaged’, thus reinforcing its importance. The soul is bandaged because it has been hurt before but also because it is bound. There is a sense of helplessness as it is ‘too appalled to stir’. The unique employment of the dash is evident as the writer creates a horrific image of the ‘Lover — hovered — o’er’. Even when there are images of beauty, they are destructive. The Soul experiences ‘escape’ and dances but the imagery connected with it is dangerous. Dickinson employs the simile of a ‘Bomb’. It is destructive. 

To conclude, Dickinson has a unique and intense approach to her poetry that does not want balance. She seeks to provoke intense experiences in her readers so uses imagery to its fullest effect.