Emily Dickinson's Poems and Manuscripts - Essay Example

In the first two lines of the poem, Dickinson describes a certain quality of light, which leads the reader to think of it as a poem about nature. In stanzas two and three, the reader finds that the poem is not on nature, but the ‘light “spoken of, is about a state of mind. In alluding light to be “Cathedral Tunes” or “winter light “ Dickinson uses the important feature of light to explain the person’s state of mind when encountering the light but not the light itself.

Poem #258 is made up of for stanzas each having four lines and is mostly in the trochaic meter. In describing Dickinson’s poems, Edith Wylder said, “Her punctuation system is an integral part of her attempt to create in written form the precision of meaning inherent in the tone of the human voice. (Edith Wylder, 1971) therefore the use of the word light is more implied in Dickinson’s poem and is not used with its literal meaning.