The Comparison of Dickinson and Feinstein Content - Literature review Example

Dickinson’s “Success is Counted Sweetest” is very poignant because it did not spoke of hope but of an unknown such as what success would mean to a failure or a victory to a fallen solder. Feinstein celebrated and wondered about life if a “poet surprise him? Or would he insist on keeping a pattern to link every transfiguration? “ while Dickinson talk of things that could never be. With regard to structure however, Dickinson is more straightforward and easier to understand.

She used quatrains or poems of four stanzas compared to Feinstein’s loose structure of her poem which had 3-2-2-4 stanza. Feinstein’s theme may be positive but understanding her is quite a stretch for a modern audience because her metaphors are no longer used today such as “dressed in antique goggles” when she meant scientist. Scientists today no longer wear goggle. Gender orientation is also obvious in both poems. Dickinson’s “Success is Counted Sweetest” is very virile in its topic as it spoke of endeavor and a soldier and therefore, male in orientation.

Feinstein’s Anniversary however is obviously female trying to convince a male, probably a husband or boyfriend who is a scientist or academician that we are all poets.