Emily Dickinson a unique voice - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... She becomes more of a life force than a person and can see and experience almost anything. She shows that even the smallest things around us—a grain of sand, a pismire, a cow—contain an enormous history and an enormous power. A mouse is capable of inspiring the awe of an entire religion (Blake 56). Most significantly, she seems to believe, like Whitman, that “the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery.” This is a celebration of all that has gone into creating the world and how deeply it can inspire us—like the best romantic poetry.
Once again nature is an enormous canvas which is all interlinked and inspires great beauty. The bee is “kinsman” to the grass, and all the things of the world are “sweet litigants for life.” And on top of these sentiments, the bee is “sovereign.” These emphasis on nature shows how unique she is.
Two important elements of romanticism are the individual versus society and a reliance on human emotion over cold rationality. Both of these principles can be seen in effect in Rousseau’s Confessions and Emily Dickinsons poetry (Knapp 102). Rousseau’s long autobiography Confessions constantly points out how different and apart he is from other people. "I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different" (Rousseau 23). This is a central theme of romanticism. The person who lives truly, understanding himself and nature, in tune with his emotions, is a person apart. The romantic is often portrayed as alone and sensitive—either ostracized by others because of his uniqueness or choosing like a hermit to be free of the conformist and corrupting world of society. This book also celebrates the power and centrality to life of emotion. He writes that, “If I had ever, a single time in my ...Download file to see next pagesRead More