Must follow the guidelines outlined below and included in word document, read both carefully.
Note: Do not plagiarize, all work is checked.
MLA format, use 1-inch margins, double-spaced, 12 point font (Times New Roman)
Essay length: 6-8 pages, college writing level
Citations: You may ONLY cite the readings (you must use page numbers for quotations from Emerson and the poem number for Dickinson), no online resources.
Topic: Dickinson and Emerson
These Dickinson poems can be categorized as romantic transcendentalist. What are the major themes here and how to do they agree or disagree with Emerson's transcendental views?
Remember to Underline or bold your thesis statement.
I will include a few notes under each poem that may aid in your analysis. Don't mention her use of "dashes", our focus is on thematic elements.
Pick 4 or more of the following Dickinson poems (numbers are from Final Harvest) to compare to Emerson (you may draw from any of his essays including "Nature", "Self-Reliance", "Friendship", "The Poet", "The Transcendentalist" etc'.):
(46)
I taste a liquor never brewed -
From Tankards scooped in Pearl -
Not all the Vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an Alcohol!
Inebriate of Air - am I -
And Debauchee of Dew,
Reeling - thro endless summer days -
From inns of molten blue -
When the "Landlords" turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove's door -
When Butterflies - renounce their "drams" -
I shall but drink the more!
Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats -
And Saints - to windows run -
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the - Sun -
Notes: "Inebriate of air" echoes of Emerson's "Nature", "the air is a cordial of incredible virtue"
(95)
The Soul selects her own Society,
Then shuts the Door;
To her divine Majority
Present no more.
Unmoved, she notes the Chariot's pausing
At her low gate;
Unmoved, an emperor is kneeling
Upon her mat.
I've known her from an ample nation
Choose one
Then close the valves of her attention
Like Stone.
Notes: "at her low gate" echoes Emerson's "Friendship" ("they pass my gate")
(201)
Within my Garden, rides a Bird
Upon a single Wheel-
Whose spokes a dizzy Music make
As 'twere a travelling Mill-
He never stops, but slackens
Above the Ripest Rose-
Partakes without alighting
And praises as he goes,
Till every spice is tasted-
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres-
And I rejoin my Dog,
And He and I, perplex us
If positive, 'twere we-
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity-
But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye-
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An Exquisite Reply!
Notes:Stanza 1: refers to a humming bird. "Gig" means a contraption for motion. Can't ask anyone so she asks her dog, background of subjectivity of knowledge. "just vibrating blossoms" - bird was on flowers, "just" can mean just barely/immediate past or still vibrating, lawfully pendulum motion.
(211)
To hear an Oriole sing
May be a common thing-
Or only a divine.
It is not of the Bird
Who sings the same, unheard,
As unto Crowd-
The Fashion of the Ear
Attireth that it hear
In Dun, or fair-
So whether it be Rune,
Or whether it be none
Is of within.
The "Tune is in the Tree-"
The Skeptic-showeth me-
"No Sir! In Thee!"
Notes: Like any perception, it may be ordinary or it may be divine. Is this cheering Emerson or is it pointing out how weird Emerson can be?
(411)
Perception of an object costs
Precise the Object's loss -
Perception in itself a Gain
Replying to its Price -
The Object Absolute - is nought -
Perception sets it fair
And then upbraids a Perfectness
That situates so far -
Notes: No break, but two separate thoughts (starting with "The object absolute..."). The first part talks about subjects' awareness, object meanings, and perception. Next, Dickinson talks about the thing in itself apart from any perception. Perception can make objects fail (subjectivity), without perception = perfectness.
(472)
I thought that nature was enough
Till Human nature came
But that the other did absorb
As Parallax a Flame-
Of Human nature just aware
There added the Divine
Brief struggle for capacity
The power to contain
Is always as the contents
But give a Giant room
And you will lodge a Giant
And not a smaller man
Notes: There's kind of a paradox here, in Emerson increasing power of nature to explain everything - nature absorbs nature. Nature is a function of human nature. This is a good poem to bring in Emerson's "Nature" and "Self-Reliance".