"Nature, the Gentlest Mother"

"Nature, the Gentlest Mother" by Emily Dickinson describes Mother Earth and how she takes care of her "children" and "household" (Dickinson). Nature is "impatient of no child" which symbolizes how Mother Earth takes care of everyone on the planet and even when her "children" harm her (carbon emissions, fires, ecosystem meddling), she will always be their mother and take care of them from the "feeblest" to the "waywardest" (Dickinson). The next stanza in the poem describes how Nature aids her children. She is present in the forests and hills, and is "heard by travelers" (Dickinson). "Hearing" nature invokes onomatopoeia of wind whistling and rustling the trees in the forests and whipping the tall grass and wildflowers on the tall and rolling hills. Also the animals making a variety of noises in the forest are a sign of Nature's presence. The flowers growing on the hills represent the gentle loving touch of Mother Earth as life on the hill. The third stanza uses personification. Emily Dickinson describes all of the flora and fauna, as well as the creatures and critters that roam the Earth, as Nature's "household" and "assembly" (Dickinson). Nature has "fair conversation" with her "household" (Dickinson). The conversation is a representation of the interaction between Nature and the living things on the Earth. Without sun light and rain the plants and trees could not survive. Also, the changing seasons effect the ecosystems and the animals. Mother Earth takes care of her "children" by providing "warm summer days" and not having freezing, deadly winters (Dickinson).

Emily Dickinson explains that nature, or Mother Nature, has an effect on every creature, whether it is the “minutest cricket” or “the most unworthy flower” (Dickinson). Dickinson has done a great job of personifying nature in this poem also. She says that “her voice among the aisles incites the timid prayer”, so she has given nature a voice that reaches all creatures she has created (Dickinson). She also says that “with infinite affection and infiniter care, her golden finger on her lip, wills silence everywhere” (Dickinson). She has given nature not just a finger but a golden finger. That symbolizes that nature’s finger is of a more important significance because gold represents more noble or distinguished feature. She clearly has a deep affection for nature in this poem. This poem also has a good amount of imagery. Her descriptions are very strong and animated. She creates the image of children sleeping, a very miniscule cricket, an ugly or ‘unworthy’ flower, and how when nature turns to darkness it creates silence everywhere. She presents rhymes in the final stanza, but it is only with the second and fourth lines. The rhyme scheme does not seem to matter as much to her as a good rhythm. She keeps a constant rhythm that is different, but makes the reading flow. The syllables do not always match up with each line, but she creates a certain element of poetry that makes this poem, “Nature, the gentlest Mother”, worth reading.



Dickinson, Emily . "Nature, the Gentlest Mother." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

Journal 28 - "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died"

"I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is a weird symbolic Emily Dickinson poem. The fly in the poem stops the woman from dying for a short period of time. The fly's buzzing disrupted the "silence" in the room. The fly came in between the narrator and the light. The light symbolizes Heaven or whatever afterlife the narrator believes in (Valhalla, Elysian Fields, or Hell, but most likely Heaven considering Emily Dickinson's background and the religion that surrounded her in New England). The narrator had a will and had her keepsakes willed away and as she "signed" it, her possessions were in order. That means the narrator knew that she was going to die and had everything arranged for her children/ heirs/ beneficiaries. Next to her bedside, the narrator's next of kin and close friends had "wrung them (eyes) dry" which symbolizes that they had cried and expressed their sorrow, but know had past that stage of grief and accepted the narrator's passing. As she was ready to be taken to the next adventure, the silence (now that there was no more crying since everyone knew and accepted that the narrator was going to die) was interrupted by a fly. The buzzing of the fly disturbed the narrator's inner peace and acceptance of her moving into the next life (or reincarnation or rebirth or peace and happiness in a better place). The unexpected fly startled the narrator away from the light from the "window". The window light was really the infamous light that whisks the dying to whatever comes after death. For a moment the fly took her away from the light and drew her attention to the fly. But then the "window closed" and the narrator could not see anymore. That could be interpreted in two ways. The narrator could have died, or she could have lived another day. The blindness could have came from her eyes being closed forever. Or it could have come from the light disappearing and the narrator continuing to live.

Dickinson, Emily . "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

Journal 27 - Emily Dickinson's Poems' Tune

Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of "Amazing Grace" and "Yellow Rose of Texas". Her poems have rhythmic lines and the reason that they can be sung to several different folk songs was because her rhyme scheme and story telling can follow a musical beat. The ironic part of "Amazing Grace" fitting in with Emily Dickinson's poems is that she was not religious. Dickinson never became a member of the Church, but her family and friends all were Christians and very faithful. Her poems had a standard rhyme scheme and as almost all of them had the same scheme. That is why they can all fit into "Amazing Grace" and "Yellow Rose of Texas". "Amazing Grace" became a staple of the Christian Church. When I was confirmed in eighth grade, my cousin who was my confirmation sponsor, gave me a snow globe type object that played "Amazing Grace". Emily Dickinson was not religious at all, and rejected the Church which is why the fact that "Amazing Grace" fit in her poems was significant. Emily Dickinson's poems involved life, love, death, and nature. She looked at her subjects in a scientific manner, not a religious one. Her poems would have been different if she believed, and was exposed to the Church's beliefs and philosophies. Another song that fits with Emily Dickinson's poems is "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing (in Perfect Harmony)". The song is a bit slow for my speed of reading poems out loud, but it fits nicely with "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" as well as other Emily Dickinson poems. The rhythm of folk songs, such as my favorite "Oh Susanna" also carries the same rhythm and beat as "A Narrow Fellow in the Grass" and other Dickinson poems. I learned the lyrics of "Oh Susanna" in elementary school music class. As I know that tune very well and can read Dickinson's poems to that song and keep a constant rhythm when reciting her poems.

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson lived a life of self induced seclusion in Amherst, Massachusetts (Leiter). She expressed herself through her poems and letters, many that she did not show to anyone until her sister, Lavinia, published her writings against Emily's death wish (Leiter). To understand Emily Dickinson's writing style, one has to understand her life. Dickinson never was religious and became a member of the church, like her friends and family did (Lieter). Through a rigid schooling and her father's strict and stubborn view on women and their place in society, Dickinson's writings reflect a "state of eruption, throwing off the rules her elders had pounded into her" (Leiter). As she did not share her writings with anyone, the poems and letters truly express Dickinson's inner thoughts and feelings in an unadulterated and uncensored way. Emily Dickinson often felt at a loss for words to adequately describe her thoughts, and turned to her Webster's Dictionary for guidance (Leiter). Ironically, Noah Webster, the author and compiler of the dictionary was a neighbor of the Dickinsons' (Leiter).

Emily Dickinson's poems are popular today and are considered classics. The poems can fall into both categories because of the subject matter and the manner in which they were written. Dickinson wrote of love, life, death, nature, and "the question of immortality" (McChesney). Those themes are also popular in today's literature (Harry Potter for four out of five categories). But the way that Dickinson wrote the poems is what makes them resonate in the twenty first century. By using dashes, the reader feels as if the narrator of any given poem is physically speaking and taking a pause at crucial and important parts in their tale (McChesney). In Poem 549, Dickinson speaks to the reader and the lines resonate through time as they will always be true: "That till I loved/ I never lived—Enough—" (McChesney). Because Emily Dickinson did not belong to a church and was not committed to the teachings of the Bible and the Bible's interpretation of the world and universe, her writings show her "knowledge of a boundless Universe, unfettered by the strictures of church" and enrich her poems with deep thought and meaning that would prove blasphemes to some religious readers of the time (McChesney). Instead of using the traditional pagan symbols of a dove for peace, Dickinson creates her own symbols to better represent her and her writings. She uses a daisy to represent calm and innocence in one poem "The Daisy follows soft the Sun—/ And when his golden walk is done—/ Sits shyly at his feet—" (McChesney). Instead of a volcano traditionally meaning anger, rage, and an explosion of some sorts, Dickinson uses an image of a volcano to represent passion and force (McChesney). Emily Dickinson agreed with Plato that "writing itself is only a poor imitation of a poet's words", but tried her best through Webster's Dictionary and by working through the limitations of words on paper to express her thoughts and opinions on life, love, death, and nature (McChesney).



Leiter, Sharon. "Dickinson, Emily." Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

McChesney, Sandra. "A View from the Window: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson." In Harold Bloom, ed. Emily Dickinson, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman wrote poetry in the 1800s in America. He broke the standard mold of 19th century American poets and created a new type of poetry. Traditionally for that era, rhyming and metric verses dominated American poems (Connors). Walt Whitman believed that type of writing was "copious dribble" and did not represent the country well (Connors). Whitman wrote in free verse, with sexuality, and tried to represent the whole country with his poems (Oliver.) In Leaves of Grass Whitman introduced Americans to free verse. Although he did not invent it, he improved the style to represent "American spirit: free, individual, and democratic" (Oliver). Whitman used a "free flowing style" that was first shunned by critics and not embraced by Americans like it would later be (Oliver).

Walt Whitman's poetry was full of "sexual love and exaltation of the human body" that startled and shocked many people (Oliver). Ralph Waldo Emerson even intervened and asked Whitman to remove or edit some of his poems that were very graphic involving sexual actions and references in his "Enfans d'Adam" poems (Oliver). Whitman did not agree and kept the poems the way they originally were. Walt Whitman's "Calamus" poems involved descriptions of homosexual love and Whitman eventually edited that set of poems to be more "family friendly" (Oliver). Whitman also edited "Children of Adam" after Emerson and many critics argued that expressing the desires, torments, and needs of homosexuals could be expressed in a less graphic and offensive way (Connors).

In "Song of Myself" Walt Whitman wrote about the whole country, every man and women, regardless of race. The "I" in the poem was written to represent a collective, all Americans united together (Connors)."I celebrate myself, and sing myself" represents the country coming together and uniting after the Civil War (Connors). In the preface to Leaves of Grass Whitman makes it clear that he rights for everyone, not to a specific race, "for America is the race of races" and blacks are represented equally in Whitman's poetry. Emerson was a fan of Whitman and embraced him as a "quintessential American poet" who embraced the "diversity of race and attitude" (Connors). Walt Whitman served in the Civil War as a field nurse and tended to the wounded (Connors). Seeing first hand the violence of the Civil War influenced Whitman's later writings which included and represented every aspect and everyone of the war; black or white, Union or Confederate (Connors). He graphically wrote about the war in Drum Taps and because of that many publishers rejected it (Connors). Walt Whitman was not appreciated while he was alive, for it was not until later that the true genius of his poetry was realized and embraced in America. Few people had read Whitman's Leaves of Grass and knew who Whitman was personally since most people who read it burned the "vulgar filth" and did not want anything to do with it (Connors). When Whitman's boss in Washington, James Harlan, found out he was the author of the "scandalous and indecent work" Whitman was fired from the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior (Connors).



Connors, Judith. "Whitman, Walt." In Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2002. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

Oliver, Charles M. "Whitman, Walt." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Mar. 2012.

"I Sit and Look Out"

Walt Whitman was opposed to slavery and wrote frequently about it in such poems as "I Sing the Body Electric", "Song of Myself" and "I Sit and Look Out" (Klammer). Those poems were published in Leaves of Grass as the Fugitive Slave Law and the Wilmont Proviso were debated in a pre- Civil War America (Klammer). Whitman took action through words, writing editorials, poems, and articles about "freedom and liberty of persons of African descent" (Klammer). As opposed to Henry David Thoreau who did not take action, and only talked about abolitionism and freedom, Walt Whitman fought in the Civil War for the rights of the "Negro", the African American slaves (Klammer). Whitman sought to represent both the southern African American slaves and their white masters (Klammer). He tried to get both sides to understand that he will "go with the slaves of the earth equally with the masters . . . Entering into both so that both will understand me alike" (Klammer).

Although Walt Whitman received attention, the change he desired did not come with the attention. His sadness and regret shone through in "I Sit and Look Out". He describes the "agonies" of the world in his day, including slavery and war, and at the end comes to the conclusion that in "all the meaness and agony without end" he looks out and realizes "see, hear. and am silent" (Whitman). That was the problem with America at that time period. Enough people realized that slavery was not acceptable and people should not be treated in that way, but not enough action was taken to solve the issue peacefully before it resulted in a bloody Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation, but as Ralph Waldo Emerson so firmly believed, that "a piece of paper would not free anyone" (Hawthorne). Everyone can be the narrator in "I Sit and Look Out" and see all of the problems in the world. Only a brave few will, and can, take action to stop the "agonies" and "sorrows of the world" (Whitman).



Hawthorne, Julian. "Emerson as an American." In The Genius and Character of Emerson. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1885. Quoted as "Emerson as an American." in Bloom, Harold, ed. The American Dream, Bloom's Literary Themes. New York: Chelsea Publishing House, 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 12 Mar. 2012.

Klammer, Martin. "Slavery and Abolitionism". J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings, eds., Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

Whitman, Walt . "I Sit and Look out." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

"I'm Nobody! Who are you?"

Emily Dickinson's "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" is a classic poem. I interpret the poem as a slam against society, and as a high schooler, against the popular students. "Are you nobody, too?" can be interpreted as the author finding a fellow outcast, a nobody, among the frogs in the bog that is the setting in the poem (Dickinson). Later in the poem the author warns the fellow nobody to not tell as they will be "banished" (Dickinson). I interpret that as the author living in a society that prohibits difference and "nobodies" that could ruin the utopian of society where everyone else are frogs. The author hides her difference, her status as a "nobody", so she will not get banished (Dickinson). The frogs, the somebodies, tell their name "the livelong day" to the bog (Dickinson). The way that the author tells the reader that comes off in a mocking way that reinforces the idea that being a "nobody" is better than it sounds and is worth the possible "banishment" (Dickinson). In a bog or a swamp in real life, frogs croak and sound similar to other frogs. As most frogs' croaks sound the same, the noise blends into an "unidentifiable mass" (Priddy). Being a "somebody" or frog is boring and unoriginal as the "frogs" tend to blend in with each other and there is not individuality, only a collective. "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" reminds me of the Borg Collective. Resistance is futile, as "nobodies" are banished if found, so everyone is a Borg, or in Dickinson's case a frog. Every once and a while a Seven of Nine or a Hugo comes along and breaks off from the collective becoming a "nobody" and is broken off from the collective mind and are individuals. "Nobodies" are unique individuals that are different from the "frogs", but accept the individuality and feel sorry for the "dreary" frogs (Dickinson). The author welcomes the fellow nobody, the reader, as they are few in a society of frogs.



Dickinson, Emily . "I'm Nobody! Who are you?." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.

Priddy, Anna. "'I'm Nobody! Who are you?'." Bloom's How to Write about Emily Dickinson. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 11 Mar. 2012.