Essay on Emily Dickinson

Submitted By gpinckney32
Words: 723
Pages: 3

To what extent did Emily Dickinson's isolation have an effect on her poetry? Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she lived almost all of her life. She was raised the 1800s. She was a very private person and as her life progressed, she became more and more secluded. As she rarely left her home, she found her voice and her way of communicating through her poetry. Only seven out of over 1,775 of her poems were published in her lifetime (anonymously). Emily Dickinson died in 1886 in the same house where she was born. Dickinson is known for her very unique style of poetry- especially in her time. She used her poetry to express the things she could not say. It helped her to explore the deepest and darkest parts of her mind. She felt very little to no pressure to publish them. In the poem, The Soul selects her own Society, Dickinson shows the reader her significant stress on a private life and her seclusion and how it is the “Soul” that is in control of everything. Through her specific diction she emphasizes the affect of her isolation in her poetry. The poem starts with an alliteration with “Soul selects society,” drawing attention to a society, as in a group of people who live together in a community, and soul as in the eternal inner person and mind. In the first line, the reader sees that people don’t necessarily choose their friends, lovers, or community members- that it is beyond the conscious mind. This could be her response to people telling her to let more people in and to expand her society. The “her” she’s talking about is the soul. As Dickinson is a woman, she is emphasizing that the soul is a big part of who she is. She continues with the abrupt phrase, “shuts the door”. The imagery of the door shutting out the rest of the world, adds to her isolation. The use of dashes has the reader halting and adds emphasis to specific words and phrases. The “divine Majority” could be a person she felt inferior to and the fact that they’re “Present no more,” could be that she has shut everyone out for so long, no one is bothering to come anymore. The second stanza could be talking about how “Chariots” have brought people or even suitors, like an “Emperor,” to visit her, but she has shut everyone out including her heart from society. It is clear in the last stanza that Dickinson is very aware of the rest of the world outside her safe house, and that she could make the choice to let people in. She writes the phrase “Choose one,” which connects back to the first line, how the “soul selects” subconsciously one