Emily Dickinson's Writing Style - Analysis

While Emily Dickinson went through her life almost completely unnoticed by society, she is now known as one of the most influential poets of all time. Dickinson was a very confusing writer, and many professionals have used various methods of explaining her character such as her life and her writing (Melani). Dickinson was a very complex person who by age thirty, almost never left her home, or even her bedroom. She even listened to her father's funeral, which was held on her front lawn, from an open bedroom window (Melani). Not many people knew of Dickinson's writings, but that was mainly due to the fact that she hardly ever left her bedroom. That lack of socialization, however, was partially what allowed her to write poetry; it gave her a place to write as well as a lack of other things to do besides write poetry (Melani). Dickinson was very peculiar with the poetry that she wrote. Many of her poems went unfinished, while multiple versions of others exist. She also was known to occasionally write poetry as prose and prose as poetry, as well as make grammatical errors (Melani).  Dickinson was searching for something that she could only find in the confines of her own home. In her writing, Dickinson was looking to find something in herself.

Dickinson was known for breaking the traditional rules of grammar. She occasionally would leave out helping verbs or punctuation, which was one of the reasons that many people loved her poetry. Her style mirrored what many modern poets also used. On the other hand, however, some people found her writing style confusing and could not comprehend her writing, which turned them off from her poetry (Melani). One major downfall of Dickinson's seclusion was that since she was confined to her own house by herself, she lived in her own consciousnesses. She would have the ability to create new meanings for certain words, which would create more confusion and misinterpretation for the reader (Melani). She would also use words just "for the sake of words" (Melani). Some of the vocabulary used in her poem may have been in a dictionary during her life time, but is not used in today's society (Melani). Dickinson was known for using the meter of "English hymns" (Melani). Many famous American composers, such as Aaron Copland, have set her poems to their compositions. She also liked to change the part of speech of certain words, using adjectives as nouns or vice versa (Melani). She would also use the hyphen to stress missing words or place emphasis on a section of a poem.   

Dickinson was not known for writing about social or political events (Melani). Because she was confined to her home for most of her life, there really was no way that she could have even been aware of those types of events in the world. One major theme that seems to occur in many of her poems, however, is the concept of self-identity (Melani). That theme can be very obviously observed in her poem "I'm Nobody."








Melani, Lilia. "Emily Dickinson: An Oerview." Http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu. 25 Feb. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/dickinson.html>.