Emily Dickinson and Charles Wright :: essays research papers

Faith and spirituality can be explored in the rhyme of the New England poet Emily Dickinson and the Southern poet Charles Wright. Dickinson seeks for inspiration in the Bible, patch Charles Wright looks to Dickinson as a source of information, guidance and inspiration. Wright suggest that Dickinsons poetry is an electron microscope trained on the infinite and the idea of God. Her poems are immense voyages into the unknowable.(Quarter) Charles Wright whose poetry captures a compilation of influences states that "There are three things, basically, that he writes about language, landscape, and the idea of God." Dickinson and Wright centered their poetry in their belief in God and both part the influence of the Bible. Although, Emily Dickinson physically isolated herself from the world she managed to maintain friendships by communicating through correspondence. Ironically, Dickinsons poetry was collected and published after her remainder. Dickinson explores life and death in most of her poems by questioning the existence of God. Dickinson applies common human experiences as images to illustrate the connection from the personal level of the human being, to a universal joint level of faith and God. This can be seen in Dickinsons Poem (I, 45). Theres something quieter than sleepWithin this inner roomIt wears a sprig upon its breastAnd go forth not key out its name.Some touch it, and some kiss itSome chafe its idle handIt has a simple gravityI do not understandI would not weep if I were theyHow rude in one to sobMight scare the quiet fairy natural covering to her native woodWhile simple-hearted neighborsChat of the "Early dead"Weprone to periphrasisRemark that Birds have fled Dickinson employs vivid impressions of death in this poem. In the early line, she employs the analogy between sleep and death sleep is silent but death lives within silence. She uses the word it to help identify something other than human. She declares that it.will not t ell its name as thought it refuses to speak and then resents the dead for its stillness and laziness. Then she acknowledges the attraction she has to death by doubting its gravity. In the tercet stanza, she expresses that she would not cry for the dead because not only is it offensive to the dead but it might panic the soul to return to dust. Christians believe that from the earth we are made and once we die, we return to the dust of the earth.