Saturday, April 21, 2012

Connecting Emily Dickinson and Charlotte Smith

Emily Dickinson was an acclaimed romantic of her time producing many works with corresonding themes to that of Charlotte Smith. Along with this connection I also was interested in researching her works because my mom has always been a big fan of her works, enough so to even name me after her. Ha! Random fact but I thought I would include it in this post. Dickinson's poetry reflects her loneliness and the speakers of her poems generally live in a state of want, but her poems are also marked by the intimate recollection of inspirational moments which are decidedly life-giving and suggest the possibility of happiness. Her work was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town. The suggestion of happiess within her poetry and the speakers desire for a better life strongly connect with much of the elegiac sonnets Smith produced such as "To Sleep" and "To Night" both advocating freedom from distress and anxiety, along with the speaker expressesing a great feeling of loneliness.


Citation:

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155

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