Poetry Analysis 2

 Poets may arrange their material to encourage the reader to move rapidly through the lines or in a
way that encourages reflection. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, consider how
the pace of poems is created and its relation to the way meaning is delivered.

Emily Dickinson created poetry that included punctuation that was different and new. She used a lot of dashes instead of commas, when dashes were not grammatically correct at the time. As a person, Dickinson had no desire to live in the world around her. While alone, she could create her own boundaries of writing, and explore ideas that had not been discovered. Dickinson became an extremely well known poet for the risks she took in her writing, and the barriers she broke to make authentic works. 

One of the largest and obvious aspects of why Dickinson's pieces are so successful is her meticulous grammar and word choices. She took time to make sure her poems sounded a certain way when they were read. Certain lines had to end with a specific letter, or certain words have to rhyme in specific places. All of the factors that play a part in her poems is what makes Dickinson so special. When people read her poems, they recognize where the dashes and commas are being placed throughout the piece. How the poem is read plays a huge role in how the meaning or story gets across. The dashes slow down the reader, so when there are no dashes or commas, readers tend to speak a line much faster. I have read her poems aloud pretending that there are no dashes, and the meaning/mood of the poem completely changed for me. 

When reading "Hope" is the Thing with Feathers the first time without recognizing the dashes, I thought the poem meant that the author had heard of hope and had never experienced it. Even though the poem could have a happier/more upbeat air about it while reading it faster without pause, it seemed almost cynical. "I've heard it in the chillest land and on the strangest sea yet never in extremity it asked a crumb of me." When reading that whole stanza without any of Dickinson's grammar, I saw a darker, more cloudy vision of hope and how it could let someone down. I thought it was depressing. I said to myself "Wow. This woman has never experienced hope." When I read it again with the dashes I was shocked. The pauses made me stop and digest the poem in a different way. 

When I read the poem with pauses, I was slowed down and calm. Reading it aloud, I sense a more uplifting and hopeful feeling. (Which was probably the goal of Dickinson.) The poem seemed less like "Ring Around the Rosie," and more like a children's rhyming story. I do not feel that this poem is childish in any sense, but I do believe that it is elegant in its own simplicity. To fully grasp and understand the poem it took me a few tries, but I certainly needed the specific pauses to get the full picture. "I've heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, it asked a crumb - of me." When I read "never" with the dashes, I understood how I judged the poem wrongly the first time around. Never had hope asked anything of Dickinson, even though it has brought her through so many tribulations. When there is a pause in that moment, it brings a different meaning to the word. 

I feel that Dickinson really knew what she was doing with her grammar and word choice. She understood the idea that in order to get a specific meaning across to an audience, the piece has to be delivered in a very specific way. She used all writing mechanics to her advantage when creating her work. Readers cannot have the author read a poem to them in the exact tone intended with the exact length of pauses intended by the poet. This is the closest Dickinson could get to reading her poems aloud, and I believe that this is the reason her legacy has lived on for so long. It is almost like she is reading her poems to us through her mechanics, grammar, and word choice.