Dickenson Whereas Many of the Other Posts

Dickenson

Whereas many of the other posts about Emily Dickenson focused on the poet's obsession with death, you chose to focus on her equally powerful interest in the theme of love. I appreciated this change of pace, and being able to explore Dickenson's poetry from a more cheerful standpoint. Love, at least romantic love, is an old theme as you point out. Dickenson does borrow some of her perspective on romantic love from influences like Shakespeare and also from mythology and also the Bible, which also has some love poetry. Where do you think Dickenson derives most of her love-related themes from in literature? Although you focus on Dickenson's "Wild Nights, Wild Nights!" you do not mention whether the poet was also writing about sexuality as well as love. To write about sexuality as a woman in the Victorian Age would have been outright scandalous, so perhaps Dickenson cloaked her feelings about sexuality in ambiguous language. The title and first line of "Wild Nights, Wild Nights!" certainly does seem like it might imply sex.

Your emphasis on Dickenson's free verse poetic structure is also very interesting, because I had not examined this in much detail. Without a formal structure to her poetry, Dickenson is free to write from the recesses of her mind. When she writes about love, she does not have to force her thoughts into the form of a sonnet. Ironically, she draws from Shakespeare, who wrote most of his love poetry in the sonnet format. You also mention Dickenson's line, "Because your face would put out Jesus." I believe this line must have seemed very scandalous, even sacrilegious in Dickenson's time. When you mention her not being married with children as most women in the Victorian era, it would make sense that Dickenson would be one to write a line such as this using Jesus as a metaphor for desire and also as something that was overpowered by her sexual desires.