Emily Dickinson :: essays research papers

B)      The enigma we can guess     We speedily despise -     Not anything is stale so long     as yesterday&8217s surprise -How of the essence(predicate) is the idea of riddling in Emily Dickinson&8217s poetry? C over a range of poems in your answer, and discuss at least four of them in close detail.During the late nineteenth century, Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) featured as one of the few female poets in the largely male-dominated sphere of American literature. Although she authored 1800 poems, only 7 were published during her lifetime - why? Emily Dickinson has always provoked debate over her life, her motivations for the words she wrote and the interpretations of those words. It can be argued that Emily Dickinson herself, was as ambiguous, as misunderstood and as elusive as her poetry. As a outlet for relentless tryout of every aspect of her mind and credit her poems ar both informative and puzzling. Her conclusions are often cryptically implicit and largely dependant on the readers ability to put together the pieces - to see the connections and implications. Amy Lowell said "She was the mistress of suggestion....and to a lesser degree, irony" The ruses and riddles in her poems came from her and as such she too was a riddle.The riddle was important to Emily Dickinson for several reasons. She wished to reason with her own feelings despite her distant beliefs - she wished to be one who "distils amazing sense / from ordinary meanings (448)".For her, life, nature and faith were all riddles in themselves. None of these three come with all the answers, although clues are given - her poems both deal with and mirror this phenomenon.      And through a riddle, at the last -     sagacity must go -           (501)(In these lines Dickinson doubts the sense of religious claims vir tually life, death and life after death). Her cryptic spoken communication thus became check of her search for truth and personal clarification. She couched her poetry in ambiguous, complex and multi-layered language - in this form it became both a defence, and a game. The riddles concealed her anarchy, her racket and her audaciousness in questioning the status quo. She achieved her most audacious commentaries and attacks on American perceptions and values through riddle and ruse by ellipsis, dodge, a vague daring, an evident superiority of language and idea, staying virtually unknown . The ambiguities in the riddles were her defence against authority, religious tyranny and "norm" thinking.