In many of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, disruptions of conventional literary standards frequently occur. While this includes different aspects of poetry, such as theme, perspective, diction, and other poetic devices, her experimental syntactic constructions are particularly notable. One of Dickinson’s poems, “A Day,” provides an example of her prolific usage of punctuations and syntax, and this contributes to successfully conveying the theme of the poem. The poetry portrays a vivid, detailed illustration of the nature by only describing the scenery of sunrise and sunset of a typical day. Through this scene, the poet does not only signify the mysteries and wonders of nature, but also probes birth and death of a human being. Just by looking at
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She does this so by positioning the reader into the perspective of the speaker, the author shares her emotional experience with the reader. This intentional use of the first-person narrative is clearly described in Dickinson’s letter to her mentor, Mr. Higginson, where she had written: “When I state myself, as the representative of the verse, it does not mean me, but a supposed person.”
The capitalized words, Sun, Ribbon, Amethyst, Squirrels, Bobolinks, Dominie in Gray, and Bars, show their relationship with the theme by using an extended metaphor. The capitalization of interior words is a unique feature in Dickinson’s poetry; although there is no clear explanation for this, in “A Day,” each capitalized word has a common characteristic of personifying the sunrise and sunset, or the mother nature itself.
In the second stanza, the speaker uses descriptive metaphors, simile, and personification to discuss her emotional experience as if she is “standing in awe” of the beauty that nature has created. For instance, the first and third lines compare the beautiful scenery of early morning to “The steeples swimming in Amethyst” and “The Hills untying their Bonnets.” The second line clearly indicates the usage of simile by choosing the word …show more content…
Dickinson particularly uses imagery words that render the colors of the sun-setting sky. Such words are ‘purple stile’, ‘little yellow boys and girls’, and ‘A Dominie in Gray’, which, again, is an extended metaphor of the sunset. In fact, it is a philosophical metaphor for the life of human being: ‘The sun’ being a beautiful nature with hopeful, energetic spirit, which slowly, yet powerfully, ignites the day but eventually extinguishes at the end of the day. Unlike the confidence that the speaker had exhibited during the sunrise, as the day continues toward the end, the speaker’s attitude with regard to describing the sunset becomes less certain. The speaker’s comment on the sunset, that he or she “does not know how he (the sun) set,” indicates the author’s impression of ‘death’, and it seems as if it is rephrasing Euripides’ aphorism about death: “No one can confidently say that he will be living tomorrow.”
In Dickinson’s poem, even the ignorance of conventional rules becomes a part of the poetic devices and delicately depicts a mundane scenery into a piece of artwork. As the readers zoom-in to the stunning view of sunrise and sunset, they step into the words of the poem as a substitute of the speaker. When they reach the end of it, where ‘a dominie in gray’ is waiting in the gathering home of a flock, this beautiful artwork of the nature
She does this so by positioning the reader into the perspective of the speaker, the author shares her emotional experience with the reader. This intentional use of the first-person narrative is clearly described in Dickinson’s letter to her mentor, Mr. Higginson, where she had written: “When I state myself, as the representative of the verse, it does not mean me, but a supposed person.”
The capitalized words, Sun, Ribbon, Amethyst, Squirrels, Bobolinks, Dominie in Gray, and Bars, show their relationship with the theme by using an extended metaphor. The capitalization of interior words is a unique feature in Dickinson’s poetry; although there is no clear explanation for this, in “A Day,” each capitalized word has a common characteristic of personifying the sunrise and sunset, or the mother nature itself.
In the second stanza, the speaker uses descriptive metaphors, simile, and personification to discuss her emotional experience as if she is “standing in awe” of the beauty that nature has created. For instance, the first and third lines compare the beautiful scenery of early morning to “The steeples swimming in Amethyst” and “The Hills untying their Bonnets.” The second line clearly indicates the usage of simile by choosing the word …show more content…
Dickinson particularly uses imagery words that render the colors of the sun-setting sky. Such words are ‘purple stile’, ‘little yellow boys and girls’, and ‘A Dominie in Gray’, which, again, is an extended metaphor of the sunset. In fact, it is a philosophical metaphor for the life of human being: ‘The sun’ being a beautiful nature with hopeful, energetic spirit, which slowly, yet powerfully, ignites the day but eventually extinguishes at the end of the day. Unlike the confidence that the speaker had exhibited during the sunrise, as the day continues toward the end, the speaker’s attitude with regard to describing the sunset becomes less certain. The speaker’s comment on the sunset, that he or she “does not know how he (the sun) set,” indicates the author’s impression of ‘death’, and it seems as if it is rephrasing Euripides’ aphorism about death: “No one can confidently say that he will be living tomorrow.”
In Dickinson’s poem, even the ignorance of conventional rules becomes a part of the poetic devices and delicately depicts a mundane scenery into a piece of artwork. As the readers zoom-in to the stunning view of sunrise and sunset, they step into the words of the poem as a substitute of the speaker. When they reach the end of it, where ‘a dominie in gray’ is waiting in the gathering home of a flock, this beautiful artwork of the nature