Dickinson's Structure Choices

            In all three of Dickinson’s poems, I found that she uses really unusual capitalization and italicization, and yet methodical structure in her poems. For one, I am just as intrigued about the words that she capitalizes or italicizes. For example, in 1172, she uses personification in capitalizing “Cloud,” but “Backs” is also capitalized. I did not understand the context of using “backs” as a proper noun. Another example is when she capitalizes Tombs in the same poem but unlike the other proper nouns in the poem, the line is written passively. The italicization is seen in 237, where it almost seems as if random words are italicized for emphasis. I wondered why there was so much variety in what she did italicize and what she did not: some are nouns, some are expressions, and others are verbs, it goes on. I wonder what the purpose of her italicizing the words that she does is in her writing.

            Contrary to the personification and emphasis that was discussed above, Dickinson’s poems have significantly more structure than the Whitman poem that we analyzed on Tuesday. There is a natural cadence to her writing that I did not find in reading Whitman by myself. All the stanzas have four lines, and there is a clear pattern and repetition in the rhythm of the poems. There is even a rhyming scheme (ABCB) for many of the stanzas. I wish I knew why she was so organized in her structure and yet so seemingly sporadic with capitalization and italicization in her poems.