Dickinson's Choices

         I found Emily Dickinson’s use of excessive pronouns and abnormal punctuation and capitalization kind of intimidating when I first read these poems.  Some of these mechanics interfered with the way in which I was able to read the poems, especially poem 237.  It also made interpretation difficult.  Although I found the ambiguity of many connotations for singular words, such as “con,” “unshriven,” and the “sparrow” reference in 237 to be somewhat frustrating, it was really intriguing to determine the literal meaning of the poem and then attempt to interpret the deeper meaning behind her mechanics. 

         Initially, I had no idea what the first poem, 237, was talking about.  It seemed silly since it’s such a short poem, but the syntax that Dickinson uses is kind of overwhelming at first.  I thought it was especially interesting that she seemed to be speaking to God at first glance, but upon deeper investigation and some provided background information, it turns out that this may not be so clear-cut an assumption.  Rather, she seems to be talking to a man, made of flesh.

         I also found poem 1509 to be a little confusing, but after re-reading it a few times I found it really interesting that she characterized emotions such as revenge, hate, and anger as food, kind of tying in gluttony as another “deadly sin”. I felt like it gave the emotions a base, almost primal quality that was really interesting and more powerful than a generic interpretation of those emotions.