Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, the “Belle of Amherst”, was one of the most acclaimed poets of America of the Romantic Era. It was Amherst, Massachusetts, where she was born on 10th December 1830 in a conservative family.
Dickinson invented a new lyrical style of poetry that was far different from traditional romanticism or realism and wrote near about 1800 verses. Her work didn’t publish in her lifetime. We got it posthumously.
This article in Icy Tales https://icytales.com talks about how readers, critics, and scholars noticed the reflection of romanticism in Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
1. Imagery Metaphor in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry
According to Dickinson, “Hope” is the thing with feathers – that perches in the soul. The famous lines of her poem depict the imagery metaphor, where she imagined that hope is like a hidden bird within the human soul. This bird of hope has the power to sing against the storms.
Developing an abstract idea with unique thought, personification, and imagination far beyond the realistic world is the main attribute of Dickinson’s poetry. To articulate this picture in her lyrical canvas, she used so many imagery metaphors in her works.
2. Romanticism Movement and Emily Dickinson
In 19th century America, the Romanticism movement of art and literature deeply spread its wings. The definition of romanticism was to reveal someone’s most private inner being with personal emotion, imagined past, and metaphors for the beautiful mystery of nature in imagery view. Writers were trying to get emotionally attached to their origin of sincerity and spontaneity.
Emily Dickinson was a tireless soldier of the Romanticism movement and her poetry was an exceptional example of romanticism. She didn’t believe in the traditional romanticism and love between Adam and Eve. We can see the romanticism of nature and abstractness in her verses.
Dickinson influenced people with her magical symbolism of love, the universal truth of nature, god, and death in her poetries. She set a different level in the literature of romantic poems. We got an upgraded version of romanticism in her works.
3. Reflection of Romanticism in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry
Emily Dickinson’s poetry reflects romanticism in its metaphoric and abstract imagination. Many of her poems mention the mysterious glory of nature, which strongly separates her from other romantic poets.
In one of Dickinson’s poems, “I Could Not Stop for Death”, we see romanticism in the form of an imagined past through nature. Her verses reflected how crucial was her daily life.
Dickinson was a great admirer of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, and John Keats, who were more famous for their poems of natural beauty. Their poems inspired Dickinson to write from her heart.
Some of the most romantic poems of Dickinson are:
- A Charm Invests a Face
- I Can’t Live with You
- That I Did Always Love
- If You Were Coming in the Fall
- They Put Us Far Apart
Take Away
Finally, If you want to see the reflection of romanticism in Emily Dickinson’s poetry, you have to sink deep and put yourself in the imagery world of metaphoric dimension. Just go and read her complete collection of poems named “Complete Poems.”