Emily Dickinson Reflection

Emily Dickinson’s writing style differed from Walt Whitman’s wring style. Dickinson does not write in the free-flowing technique that Whitman does. There is a noticeable rhythm to her writing. She does not have the free verse that Whitman has. In her poem “If you were coming in the Fall” it can be experienced. She writes,

“If you were coming in the Fall,

I’d brush the Summer by

With half a smile, and half a spurn,

As Housewives do, a Fly.”(Dickinson 439)

There is an obvious rhyme scheme and pattern to her writing. She does not have the writing style that is similar to speech. Dickinson is different in the way that she writes. The rhyme scheme of her poem above shows that she was more interested in the listener of the poem, rather then the person reading it. Her cadence makes the lines of her poems flow together so that it is pleasant to listen to. Dickinson’s writing style is a mix between the free-verse of Walt Whitman, and the iambic pentameter style of other poets. Her style is so unique to her. No one else will really ever capture her talent and ability. She is also known for being very short and to the point in her poems. The lines in her stanza above she only uses four lines to open the audience up to the idea of her poem, whereas some poets would draw out this concept for six or seven lines. In a biography of Emily Dickinson it says that she was “Concise” and she used “sparing, chiseled verse”(Glencoe 437). Compared to Whitman’s free-verse writing style there is a very stiff contrast. Whitman is free-flowing and care free. Dickinson is precise and to the point. Her clear-cut and direct writing style is one of the main things that helped set her apart from the rest, making her a legendary poet.

Emily Dickinson is also different in the things that she writes about. The first stanza of her poem dissected roughly translates to, “If you were coming this fall, I would brush it by with half pleasure and half scorn just like housewives do to a fly.” Whitman wrote about the experiences he had when he was younger and had many jobs. He wrote about what he saw, heard and smelled on the streets of Manhattan. Dickinson wrote about things she saw from her window in her home in Amherst, Massachusetts. She wrote about the questions that came to her mind as she sat at her window in her house. Dickinson was known for writing about many of life’s great questions, which was contrary to what the “mainstream” poets were writing about at that time. This is another way that she was set apart from the other poets at that time. She was willing to discuss the things that no one else wanted to talk about at that time. Dickinson only had a handful of her poems published in the time that she was alive. In spite of that fact, she is one of the most familiar poets to the American society. This is because almost all of her poems were published posthumously by Thomas A. Johnson. She has become so well known and so popular because of her nonconformist ways, and the purity and rarity of her poems.

Dickinson, Emily. "If You Were Coming This Fall." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.

Glencoe. "Before You Read." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.