Emily Dickinson Poems

Emily Dickinson’s poems are surely influenced by Romanticism. It is apparent because she relates some of her poems strongly with nature, which is an important feature of the romantic period. In “Because I could not stop for Death” the speaker is describing that they can feel their last moments on earth are coming to an end; but they are taking their time to enjoy the sweet scenery of the fields of grain and the setting sun. “A Bird came down the Walk” is all about nature; it describes carefully every movement the bird makes during a simple action of finding food.

The poems are very imaginative in just the way they are explained. No detail is left untouched. The descriptions are also cleverly stated. The stanzas are used to repeat the same message in a different way. This can be seen in “A Clock stopped.” In stanza one, the clock stops working. In stanza two, the hands are hunched in pain, meaning that they are not moving. And in stanza three, the clock will not move even for the most important people.

Dickinson’s poems are also very emotional. The topic of death is brought up repeatedly, such as in “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” “I heard a fly buzz- when I died,” and “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain.” I am not sure if these emotions of death and dying are influenced from the romanticism period. Romanticism focuses more on emotions of the past (usually childhood days relating to nature) instead of the future (death) or present state of illness. I think this is where the poems break from the tradition of romanticism.