Tension_Felt_in_Emily_Dickinsons_Poems

’Dickinson’s Poetry explores the tension between wanting to belong yet wanting to remain true to oneself’ Everyone wants to feel they belong somewhere, but often the issue is how much one is willing to change themselves and their views on the world in order to feel accepted. Tension can be described as mental or emotional strain, and often, many people experience this as they are torn between shifting their sense of identity or sticking firm to their beliefs, all in order to escape the alienation and rejection of not belonging. Emily Dickinson explores the stress between wanting to belong and staying firm in your beliefs which she conveys through her poetry, especially in poem 82, ‘I had been hungry all these years’ and poem 67 ‘I died for beauty. Poem 82 explores the personas desire to belong yet urge to remain confortable within herself whilst poem 67 looks at the consequence the persona endures after she values her identity above her desire to feel she belongs. Another text called ‘Took the Children away’ by Archie Roach explores the tension in the loss of identity felt by the Aboriginal people of Australia through their assimilation to belong to the white way of life. Through these texts, Dickinson clearly shows the notion of wanting to belong yet the pressure to preserve ones character. Poem 82 ‘I had been hungry all these years’ focuses on the central theme of the poem which is the persona’s yearning to belong to something. This is shown through Dickinson’s use of the extended metaphor of hunger. This is further shown through the poets continual use of words associated with food throughout the poem E.G tables, crumb and bread. Perfect Rhyme is used in the first stanza with dine and wine, both words again associated with the persona’s hunger. The concept of ‘noon’ in Dickinson’s poetry can be profound and complex, but in this case it is an opportunity ‘My noon has come to dine’. The persona has a chance at what she thought she wanted, which was to belong. More prosaically, ‘noon’ is lunchtime which fits in with the hunger metaphor. While the persona is craving a sense of belonging, she shows ambivalence and resistance towards it as she soon comes to realise she does not feel comfortable, in other words there was too much food for her to consume ‘the plenty hurt me’. She uses a simile of herself as the ‘berry of a mountain bush transplanted to the road’ to show the extent to which she does not belong. This also symbolises the tension between her wanting to finally belong and losing herself along the way. A berry which is an aspect of nature contrasted with the road which is a manmade construction shows the pressure and strain she feels as she realises she cannot be herself whilst trying to fit into this new world. This simile also refers to the connection she has with nature and how, like the berry, she doesn’t want to be thrown into unsettled waters in order to obtain the acceptance she wants. The tone of poem is one of surprise. Phrases such as ‘I did not know’ and ‘so I found’ imply that she has made a discovery rather than enduring a shock. There is discomfort, suggested by words like ‘ill’, ‘odd’ and ‘hurt me’ whish shows the persona realising that the stress of trying to belong and enjoy the meal is making her feel uncomfortable and confused about what to do. The word ‘curious’ is used which conveys the sense of her own desire to experience the richness of what other, who belong, take for granted. This also shows her reluctance to ‘eat the meal’ ash] she does not want to become too full, in other words loose sense of who she is. Dickinson uses slant rhyme such as ‘home and mine’ as well as ‘bread and shared’ to not only illustrate her willingness to ignore social expectations, but to also show her individualism which indicates Emily had firm beliefs she was not ready to let go of. As the poem progresses, the persona begins to realise that what she has always wanted is causing her such pain and discomfort that it may in fact not have been worth it after all. After seeing the strain in maintaining her values and views whilst trying to belong to something new, the persona realises her struggles to belong which consequently leads her to live an incredibly confined, reclusive, solitude life. She realises that getting what she wants makes her accept that she doesn’t want it anymore, she no longer wants to be a part of that world as she sees the tension in trying to stay true to oneself and comfortably enter her new world ‘nor was I hungry, so I found that hunger was a way…’. Poem 67 ‘I died for beauty’ features two speakers who recognise a kinship in each other. The ‘I’ of the poem has ‘died for beauty’ while the speaker who joins her in the ground has died ‘for truth. They have both devoted their lives for high ideals choosing to focus on themselves rather there looking for acceptance and somewhere they could belong. This shows that instinctively, ‘beauty’ and ‘truth’ saw the tension in trying to have both belonging and the self-acceptance and chose to remain true to themselves. Consequently both personas end up dying trying to maintain their values and only find belonging in the grave. INCLUDE CONTEXT… PURATSIM AND TRABDENTALISM>