Emily Dickenson
Faith Is Not All It's Cracked Up to Be.While much of Emily Dickinson's poetry has been described as sad or morose, the poet did use humor and irony in many of her poems. This essay will address the humor or irony found in five of Dickinson's poems: "Faith" is a Fine Invention" (185), "I'm Nobody! Who are you?", "A Service of Song" and "Success Is Counted Sweetest". The attempt will be made to show how Dickinson used humor or irony for the dual purposes of comic relief and to stress an idea or conclusion about her life and environment expressed by the poet in the respective poem. The most humorous or ironic are some of the shorter poems, such as the four lined stanzas of "Faith is a Fine Invention" and "Success Is Counted Sweetest". In "Faith", Dickinson presents a "witty and biting satirical look at Faith and its limitations" (Hartman 113). While it still amuses readers today, it must be mentioned that this short poem would have had a greater impact and seriousness to an audience from the period Dickinson lived in. Dickinson was raised in a strict Calvinist household and received most of her education in her youth at a boarding school. In this short, witty piece Dickinson addresses two of the main obsessions of her generatio
These two tools allow her to present serious critiques of her society and the place she feels she has been allocated into by masking her concerns in a light-hearted, irreverent tone. " ESQ: A Journal of American Renaissance 32 (3rd quarter 1986) 118-19, 121. In conclusion, it can be stated the examples of Emily Dickinson's work discussed in this essay show the poet to be highly skilled in the use of humor and irony. In this poem, she effectively uses humor to soften a critique of certain members of her society. His criticism of the poems devastated Dickinson, and she never made another attempt towards publishing her works. She mocks the conventional need for self-importance through publicity ("How public - like a Frog", "To tell one's name - the livelong June"), suggesting that the audience isn't that interested ("To an admiring Bog"). Dickinson seems to be addressing her spinster, hermit-like existence (in the line "I'm Nobody") and her preference to it. In this poem, Dickinson's style appears almost "child-like in its off descriptions including frogs and bogs" (Lakoff and Turner 209), as well as the lively energy expressed by the poem through its use of dashes and brief wording. The poet mocks the congregation's attendance as being merely for show and to gain status in the community by doing what is expected of them ("God preaches, a noted Clergyman"). While this poem is longer than the other poems discussed, it too is able to express the quality of brevity and lightness in that it's composition is full of dashes, with even full sentences broken into short, quick actions that easily roll off of the tongue when spoken aloud ("How dreary - to be - Somebody"). In the poem, Dickinson reflects on the nature of success and how, ironically, it can be best appreciated and understood by those who have not achieved it and have no taste of it. On one occasion, she sent a collection of her poems to a correspondent who was also a published poet.
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Acceptance Essays
