The Individualism and Uniqueness of Emily Dickinson, Essay Example

As one of the most well known American female poets, Emily Dickinson presented herself to the world as a distinctive individual. which is a theme that transcends nearly all of her poetry.   In stating, “Much Madness is divinest sense,” Dickinson is describing the workings of a progressive mind. A freethinking mind is often misunderstood, criticized and even written-off as “insanity.”

Likewise, the speaker in Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless, Patient Spider,” could also be classified as an individual.  In describing the constant toiling of human hands in building structures and creating other such things, the poem suggests that the “ceaseless musing” of the soul are  mere fillings  to seal an otherwise empty soul –  held only together by flimsy social connections – unlike the sturdy string of the spider (Whitman).

In this way, the reader of both poems recognizes both the triumph and pain of individualism. While enlightenment is a valuable gift,   both poems suggest that the enlightened individual is often misunderstood, thus leaving them unaccepted by the whole of society. The speaker in Dickinson’s poem may have felt that their open- mind was virtually rejected, while the speaker in Whitman’s poem recognized the wrong in the loneliness that results from the exclusivity and closed-mindedness  of regular society.

Moreover, recent studies have questioned the mental wellness of Emily Dickinson.  “Psychiatrist John F. McDermott concludes that Dickinson suffered from a host of that would today be seen as mental disorders…”  (Szegedy-Maszak 52). It is then reasonable to argue that Dickinson was a freethinker who was probably seen as insane, such as the voice of the poem clearly suggests. It then begs the question: how Many Albert Einstein’s and Emily Dickinson’s has the world institutionalized and locked away from the world on account of their genius? As Dickinson’s poem says, “Demur, – you’re straightaway dangerous,/ And handled with a chain.”

In another of Dickinson’s poems, “Pain-has an Element of Blank,” she describes pain as an endless black hole.  It has no sense of time, for when one feels pain one is trapped, feeling un able to escape. This may also be a result of Dickinson’s famed reclusiveness and eccentricity.

In conclusion, not many would venture to argue that Dickinson’s poems are anything but one-of-a-kind.  Her poetry can be recognized by its rawness and minimal word usage.  Her poetry also contains many seemingly arbitrary capitalizations, which many scholars argue denote emphasis to particularly meaningful words and phrases. Brenda Wineberry described Dickinson’s poetry as, “…jagged…unpredictable…electric…” (Wineberry 81).  However illustrated, Dickinson’s poetry can easily be recognized and is frequently quoted in speeches, essays and other forms of literature.

Works Cited

Dickinson, Emily. “Pain has an element of blank.” American Poems. Gunnar Bengtsson. 18 April 2007. Web. 6 May 2010.

Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne. “`Much madness is divinest sense’.” U.S. News & World Report 21 May 2001: 52. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 May 2010.

Whitman, Walt. “A Noiseless Patient Spider.” Bartleby. Bartleby. N.d. Web. 6 May 2010.

Wineapple, Brenda. “Her own society: when Emily Dickinson and her radical friend Thomas Wentworth Higginson met for the first time.” American Scholar 77.3 (2008): 81+. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 May 2010.