Poetry Style Identification: AoE2 Dickinson
Poem Fragment 1
When we first read this poem fragment, we thought that the poem was written by a transcendentalist poet. We thought this because the poem describes a beautiful environment of nature. Transcendentalist poets had much respect for nature in this could also be seen in the way they wrote. In the fragment is also talked about ‘fertile ground’, this leads to self-sufficiency, which also had to do with transcendentalism.
However, later on we found out that the poem has been written by a romantic poet, not by a transcendentalist poet. This could also explain the way that there is being written about nature because during the Romantic period there was an awe of nature. In addition, in the poem fragment there isn’t written about any other people who might be around. This explains another characteristic of romanticism, the celebration of the individual. Furthermore, we cannot be certain that the writer of this poem had seen all of this beautiful nature, he could have imagined it himself, which leads to another element of romanticism, the importance of imagination.
Because both transcendentalism and romanticism have an awe for nature, we experienced some difficulties to find out in which of the two stylistic movements the poem fitted best.
Poem fragment 2
After reading this poem we concluded that it must have been written by an enlightenment poet. We came to this conclusion because of the statements that are made in the poem fragment and also because of the questions that are asked by the writer of the poem.
For example, in line 9 and line 10 (“Observe how system into system runs, What other planets circle other suns’) there is talked about new observations that have been made during the time of the Enlightenment. Furthermore, in the second line, “What can we reason, but from what we know?” the poet wants to find a valid reason for things that happen on Earth. This is a strong characteristic of the Enlightenment, the people wanted to do their research and find good reasoning, instead of just believing everything that is said.
Another strong aspect of the poem that made us conclude that the poet was from the Enlightenment is the last line. It says “And drawn supports, upheld by God, or thee?”. In this line the writer questions about God. Thee means you, so there is a debate if really everything is done by God, or if you are the only one who can affect your own life. This relates to the Enlightenment because during this period of time, people started to debate about God.
Poem 3:
When we read this poem we concluded that this poem must be in the written in the style of dark romanticism, because the themes of this poem are The dark (the night). This is was one of the few poems that were sure and knew almost sure that it fits in this particular style of writing. Not only this but, also the criticism on society.
In the last two lines of poem it says ‘adjust it self to midnight-And life steps almost straight’. This one is a reference to society and that what adjustments need to be taken, to be considered good/normal by society. Not only this, but also that people do not have much interest in being not the same as the rest and do exactly the same as the rest of society does.
Dark romanticism is, also linked to medieval times and dark comes back a lot of times in the poem. The night represented all bad things which happened in society in medieval times. This another aspect which we could recognize that it belongs to dark romanticism.
Poem 4:
When we read the poem we first believed that it belonged to the enlightenment movement of writing. At the first glance it almost ticked al the boxes that were the aspects of the enlightenment type of writing. We came to this conclusion that it was ‘enlightenment’, because we believed that it belonged to a new way of thinking.
However, it did not actually belong to the enlightened way of writing, but it actually belonged the trancendelist movement. When we looked better at the poem and what the lines actually meant we understood why it was transcendalist. God comes back a lot of times in the poem, which is of course one of the characteristics for trancendalist. It was, also against how the country was ruled by kings that were not good for the population, but they only did for the money and the power. The transcendalist had a new way thinking, particularly how a country/state should be ruled and how it was done at the moment. This is another thing why we thought that it belonged to this particular style of writing.
Poem fragment 5
When we read poem fragment 5, we immediately thought that this poem was written by a Transcendentalist poet. Some specific aspects in this poem made us think this and I am going to discuss these aspects.
A characteristic of a transcendentalist poem, is that all individuals are connected to the universe and that a person’s soul mirrors their environment and the other way around too. An example of this is if you feel happy, the sun will shine and if you feel sad, it will rain. In the 5th line the writer says: ‘I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea’. He says that he does not need more enjoyment and that he has enough and that he swims in it as in a sea. The sea is always full and so is his life, full with joy. He does not need anything more and the sea also does not need more water. He says in the 3rd line: ‘To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough.’ Here he says again that he is satisfied with all he has.
Poem fragment 6
After reading poem fragment 6, we concluded that this poem was written by an Enlightenment poet. The Enlightenment has a lot to do with nature and humans. In this period the humans were in the middle of it all. I am going to show you the aspects from which we concluded that this poem has been written in the Enlightenment.
In the poem, a lot of aspects of nature are mentioned. In the 6th line, the writers says: ‘O’erspread with snares the clouded maze of fate’ and the 9th line says: ‘As treach’rous phantoms in the mist delude’. The 16th line states: ‘Each gift of nature, and each grace of art’. These three sentences all have nature elements in it like ‘clouded’ and ‘mist’.
In the Enlightenment there were lots humanists. These people did not believe in specific Gods that lead their life’s, but they wanted to think for themselves and use their knowledge. They did a lot of research on everything. You can see in the first and second line that the writer says: ‘Let observation with extensive view, Survey mankind, from China to Peru’. Here they say that they are researching humanity.
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