Analyzing the natural elements of Emily Dickinson’s selected poems using eco-feminist criticism

Abstract

Emily Dickinson was a 19th century American female poet. During her time, Dickinson was unrecognized as a great female poet. Throughout her lifetime less than a dozen of her almost eighteen hundred poems were published. The work that was available at that time was usually misrepresented by the publishers to fit the conservative poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are exceptional because most of the poems in which she wrote they include short lines, usually lack titles, and often use lean rhyme as well as unusual capitalization and punctuation. Dickinson’s most of the poems deal with the theme of death and immortality but at that time she also wrote many different types of poems which are about love, Nature which also play a significant role in her poems. Nature provides subject matter and metaphors in Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Dickinson’s poems are famous for her consideration of death. She is often associated with death, depression and mourning. That is why readers have a morbid image of her. This image is emphasized by her private reclusive life. However, there are many poems of her which are bright and colorful speaking of love and nature. These poems often use images and metaphors from the natural world that is the animal and plant kingdom. Nature plays a very important role in Dickinson’s poetry. She always considers herself as a very lonely poet and her poetry is filled with emotional, psychological, symbolic, physical, and pragmatist facets. An important characteristic of her poems is her association with the world of nature. In her life, she spends most of her time thinking about the mysteries of nature. For that reason, her poems bear immeasurable resonances of nature. This paper deals with how the natural elements of Emily Dickinson’s poems connect with life, relating with Eco-Feminist criticism.