Analysis of Frost and Dickinson
Over the last few hundred years there have been some amazing American poets. Poets who have written about their experiences and found amazing ways to express their feelings and portray them to the reader. Good writers have used personification, imagery, and figurative language as literary devices to tell the readers their theme in a way that will keep theme interested. Two compatible poets would be Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Most of Dickinson’s work was untitled she wrote most of her poetry after she locked herself instead her home with her servants refusing to ever go outside again. She published fewer then a dozen poems in her lifetime, of the eighteen hundred that she had written. After her death in 1886 her sister Lavinia discovered al of her hidden poems which were later published and earned her a right as ones of America’s best poets. Robert Frost was a well respected poet in the early nineteen hundreds. He was known for using everyday language in his poems rather than a formal style. One of his famous poems is ‘The Road Not Taken’, “I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference” is the line most remembered from that poem. Both of these poets wrote poems about darkness. Emily Dickinson wrote a poem about finding one’s way through the darkness and finally finding the light, it remains untitled as she tells it in third person. While Robert Frost wrote a poem, “ Acquainted with the Night” , in first person about his travels on a street at night. These two poems can be compared and contrasted in many ways, but mainly their juxtaposition is how the readers felt when reading each one.
Emily Dickinson’s poem is more welcoming and when she uses “ we” the reader knows they too are included and are intended to understand this poem. Dickinson writes twenty verses about something that we all experience, being unstable and lost when we have a change we don’t expect in our lives. Using figurative language she describes how it would feels to walk through the dark at night with no light. Having the sense of where everything is, and having to reach out to grab it. Dickinson uses this to describe how she feels about life and her hopes for herself and everyone. Hyphens are used for a dramatic pause so the reader can imagine the action of hands reaching for what they hope is there, because little is seen in the darkness. The poem comes to an excellent conclusion as everyone finds their light.
Frost by contrast has displayed a poem written in first person about his experiences alone on a street at night. The readers are so understand how he feels, as he describes the silent night with literally devices. “I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain - and back in rain. I have out walked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat, And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.” This is the most seasoned passage of his narration. As he talks about being in and out of the rain , it can be concluded that Frost has been in beneficial situations and unfortunate one’s as well. As he walks the street he describing scenes , its as if he is also describing life’s experiences. At the end by being acquainted with the night, he understands life better.
These two prose have many differences and similarities. Both poets have a very different dictions and styles from one another. Frost writes in first person the constant use of “ I” while Dickinson involves the reader with her third person in the beginning using “we”. Dickinson speaks to the reader saying that we can find our way in the dark. While Frost is in a way like a reader of Dickinson, he describes to us what it is like to find your own way and understanding the world for oneself. Both the writers have the a revolution at the end of their poems, in Dickinson’s light and security is found, while Frost has new understanding of the world.
In conclusion both writers portray the same theme in different pretences and experiences. Frost and Dickinson express how they feel with imagery, figurative language and other literal devices to conjure the reader. It’s their diction that makes each of them famous American Poets, and what separated them from ordinary writers of their time and ours. Through the comparison and contrast both poems tell the reader of hope.
