A new appreciation for Dickinson

So I have to say that I was dreading the unit on poetry in this class…especially that of Emily Dickinson. I hated it in high school, mostly because I could never understand anything and I thought Dickinson was psycho. However, I have a new appreciation for her poetry and have enjoyed studying it these past two weeks. The discussions and group teachings we did on Tuesday was really effective and helped me to realize that there is way more to Dickinson poetry than a depressed and reclusive writer. In particular, I liked “One need not be a chamber,” because I and it seems, that the rest of the class could relate to the message so well. The fact that she was haunted by her internal fears more than those of the material world showed that she is like everyone else. We all have to deal with ourselves and whether we choose to admit that or not are frightened by it.
I also really liked connecting the Civil War into every poem of Dickinson’s that we read. Our group concentrated on “It was not death for I stood up,” and were able to find several civil war allusions within the poem. The way in which we went about analyzing the poems was like solving a riddle. Though the meaning is not always clear cut, one has to delve into the work to figure it out. Surprisingly enough, all the poems had meanings and references to what we as people deal with everyday. Although Emily Dickinson may have been reclusive, she was not insane and she delivers powerful meanings in her poetry.