I have chosen Emily Dickinson’s poems, “Hope”, “Faith”, “Nature” and “Heaven”. Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 and died in 1886. Her family was highly educated and very well known in the New England area. Her father started Amherst College. Emily Dickinson was very reclusive and left school when she was a teenager. Emily lived on the family homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts where she created hundreds of poems secretly without the knowledge of her family. The Dickinson’s had three children and Emily was the middle child.
Both Emily and her sister lived on the family homestead until their death never marrying. The first poem titled “Hope” starts with “Hope is a thing with feathers” (Bartleby. com). Emily poems were very similar in theme or lofty dream like ambitions. Feathers and hope are very light and delicate ideas. They seem to drift in the wind without ever touching the ground. The second poem titled “Faith”; starts with “Faith is a fine Invention” (Bartleby. com). Emily during her lifetime never joined a church or declared a denomination.
This would have been very unusual during her lifetime. The poem may give us some insight about her feelings on church and religion and faith. The use of the word invention leads me to think she was not against religion but just couldn’t allow herself to belong or indulge in the full religious beliefs. The third poem titled “Nature” starts out “Nature is what we see” (Bartleby. com). Here Emily allows us glimpse into her mind on absolute truths. I believe she has difficulty with things that are not seen or difficult to prove.
However, nature’s absolute beauty and her eyes witness to its beauty allow her to grasp its being, as opposed to the inconclusiveness of “Faith”. Faith is not easy to detect or prove in an absolute fashion. Neither are we able to completely disprove faith. Her Poem goes on to another telling line, “Nay – Nature is not Heaven” (Bartleby. com). again her eyes won’t lie to her and her seeing believes in Nature. The forth poem titled “Heaven” lets us know she is constantly thinking about religion that for her it is not seeable or provable.
The first line in this poem, “Heaven – is what I cannot reach! ” (Bartleby. com). is consistent with the other three poems. She has her own view of religion and she sees the beauty in nature and the clouds which to her, has to be heaven. As with all people who have doubtful views or question the views on religion and faith she must have been torn apart by the beauty that surrounded her. If she questioned the views of religion because she could not see it or prove it yet she couldn’t disprove it either.
How could the sky and the clouds be so blue and beautiful yet no one can deny they existed. The themes of all four of these poems are very similar. They question her views on religion and proving its existence. She must have had doubts about the existence of heaven because she could not see it or prove its existence. The clearest evidence that she is searching for absolute proof is in the second poem titled “Faith”. It’s the shortest poem of the four poems I’ve selected but it’s maybe the clearest. She writes “But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency” (Bartleby. com). Again she is looking for clear indisputable evidence of heaven and religion. Emily Dickinson motifs involve her inclusiveness of nature and all the surrounding evidence in nature. From the first poem “Hope” she writes about the storms of nature and the birds involved in song. In the poem titled, “Heaven” she talks about the clouds and the land. She wants to see as clearly in heavens existence as the evidence in the beauty of nature. The symbolism in her poems is quite consistent also.
She talks about the beauty of the clouds the hills, the song of birds and everything about nature. Emily cannot describe the beauty of heaven or peace and tranquility of religion and its place. However, she is able to describe the beauty in nature which must be what the beauty of Heaven if it exists would look like. Emily Dickinson was born into a male dominated culture which at her time would have prevented her from using her intellectual ability and her family’s prestige to do things that men in her family could do.
During a Whig convention in Baltimore she wanted to be a delegate to the convention. This would have been impossible because of her gender at this time. Here she was an equal in intelligence with the best men writers and yet she was not able to be involved in the roles of governance because she was not a male. This must have pulled at her beliefs in how would a God allow such treatment of women, to give them a second class relationship in the world. Later, she went to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary where she completed a year of school.
The separation of gender was probably another example of her feeling second class. She was known as a student that would not publicly confess to Christ. This would have been a big deal given the seminary school and the time she lived. Emily felt she stood alone not calling out her belief in Christ and confessing her conviction to God. The reclusive nature of Emily Dickinson was probably as much her lack of belonging to a church or confessing her belief in Christ. She was alone and also independent in her views which led to her reclusiveness.
It was most likely easier for her to stay inside her family estate than venture out into the community and have people pass judgement upon her unwillingness to confess to Christ. The reading of her poems gives us the insight of her constant confusion in Faith, Religion and Heaven. Proving the existence of all of this was very important to her. She questioned the things about religion that she could not prove. In nature, she could witness its beauty first hand with her own eyes. Faith was not enough for her to except on its own virtue, she looked for clues and proof in nature.