《美国文学》课件十六.ppt

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)  Similarities between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson Both Walt Whitman (1819-1892) and Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) were American poets in theme and technique. Thematically, both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism, and its Americanism, their poetry being part of what F.O.Matthiessen terms American Renaissance. Similarities between Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson In technical terms, both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before. They were pioneers in American poetry pointing to Ezra Pound and the Imagists, and to William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens and other traditions in modern American poetry. Differences between Whitman and Dickinson Dickinson differs from Whitman in a variety of ways. For one thing, Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Whitman is national in his outlook, Dickinson is regional (because I see New-Englandly). Differences between Whitman and Dickinson In formal terms, the two poets are vastly different: Whitmans endless, all inclusive catalogs contrast with the concise, direct, and simple diction and syntax which characterize Dickinsons poetry. Dickinson denied having read Whitman. Emily Dickinsons Life and Career Dickinson was born in a Calvinistic family. His father, a Puritan, influenced her in no small way. Emily was shy, sensitive and sometimes rebellious from her girlhood. She stayed almost all her life in the same house and the same yard. My Life Closed Twice before Its Close My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If immortality unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell. Dickinsons many friends died before her,