The concept of "image" is very important in understanding poetry. It refers to the poet's giving abstract subjective feelings to concrete objective images, making them into tangible artistic images and vividly showing them. Simply put, it is the combination of subjective "meaning" and objective "image", which blends into the poet's thoughts and feelings and is a concrete image endowed with some special meaning and literary meaning. Dickinson used a lot of accurate and vivid images in her poems, which made up for the poet's lack of life experience, made every grass and tree in her poems have far-reaching charm and philosophy, and influenced many poets in later generations. She herself is also regarded as the pioneer of American Imagist poetry. However, as a Victorian lady, she seldom travels for her own reasons, let alone to other places. The images in Dickinson's poems are very limited, all of which come from the poet's careful observation of nature and daily life. Nevertheless, Dickinson's proper use of these images is fascinating. Dickinson once wrote a poem entitled "I died for beauty", and it was with this attitude that she wrote it all her life. The recurring images in Dickinson's poems mainly include the images of death, homeland and nature.
An Analysis of Death Images in Emily Dickinson's Poems
Death is an unavoidable topic in life. Human understanding of death has gone through a long process. And it will continue. This understanding is recorded by writers or poets in various literary forms, which constitutes an important part of human death consciousness. When Dickinson was young. After the death of his family and lover, the poet deeply felt the pain caused by death, which left an indelible mark on his mind and became an important theme in his creation. One third of Dickinson's poems describe death. The poet used death images such as death, the dead and funeral to describe many aspects of death and explore the true meaning of death and life. Like many westerners, Dickinson believes that death is related to eternal life. Death leads to eternal life. Therefore, death is not terrible, death is not the end, but the beginning of another life; The god of death who leads people to the world of death is no longer ferocious. On the contrary, it is more like a gentleman, a friend and even a lover. "Because I can't stop waiting for death" profoundly embodies this point. In this poem, we find that death is a kind driver. He stopped to wait for me to get on the bus, and Eternal Life was still sitting in the car. "I" was moved by the kindness and courtesy of death and decided to give up work and rest and embark on the road of death. In the poem "Put Down the Latch, Death", the poet begged death to open the latch and let the tired people go in and have a rest, so that they would stop looking and running. Here, the poet treats death calmly, thinking that death is only the destruction of the body, and the immortal soul can only live forever through the necessary stage of death. As long as you understand this secret, death will no longer be terrible, but will become carefree and leisurely.
The image of the dead in Dickinson's works is not terrible, but "sleeping peacefully" and "the face is better than delicate flowers", showing an extraordinary beauty, without suppressing the death breath of rancidity, and the tone of the poem becomes light. The reason why the poet adopts this creative tendency lies in his understanding of the essence of death, that is, death is a kind of enjoyment and a privilege to another world.
As a watershed between life and death, funerals are often heartbreaking and sad. For example, in the poem "I feel that the funeral is held in my mind", the poet feels the arrival of death as a dead person, suggesting that only on his deathbed can one understand the value of life and know how to cherish it, but it is too late. Although I have struggled painfully, I still can't get rid of the gates of hell, which also shows Dickinson's fear and despair of death.
An Analysis of Home Images in Emily Dickinson's Poems
Home is a very broad concept, which can be both a place of residence in the geographical sense and a spiritual destination. Dickinson's home is located in the street of the town. It is called home. Dickinson lived in her house until her death, but she and her family moved from 184O to a less luxurious but more spacious house on Happiness Street. This almost autistic life makes her external experience extremely limited, and the poet will naturally have a strong dependence on her family. In her poems, there are often home-related words such as the name of household goods and architectural vocabulary. As a concept or symbol of home, home has a great influence on Dickinson. Poets often use words related to home in their poems, creating a sense of space or security of home and reproducing the dream of a beautiful home for readers.
As a woman imprisoned at home all her life, the room is a geographical place for Dickinson to escape from society and indulge in poetry, and also a spiritual space for the poet to feel safe and quiet. The word "room" appears in many of Dickinson's poems, but when poets use these words, they are often metaphorical, thus enriching their meanings. For example, in the two poems "What Inn" and "Living in White and Bright Houses", the poet uses the familiar "inn" and "room" to symbolize the grave and the place where people take refuge after death. These two images have a sense of security, tranquility, warmth and belonging. The psychological basis of this consciousness lies in the poet's spiritual needs for safety, belonging and dignity in the face of impermanence of life and mysterious death. From these descriptions, we can perceive Dickinson's view of death: death is real. After death, people do not embark on the road of wandering in search of heaven, but return to their homes that give them a sense of security and belonging. But the home of the deceased has now become a completely closed space, cutting off the connection between the deceased and the world, existing in the world and disappearing into people's sight, and falling into an eternal loneliness. Among the images of homeland used by Dickinson, the word "door" is the most abundant, which can express loneliness, loss, death, security and so on. In the two poems "I have been away from home for many years" and "In the street, a door opened slightly", the image of "door" is mainly associated with the loss of home. In the poet's view, "door" is the switch of "existence" and the boundary between life and death: a strong sense of home leads the poet's dead soul. The familiar warmth after returning to the "door"; Once home was close at hand, but it was a permanent farewell and an insurmountable distance inside and outside the door: people became exiles forever because of death, and home finally existed on the other side of the world out of reach.
"Garden" is an important home image. From the Garden of Eden in the Western Bible to the Garden of the Gods in the Eastern mythology, the "garden" is a symbol of a beautiful and happy life hidden in the depths of human hearts. People explore the possibility of returning to happiness by constructing garden images, and look for the lost spiritual home of mankind. In her poem Another Sky, Dickinson constructs a fairyland-like garden far away from the world through imagination, where time is eternal, birds are singing and flowers are fragrant, there is no darkness and pain, only sunshine and beauty. This idealized garden is the spiritual habitat of the poet's fantasy. Used to avoid or slow down external pressure. Let the soul get a quiet, happy and comfortable pure land.
Analysis of Natural Images in Emily Dickinson's Poems
Poetry with the theme of nature has a long history. Many great writers have discussed the mystery of nature and its purifying effect on human mind. As a poetess living in a rural town in the United States in the mid-Kloc-0/9th century, Dickinson's daily contact with nature is the most easily observed thing. Among the poems left by this poet, there are more than 500 poems with nature as the theme or background. These poems outline the primitive natural scenery of the countryside, flowers, birds, insects and fish. Natural scenery closely fits with the poet's emotion and mentality, and becomes an important artistic symbol in poetry.
In her poems, Dickinson sometimes uses flowers as metaphors to lament the short life and unknown situation of flowers, thus alluding to her troubled fate and lonely life. In How Many Flowers Fade in the Forest, the poet is disappointed that the flowers have withered, and no one knows, and the silent blooming and dying of flowers is a portrayal of the poet's life. In The Bees Driving His Bright Car, the poet expresses his understanding of the ideal love mode with the help of the image combination of flowers and bees: the bees flying among the flowers are symbols of men, while the flowers waiting for them are symbols of women: flowers always appear as solemn ladies, sometimes dismissive of pursuers, and sometimes reluctant to part with them. Dickinson tries her best to show that love is driven by an inevitable emotion and cannot be controlled or explained by reason at all.
In addition, the image of "fruit" appears repeatedly in Dickinson's poems, and poets often use words such as "apple" and "forbidden fruit". Obviously, this shows that the image of "fruit" is related to the meaning of forbidden fruit mentioned in the Bible. However, the poet did not regard it as the source of evil that led to corruption and temptation to commit crimes, but expressed his yearning and desire for the forbidden fruit. In the poem "Forbidden Fruit has Taste", "Forbidden Fruit" has a unique taste in the poet's mind, that is "how delicious"! The thirst for forbidden fruit is the thirst for knowledge and civilization.
In addition to the images of flowers and fruits, animal images also occupy a very important position in Dickinson's poems. The poet described many creatures that are easily overlooked and have terrible shapes, such as mice, flies, snakes, spiders, bats and so on. Give them rich souls and fresh life to express their feelings. In A Slender Guy on the Grass, the poet mentioned the encounter with a snake and tried to get close to it but was rejected, which implied the poet's complex feelings in the face of nature: fear, reverence and confusion. In I realized that a fly was buzzing when I died, the author added a humble little creature, the fly, to dilute the horror and darkness of death and make it dull and even painless. The intrusion of flies and the "buzzing" sound are meaningless, which constitutes a kind of disharmony and even funniness with the significant death, and this disharmony and funniness makes people feel that life is absurd and meaningless.
In a word, the images of death, family contract and nature are the main images in Dickinson's poems. Through these images, readers can better understand the meaning of Dickinson's poems. Among them, the image of death creates a highly infectious artistic conception, showing all kinds of possibilities after death. Encourage readers to explore the eternal theme of mankind; The image of home shows the poet's loneliness and anxiety, as well as his pursuit of a safe, stable, harmonious and warm home. Wonderful nature is the poet's poetic god, which inspires the poet's creative inspiration.