[paper/課程論文/論文] 美國文學/ Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe

I would like to compare and contrast the way Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Edgar Allan Poe writes about three themes: Nature, love, identity and society. 

 

Emily Dickinson takes up a rather neutral, calm relationship with the Nature thanks to her introversion and little publication. As María Irene Fornés, a female playwright, has said in her documentary, The Rest I Make Up, “A theater without the audience is not a theater.” Emily Dickinson, however, still makes herself a writer when she has little audience. Overall, she is observant, precise, but alienates herself from having a strong emotional bond to Nature. 
 
Because of this particular alienation, she gives a fresh, intriguing interpretation on the image of Nature that derives from the common ones in Petrarch literature, and even proposes some of the most unpopular opinions. She intentionally uses Nature to question the norm and rules. In Tell all the truth but tell it slant (1263), she challenges the idea of honesty with the symbolic lightning as the exposure of truth, and reverses the nature of a sudden flash from a lightning in case it might “dazzle” the audience. Moreover, she often  
 
If the theme of nature takes great part of her inspiration and expression, the theme of love, especially romantic love is rare in the assigned reading, as I knew there are some discussions on her sexual orientation. 
 
But when it comes to identity and society, she has offered some the most insightful words. Emily Dickinson, as we have mentioned, is an introverted person who has rarely travelled and moved from her hometown. As a result, she holds a rather cynical perspective when she writes about the theme of identity and society. She does not conform to the norm: the highly awed succeed and the opinion by the majority, and she questions the justification for both. In Success is counted sweetest (112), she sympathizes with the “losers” in the society and mocks that the successful people do not know how sweet succeed is. In Much Madness is divinest Sense (620), she challenges the idea that the majority can make a brighter decision when a demur is seen as dangerous by them.  Both poems can be seen as Dickinson’s elegant, well-written whining as a female writer because the American society in the 19^thcentury didn’t favor female writers, and she cleverly voices herself in the position of different kind of minorities.
 
Walt Whitman is rather passionate and emotional attached to Nature. His ecstasy cannot be ignored in his epic poem, Song of Myself. He finds the greatness in the insignificance, such as the “the grass,” a tenacious, ever growing, and a respectful life as every life should be respected. In the section 6, Whitman says, “The smallest sprout shows there’s really no death” (1093).  In the section 31, he says, “I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the star” (1110).  The theme of Nature is important for us readers to feel why he has his firm stand on the indispensable political liberty, which has related to love and identity.
 
Nature is a playground for Whitman to rejoice the love he can give and receive as well. However, the love in Whitman’s piece is more of a universal love that showers everyone he imagines and encounters although body and lust are also depicted. In Song of Myself and Preface to Leaves of Grass, he has proudly announced that he is “the companion of the people” (1093) and propose the equality by saying “We are no better than you” (1080). The universal love Whitman would like to offer skillfully recaps the Nature he pens into lines, as we can see equality is reinforced by the theme of Nature and love. 
 
The theme of identity and society heavily rely on the liberty represented by Nature and the universal love he emphasizes. He is liberal, patriotic, and believes in a decentralized society for all kinds of voices to be acknowledged. We can tell he is a strong advocator for equality by praising some of the “unrhymed poetry” (1074) in Preface to Leaves of Grass, that is, the miniatures of living experiences of the “common people” spread out the page for the readers to feel the beauty and strength. What is more progressive is that he even celebrates multiple community, such as men, women, and black people in the nation. Overall, his purpose and pride for a better country is sparking with the sentence and makes him iconic, “The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it” (1087). 
 
Edgar Allan Poe, unlike the enthusiastic persona Whitman picks up, has gone to the next level with the gothic beauty on dark, evil, and nerve-racking superstition of the Nature. In the poem Raven, a protagonist is encountered with a raven. The amplified responses from the raven, “Nevermore” (736) has driven the protagonist mad. He was mentally tortured, becomes soulless, and eventually breaks down because the raven seems to be the double of “demon” (738) haunting him. 
 
Later, we can tell how “sick love” intertwines with the Nature in Poe’s another piece.
 
The love in Edgar Allan Poe’s piece is similar to what Freud has coined, “death drive,” and what he has explained as the unnoticed thirst of human beings, “self-torture” (798), in The Philosophy of Composition. In Annabel Lee, we can particularly see how the kind of sick love is portrayed. Although the protagonist has been wishing for his lover, Annabel Lee, to live again with the repetitive image of “sea” (738) as a cradle of lives. However, as we have discussed that nature serves as a more of gothic beauty, the image of “sea” has become ghostly, compelling, and hysterical when the protagonist howls, clings on the undying love, and broke the religious sense. In the end, the extreme love is shown when he lies beside the tomb and sighs, “In her tomb by the sounding sea” (739). 
 
The identity and society in Edgar Allan Poe’s piece are not much seen. But what we can know in The Cask of Amontillado is the irrational motives for a crime, which suggests some anti-social thoughts living in one’s mind. Poe has explored some of the most harassing, chilling moments for the readers’ mentality and presented a hair-raising tale about how a person cannot identity with social interaction and take revenge for something mysterious.  

The three writes have contributed with very different styles in the themes of Nature, love, and identity and society. Calm but cynical, passionate and liberal, and spooky but indulging.