Emily Dickinson

[Yelena]

I love Dickinson's poem! Her literary outcome is so unique and really unforgatable. Here's my favorite poem by Emily Dickinson:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

[allisonaa]

i think you can "close read" line by line and do well, with this particular poem, though you might want to tinker with alternative pronunciations and meanings of a couple of words--content and abroad, for example. dickinson dealt repeatedly with perception and perspective--2 important ideas given the rise of daguerreotype and photography occurring at the same time that she was writing--something that i believe heavily influenced what dickinson was really doing with her art. good luck

[Zong-in Kim]

Hello, pink...
If any Korean guy happen to be available around you, my today's Korean translation (blog below) could be used as an English paraphrase of the poem. Good luck...!!

blog.daum.net/kimzi-122

-Kim

[kaytee]

I love Dickinson's poem! Her literary outcome is so unique and really unforgatable. Here's my favorite poem by Emily Dickinson:

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

This one is definitely my favorite and the very first on I heard. In 6th grade actually. One of my teachers read this one and "I Heard A Fly Buzzing-" Ever since, every chance I get to write a report on Emily or something of the sort, I always do it.

[twoheaded.boy]

I was wondering if anyone has a central theme for "The Last Night that She Lived", I'm doing a critique of this poem and while I have gotten pretty far in my analysis, the central theme eludes me. Could anyone offer some help?

[della]

I am writing my graduating thesis on the contrastive study of the death image in Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath's poems. This theme came into my mind when i was taking a test and at first i thought it was original and interesting, but by now it drives me crazy. I cann't make a clear outline in my brain and the resources are scarce. I don't know whether can i accomplish it successfully, but i will not give it up.

[ekaterine16]

this is a pome i wrote for my english class, its theme is a bout death which often appears in her poems could anybody tell me if its good or bad?
Death seems close
For those who fear it most
Its killer hand hold’s captive - souls,
With a mental grasp
And antagonizing force
Death doesn’t cow - but - endows its captives
With intrinsic drive, a motivation to survive
And in its anticipation, the desire to make most of life

[november_leaves]

Hello everyone! I am new in this forum.It is nice to see you...

I have an important assignment dealing with the themes of emily dickinson's poem Fame is a Fickle Food.

Could someone help me with this please? Actuallly I am preparing for a presentation and the theme part( which is what I am going to give some information about) will be a significant part of this analysis!


here is the poem:

FAME IS A FICKLE FOOD

Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.

Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the Farmer's Corn –
Men eat of it and die.

Emily Dickinson

Immediate help will please me much more,

Thanks

[ktd222]

FAME IS A FICKLE FOOD

Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.

Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the Farmer's Corn –
Men eat of it and die.

It's about fame. It's not a reliable or consistent thing. One day your famous, the next day you're not.

[november_leaves]

yes it is clear that it explains the unreliability of fame but I just wondered if it contained some other hidden meanings.Thanks anyway

[ktd222]

yes it is clear that it explains the unreliability of fame but I just wondered if it contained some other hidden meanings.

I don't believe there is anything ambigous about this poem. The plate of the guest is "shifting," meaning that one day you are entertained, and the next day you may not be treated as a guest. What's ironic in the second stanza? You eat and live, not die. Look at how the "whose" is introduced in the second stanza...it is ambigous as to who the "who" is. A shot at how easily fame is lost, maybe? And look at how the crow is not recognizing the "whose" crumbs but instead is giving its attention to the "Farmer's Corn". The speaker is recognizing this farmer's corn. How easily fame shifts, huh.

[Morad]

I Years Had Been From Home !

I'm taking American Literature course this term, however, I got shocked with what I've read for her. She suffers a great pain and this is clear in her poetry. Most of her poems talk about herself.

Our instructor insists on saying "She sacrifices her life for the sake of Art." Do you believe such ideas? Err, I'm going to make a research paper about her one day.

Thanks