(Note: more material is to follow shortly) .
Dickinson has five poems on the course as follows:.
The poem deals with intense anguish and suffering, using the funeral procedure as a sustained metaphor which eventually destroys the sanity.
The Soul Selects Her Own Society.
Dickinson is dealing with the theme of renuncitaion. She is dramatising the moment of selection. This is a very cryptic poem. She could be opting for any of the following: i)Poetry, ii) a special person or a loved one, iii) because she cannot have the man she loves, she decides to remain aloof, iv) she may be opting for God, v) she may be selecting the company of her own soul.
Of all the Souls that stand create.
The poem can be seen as a shrews condemnation of pretense and undercutting of human artifice. The poet penetrates this facade separating reality from appearance and sham from truth. The images of sand and mist will dissolve to reveal the central brain of reality and truth ("Atom").
At Half Past Three.
The attentionis on the bird in the first verse. He/She "propounds" a single term. In the second verse there is a fuller singing and by the end of the verse the bird is out of sight and the emphasis is on her song - "silver principle". In the third verse the bird and song have departed leaving on "cirrcumference". The poet has experienced a perception, perhaps an intense awareness of the presence of God.
Past Question on Dickinson: .
1994 - 'Of all the Souls that stand create' was given on the paper with the following questions:.
1. Briefly argue for or against the notion that the above poem indicates a turning away from life and a rejection of human experience.
2. What is the mood of the poem and how is it conveyed?.
3. Answer one of the following:.
a. The conciseness of Dickinson's style of poetry adds greatly to the impact of her poetry.