Emily Dickinson is a poet of many faces. She often writes through many different personas who are easy to relate to. One of her greatest techniques is to write about the particulars of her emotions in an adage-like tone. Dickinson uses the connotation of the sea and slant rhyme in "Wild Nights-Wild Nights" and irony to dispel a somber tone about God in "I Heard a Fly Buzz-when I Died". Almost all of Dickinson's poems develop more meaning with deeper analysis. Her poems are devoted to the reflection of the thoughts and feelings she experienced over the course of her lifetime. In the poem "I Heard a Fly Buzz-when I Died" Dickinson uses situational irony to question what happens after death. When the persona is about to die and "There interposed a .
fly-" (12) a fly is not what the reader would expect. This poem expresses questions about death, and even though she is dying she really does not know what is going to happen.
In the poem "Wild Nights-Wild Nights" the persona is questionable. It could either be that of her talking to herself or of a passionate male lover. The slant rhyme of this poem adds a lasting motion to each quatrain, and the connotation of "Ah- the Sea!" (9) leaves room for many interpretations. The sea could mean the female body or be imagery for passion and lust. The choice of "Our luxury" (4) is denotation of lust and fulfillment of appetite for physical pleasure.
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In both poems, the underlying meaning of every word is important and the true meaning may be locked away with Dickinson in her grave. She also uses many different literary techniques throughout her work which is why she is such a popular poet, and the many different interpretations of her poems make them fun to read.