Dickinson's personae

Gustavo Quintero
English 48B
January 11, 2008
Journal #4 Dickinson


Quote:
"This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me-"(Dickinson 87).


Summary:
This is Dickinson's outcry to the world. She is lonely and only wants to be loves and known.


Response:
When I read this poem I read it as an outcry and a plea for help. Dickinson was a recluse that spent the majority of her life in her parents home. She is thought to have suffered from multiple mental illneses including depression. Dickinson was also a user of personae. She used other narrators within her poems to help give her innermost thoughts and feelings a louder more powerful voice. From her hermit like behavior her socail skills had to have been poor to none existent. Therefore she had to create a strong voice for herself that was capable of expressing the feelings that she was to shy to express. This poem is quite an extremely sad poem. She begins by the poem by writing a letter and receiving no response. How devastating can this be to a persons mental condition especailly considering that they are already secluded and depressed. In the first stanza she uses the first person but than suddenly she switches to the third person in the second stanza. Dickinson uses her but she also capitalizes her. This is the stronger voice that I was talking about earlier. SHe is reaching out to her readers and telling them that her poems are her innermost soul and feelings. She wants people to know who she is and not judge her in a negative way. She goes on to ask them to, "judge tenderly", of her. She is affraid of the harsh criticism that she may get and does not invite it. This plea to her readers seems to sum up just how lonely and depressed she may have been. As a reader of Dickinson's poetry we have to be amazed that we can see just how she was feeling and her view of herself from just eight lines of poetry.