Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, Compare and Contrast Emily Elizabeth Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe are two of the biggest poets In American Literature from the 1 sass. They had many things In common from their writings about death and sadness, because of their unfortunate losses in life, to the fact that they were both born in Massachusetts. They were also different in many ways. They were different in the way they looked at life and wrote about their experiences from it. While it is obvious they had many differences, they also had many things in common from their lives to their styles of writing making them amazing writers.
Both Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson had many similarities and differences In their lives Itself. Edgar Allan Poe was born In Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th, 1809. Edgar was a poet, editor, critic and author. Edgar lived with his mother, father and two siblings but when he was three his father left then his mother died shortly after. Poe was left as an orphan and was taken In by the very wealthy family of John and Frances Allan. Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10th, 1830. Dickinson lived with her mother, father and siblings.
Dickinson was born to a wealthy family that had strong community ties. They had similarities in their lives because they were both born in the asses, both poets and both raised in a wealthy family. Emily Dickinson was also a poet but Just a poet. Unlike Poe, she didn’t do much else but write poetry, she wasn’t an editor or a critic. Also unlike Poe she wrote very privately, where Poe was publishing his writing. Another thing they had in common was although Poe had more of a rough childhood they both grew up wealthy. But Edgar on the other hand had a hard time making a living off of writing lone, where Emily TLD have to.
Edgar was a talented writer and made his living as such and given that, he had a regular lack of funds. On the other hand, Emily had a regular stream of available funds being born Into a wealthy family with the right community ties. Dickinson and Poe had other similarities in their lives like how they both had lost family members at an early age affecting them tremendously. Emily lost her cousin whom she was very close to and considered her a very close friend. Edgar lost his mother and his dad also left at a very young age which affected him tremendously also.
Since they both lost loved ones it influenced the things they wrote about, which is why they both wrote about death as much as they did. Because Poe and Dickinson lost loved ones in the beginning of their lives It made them the writers they became. Edgar Poe and Emily Dickinson both Isolated themselves from the world because of the loved ones they lost and because they were afraid of death. Emily Isolated herself by hiding out in her house. Poe isolated himself not by hiding out but by keeping his Telling In. I nee topic AT eaten was populously AT great Interest to Don AT teen, wanly was an uncommon trait in literature at the time.
Poe wrote about not understanding death and about what happens afterwards. Dickinson Just wrote about death itself, and the many ways you can die. They both were incredibly criticized when publishing their work. They also had difficulties getting out the original copies due to alterations before publishing to fit the “rules of literature” at the time. Another interest of these great American poets was how they both felt the need and the passionate want to feel loved. Poe was considered a big part of the American Romantic Movement but even though Poe was married and loved by many, it was ever enough for him.
To him it was never enough because in his eyes everyone ended up dying. Dickinson was never married, although she was definitely able to feel the emotion of love and knew she was loved. They are different in the way they write about love because Poe writes about wanting to feel loved and how he never felt as though he was loved. Dickinson love poems have been said to “melt even the coldest hearts. ” This shows she had a very different view on love then Poe did. In many of her writings she speaks of happiness and Joy but these were spontaneous ratings, amongst other pieces containing emotions of anger, sorrow and death.
Poe never wrote about Joy because he didn’t know how to feel Joy. They both wrote about love and death but interpreted it in different ways. This greatly reflects many different aspects and experiences that they both went through in their individual lives. Both are well known in their time for having an atmosphere of great macabre in their work. Although they both had similar feelings and emotions in their writings they also were the same and different in their themes and writing styles. Dickinson was redirected for the way she wrote her poems all the time.
Her use of punctuation, dashes and capitalization was much unappreciated. She often wrote her poems in song-form and in riddles. Poe was criticized also for his writing style. Even though some loved and hated him they all said his writings were unique and he was very talented. Pope’s and Dickinson themes were the same because they both wrote about love and death. Both of their writings took a few times to read to really get the meaning of what they were trying to say. They are similar in the way they both write bout the darker side of life. They both are known for conveying a Gothic style of writing.
Both Dickinson and Poe viewed the world in fear of loss. They both felt as though death was following them all their lives. They both had a unique way of looking at death. Although Dickinson and Poe wrote about some similar things, they also wrote about many other things. Dickinson did not fit into Just one genre of poetry. She also wrote poems about flowers and gardens to morbidity. She also often wrote poems addressed as “Sir” and “Master” which no one knows exactly who she was talking about. Dickinson was also known for writing gospel and religious poems.
Dickinson poetry also frequently used puns and humor. Dickinson had a different view on life than Poe did and that’s why she had a wider range of topics in her poetry. She didn’t lust write all tout sadness Ana eaten, tender was also Tie Ana Joy In near poetry. When Dickinson first started writing poems they were about her feelings of loss and grief. Then between 1861 and 1865 Dickinson started fully developing her themes of life, love and death. Dickinson wrote about youth and humility. She also had a fascination with illness and death. She talks about death in her poems in many different ways.
She talks about death in specific ways such as crucifixion, drowning, hanging and suffocation. Some of her poems she addressed to Jesus Christ being a very religious person. Dickinson involved a lot of imagery into her poetry. Some imagery she put into her poetry was things from nature and buildings like castles. Dickinson was also different from Poe with her poetry because unlike Poe she was not all about getting her poetry out into the world. In fact, fewer than a dozen of her almost eighteen hundred poems were published in her lifetime. And Poe published every chance he could.
Her first volume of 115 poems wasn’t published till after her death, which were edited considerably. The fact that they both had some of their works published after their death was another thing they had in common. Many critics didn’t like much of her work but the critics that did like said she had a lot of originality. The ones that didn’t like it thought it wasn’t traditional and referred to her as half-educated. Dickinson didn’t write how everyone of her time wrote so critics then were not use to it. She was original and didn’t comply with the writing style of her time.
Her poems were not what they were use to at that time so they dismissed them as odd. But after her death they started to look at them as what they are, which is full of creativity and very original. Dickinson and Poe had a few other differences and things in common from their lives. Unlike Dickinson, Poe wasn’t Just known for his poetry but also for his works of fiction. Poe didn’t Just write poems but also amazing short stories. Poe was best known for his fiction work. Also unlike Dickinson wide variety of themes, Poe had a recurring theme of death and mourning.
Although they both wrote about love Pope’s ark was considered apart of the romanticism genre. Also unlike Dickinson, Poe was known most for being a critic during his lifetime not Just a poet. Besides all that, like Dickinson Poe also put irony and humor in some of his poems. Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson were both thought as tortured souls. They had many similarities and differences in their poetry from their themes to their styles of writing. These two amazing writers although very different had some interesting things in common. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson are amazing writes with more things in common then you would think.
