Week Three: Emily Dickinson

After reading many of Emily Dickinson's poems I can clearly see I am not poetic at all. It has always been really hard for me to find meaning in many of them.  Especially hers!  I like poems and stories that bring a picture to my mind and  I can easily visualize a scene inside my head.  Her words are very confusing, many I really don't know the meanings of.  She lived from 1830-1886. She died close to 100 years from my birth so the words are so different from now.  She also seems very depressed.  Maybe living the life of seclusion wasn't really her choice to live.
       The poem numbered 328 is the only one I can get a picture in my head from.  I can easily picture a bird  happily enjoying his day eating a worm, allowing a beetle pass.  But all the while still being alert as to the dangers out there. Perhaps a cat lurking nearby.  I picture Emily maybe out on one of her walks. She lived a life of seclusion so like the bird she is enjoying herself outside yet worried about who may be out to run into.  

     I also like poems about love that I can understand. I think in her poem 441 I think she is writing about the love for her sister in law.  She is explaining that this relationship was not a normal man and a woman like it should have been considering back then.  She says it's "with tender majesty" indicating it's a woman, not a man.  She is also asking for forgiveness because back then I am sure it was really frowned upon to be in love with a woman.  I don't think she ever felt accepted during her life, and that is why she lived in seclusion. 

   Another poem that sounds depressing to me is number 754. She is again talking about death.  I believe she is saying that she had been blessed with people she had loved " Angels" and God has taken them both away from her.  She is feeling robbed of her loved ones and is once again feeling poor.  I am not sure if I am right on these ideas of mine, but like I said I am no poet. :)