Our latest assignment in the American Literature course was to look at poetry done by Emily Dickinson and try to decipher the meaning of two selected poems. I knew this would be a challenge for me due to my lack of experience with poetry. I have always had a hard time unveiling what the poet is trying to say and accomplish when using such discrete language in their work. I normally look right past the hidden meaning that is meant to be portrayed in poetry. Therefore, when assigned this task, I realized it as a good opportunity to work on my skills with poetry. With two poems to analyze, I figured that I could spend more time than usual trying to seek meaning in a poetic sense. I selected the poems "I went to heaven", and "Choice". I felt both poems were challenging, but would keep me interested because they both had good imagery. Although both poems used the same rhyme scheme and detailed descriptions and imagery, these qualities produced two poems of different meanings, as the poem "I went to Heaven" was about a setting in perfect, nice scenery, while "Choice" had to do with the darker issue of death. These facts helped me decipher what I put
My first poem, "I went to Heaven", is a short poem with just one stanza and uses ABCB rhyme scheme. I felt as if the poet was writing about a place that really captivates her. I put myself into the narrator's position and tried to figure what would stimulate my mind to describe a setting with such detailed beauty. When I stepped into my father's meeting room in Japan for the first time, I was hit with an instant shock. This room was surrounded by at least 60 bodies of ancient samurai armor and were set about to look as if they were watching so closely over the meeting area. At the end of the room was a large statue of Buddha, standing tall over everyone as if he were the leader. Everything from the lighting to the details on the rug of this room is captured in my mind like a Kodak moment. This place makes me feel as if I were in a land of no other, just as the narrator must feel when she describes a place that she relates to heaven. I can relate to her as she finds herself in a place that issues an indescribable feeling. When she says, "Beautiful as pictures / No man drew", she means that no words or pictures can describe what it feels like to captivated the way she is. "I went to heaven" shows that the narrator is truly divine with
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