Analysis of The Themes of Four of Emily Dickinson's Poems.

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ABSTRACT

Untuk bahan penulisan tugas akhir ini saya memilih puisi karena selain

isinya menarik, saya merasa bahwa makna yang terkandung dalam setiap baris

atau bahkan kata seringkali berbeda dengan apa yang tersurat dalam sajak tersebut

sehingga diperlukan waktu untuk mengerti apa maksud sang penulis. Saya

memilih sajak-sajak Emily Dickinson karena dia adalah penyair yang gaya

hidupnya sangant berbeda. Saya memutuskan untuk menganalisis tema tentang

kesendirian pada sajak-sajaknya.

Dalam menulis tugas akhir ini, saya akan menggunakan pendekatan

formalis (Formalist Approach) dengan pertimbangan bahwa pendekatan ini paling

sesuai diterapkan dalam menganalisis sebuah sajak. Dengan menganalisis

pemilihan kata dari sajak-sajak tersebut, kita dapat mendapatkan arti yang lebih

dalam yang sangat berguna untuk menemukan temanya.

Setelah menganalisis sajak-sajak tersebut, saya menyimpulkan bahwa

Emily Dickinson menyampaikan tema-tema yang serupa dengan teknik yang

sedikit agak berbeda untuk masing-masing sajak.

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APPENDICES

The Four Poem

Alone, I Cannot Be –

Alone, I cannot be --

For Hosts -- do visit me --

Recordless Company --

Who baffle Key --

They have no Robes, nor Names --

No Almanacs -- nor Climes --

But general Homes

Like Gnomes --

Their Coming, may be known

By Couriers within --

Their going -- is not --

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I'm Nobody! Who Are You?

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody too?

Then there's a pair of us- don’t tell!

they'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!

How public, like a frog

To tell your name the livelong day

To an admiring bog!

I Had Been Hungry All The Years

I had been hungry all the years;

My Noon had come, to dine;

I, trembling, drew the table near;

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19 'T was this on tables I had seen,

When turning, hungry, lone,

I looked in windows, for the Wealth

I could not hope to own.

I did not know the ample bread,

'T was so unlike the crumb

The birds and I had often shared

In Nature's dining-room.

The plenty hurt me, 'twas so new,-

Myself felt ill and odd,

As berry of a mountain bush

Transplanted to the road.

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20 That hunger was a way

Of persons outside windows,

The entering takes away.

There Is a Solitude of Space

There is a solitude of space

A solitude of sea

A solitude of death, but these

Society shall be

Compared with that profounder site

That polar privacy

A soul admitted to itself - -

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21

Biography of Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), who was educated at Amherst Academy

(1834-47) and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1847-48), was an American

lyrical poet and an obsessively private writer. Dickinson withdrew from social

contact at the age of 23 and devoted herself in secret into writing.

Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she lived until her

death from Bright's disease in 1886. Her father, Edward Dickinson, who was an

orthodox Calvinist, was a lawyer and treasurer of Amherst College. He also

served in Congress, shared the Homestead first with his parents and with another

family before moving in 1840 to the home on North Pleasant Street where Emily

spent her adolescence and young womanhood. In 1855 Edward Dickinson

celebrated the family's renewed prosperity by repurchasing the Homestead, where

Emily Dickinson remained until her death. Around 1850 Dickinson started to

write poems, at first in conventional style but after ten years of practice, she began

to give room for experiments.

She died on May 15, 1886. Her sister, Lavinia Dickinson, discovered

many poems hidden in Emily Dickinson’s room. With the help of Thomas

Wenbtworth Higginson and Mbabel Loomis Todd, she published the poems

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Everybody may experience solitude. Solitude provides a peaceful moment

which is refreshing and enjoyable for some people. Being solitary, one has time to

relax and enjoy oneself, to find a peaceful moment to think about anything more

clearly. “Solitude is the state of being alone without being lonely. It is a positive

and constructive state of engagement with oneself. Solitude is desirable, a state of

being alone where you provide yourself wonderful and sufficient company.”

(http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030825-000001.html)

Poetry is one of the literary genres which is complicated and challenging

but interesting to discuss. People may have different interpretations of a poem

because poems very often have hidden meanings. “Poetry's use of ambiguity,

symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a

poem open to multiple interpretations.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poem)

Literary men, especially poets, write on solitude. One of the most famous

American poets, Emily Dickinson, has written amazing poems on solitude. They

are mostly based on her own experience. In reality, she decided to shut herself

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off from outside world from 1865 to 1886 when her father, Edward Dickinson,

died. (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/emilydic.htm). She chose to live in solitude and

she never regretted her decision.

I have chosen four of Emily Dickinson’s poems for my thesis. They are

“Alone, I Cannot Be”, “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” , “I Had Been Hungry All

The Years” and “There Is A Solitude of Space”. All of them are concerned with

solitude.

I would like to analyse the themes of the four poems because theme is one

of the most important aspects of literature. Through theme, one can find the

essence of the poem because theme is “(1) the central and dominating idea in a

literary work; (2) the message or moral implicit in any work of art.” (Appreciation

of Literature, 2003)

Statement of the Problem

The problems are stated as follows:

1. What are the themes of the four poems?

2. How are the themes revealed?

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is stated as follows:

1. To show the themes of the four poems.

2. To show how the themes are revealed.

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Method of Research

The method of research is library research. I apply Formalist approach to

have a better understanding of the themes of the poems. First of all, I read the four

poems and analyse them. I also gather and search for information needed for the

thesis from some reference books and materials from the Internet to support my

analysis. Finally, I draw the conclusion.

Organization of the Thesis

I divide the thesis into three chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction,

which contains the Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the

Purpose of the Study, the Method of Research and the Organization of the Thesis.

Chapter Two deals with the analysis of the themes of the four poems. Chapter

Three is the Conclusion. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and the

Appendices, which consist of the biography of the poet and the four poems.

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CHAPTER THREE

CONCLUSION

From the analysis of the theme of four of Emily Dickinson’s poems,

namely “Alone, I Cannot Be”, “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?”, “I Had Been

Hungry All The Years” and “There Is A Solitude of Space”, I find that Emily

Dickinson is successful in revealing her themes through certain literary devices,

such as poetic diction, metaphors, similes, rhetorical question, symbols, double

dashes, an irony, and an anaphora.

In “Alone, I Cannot Be”, the poet employs poetic diction, a simile,

symbols and metaphors. The most dominant literary device is poetic diction. This

poetic diction helps me to get the idea that when one lives in society, one feels

that one cannot really have solitude. I agree that in reality it is extremely difficult

to seclude ourselves when we live in society. This poem must have been based on

her solitary background especially after the death of her beloved father.

In “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?”, the poet uses poetic diction, a rhetorical

question, a simile, a metaphor, an irony, and symbols to contrast someone who

lives in society and someone who lives in solitude. In this poem, the poet says that

she is living in solitude. From the analysis, it is obvious that the poet prefers

living a solitary to living in society. I disagree with the poet because I think as

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human being, one must be able to get on well with one another in society instead

of living alone without making any social contact. The desire to live alone is quite

uncommon.

In “I Had Been Hungry All The Years”, the poet reveals the theme through

poetic diction, metaphors, and simile. The use of metaphor is very dominant in the

revelation of the theme of this poem. Through the analysis, I find that the poet

conveys the theme that living in society hurts one who wishes to be secluded. I am

not sure whether Dickinson is right or wrong because I never try to be secluded. I

do not even agree with her to try to live a solitary life. As homo sapiens, I think

we should socialize and gain any advantages that we may get from one another. It

is natural for human beings to mix in society.

The theme of solitude is also found in the last poem “There Is a Solitude

of Space”. The poet uses poetic diction, an anaphora and double dashes. The most

dominant literary device is poetic diction. Through all the poetic devices above,

the poet reveals that there is not a real solitude except when one’s soul is admitted

into itself. I do not agree with the poet. I think we can have a solitary life in

certain place if we want to. Moreover, there must be solitary in death. The

message that she reveals in this poem is really extreme.

Each of the titles of the four poems also plays a significant role in the

revelation of the theme, especially the title of the last poem because without it, it

would be more difficult for me to find out what the poet really wants to say.

The theme of solitude, as is revealed in “Alone, I Cannot Be”, “I’m

Nobody! Who Are You?” , “I Had Been Hungry All The Years” and “There Is A

Solitude of Space”, mostly likely based on the Emily Dickinson’s life, who lived

in a quiet and private life in her big old house. Most of the poems are related to

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her own life and experience. I should say the four poems analysed in this thesis

share one thing in common, namely glorification of living in solitude.

Through the analysis of these poems, I hope the reader can understand

Dickinson’s message about solitude. However, I do not want to suggest to anyone

that we should imitate the poet’s attitude because as I have stated earlier, as

human beings, we are destined to socialize. We should be able to get on well with

one another and gain the most advantages that we can gain for the sake of

mankind.

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BIBILIOGRAPHY

References Books:

1. Appreciation of Literature Prose, Maranatha Christian University, 2003.

2. Maclin, Alice, Reference Guide to English: A Handbook of English as a

Second Language, Washington D.C: The Materials Branch, 1994.

3. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language,

New York: Portland House, 1989.

4. Cowie A.P, Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary of Current English. 4th

ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989:665.

Primary Text:

1. Collins, Billy, The selected poems of Emily Dickinson, United States of

America: The Modern Library, 2000.

Internet:

1. Marano, Estroff, Hara. Psychology Today. 25. August. 2003. Psychology

TodayMagazine. 26 February 2006

< http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20030825-000001.htm >

2. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. February. 2007. The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 11 March 2007

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< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poem >

3. Books and Writers. 2002. 11 March 2007

< http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/emilydic.htm >

4. Beyond Books. Apex Learning, Inc. 26 March 2007

< http://www.beyondbooks.com /lit71/1f.asp >

5. Department of English Lilia Melani. 25. January. 2003. 26 March 2007

< http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/hungry.html >

6. Merriman C.D.The Literature Network. 2006. Jalic Inc. 3 April 2006

< http://www.online-literature.com/dickinson/ >

7. Erin’sPoetry Pages. 3 April 2006

< http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/edbio.htm >

8. Eberwein, Donahue, Jane. Modern American Poetry. 21. March. 2001.

Oxford University Press, Inc. 3 April 2006

< http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/dickinson/bio.htm >

9. CPCW. 6. August.2004. 21 February 2006

<http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/dickinson.html>

10. Pettin ger. R. Biography Online. 26. June. 2006. Creative Commons

license. 13 April 2007

< http://www.biographyonline.net/poets/emily_dickinson.html >

11.Bynum, Tifanny. American poems. 27. January. 2006. Gunnar Bengtsson.

16 April 2007

<http://www.americanpoems .com/poets/emilydickinson/11647/comments

>