The majority of academics concur that poetry explores the aspects of human nature that reflect the fundamental truths about nature and humankind. As a tool, poetry imagines humanity's truth and reality from a different angle than how other writers see and imagine humanity. Poetry, unlike other forms of art, has a number of characteristics that set it apart from other works of literary or writing. It uses an organized method of conveying its message rather than just condensing words or using rhythm. Accordingly, the poet has an independent mind and can deviate from formal written or unwritten rules governing the delivering of poetry. It is the uniqueness of the poet that determines the success and the reception of the poems written. Such uniqueness in writing of poems is seen throughout Emily Dickinson’s work as this essay will compare the technicalities employed in her poems as compared to the writing of Imtiaz Dharker.
Emily Dickinson and Imtiaz Dharker are two poets from a different generation and view different topics differently. Emily belongs to the 19th century while Dharker is a contemporary poet of the 21st century. Such different periods of birth informs their different perspectives in life particularly in that they have experienced different aspects of life. To fully evaluate their works this study will examine each poet independently focusing on their specific style of writing, they address different themes such as love, sex, grief, death, and religion among other themes, and how they reach out to their target audience. It will further compare and contrast how they address their issues and pay attention to how critics and other scholars examine and categorize their work.
Emily Dickinson
Emily was born 1830 and died in 1886 and is considered as on the America’s greatest original poets of her time. She has enjoyed an increasing critical reputation and popularity particularly because of her unique style of writing. According to Poetry Foundation, Emily defined her style and challenged the existing definitions of poetry. Unlike many poets, Emily immersed herself into experiments of expressions that freed her from the conventional restraints. She crafted her writing without following many of the poem rules or structures that most writers or at least many people were accustomed to. In fact, to understand her work it requires the reader to have an open mind and think beyond the common rationales behind poetry analysis. Some critics believe that she was one the America’s finest poet while other view her work as strange and too hard to comprehend easily. Accordingly, each critic employees a different lens in evaluating her work depending on what the person is evaluating. For example, Mattix (2016, “The Washington Free Beacon”), believes that one of the best approaches to examine Emily Dickinson’s work “is to read it as subtle critics of patriarchy.” She lives against the common view point of the womanhood of the nineteenth-century. Her themes undermine the “male pastoral elegy” and her view on religious topics seems to question God’s perception and the reality of judgment.
Although a few of her poems were published, the reality of her writing denotes her personality as slyly subversive and some of her writing shows her proto-feminist perspective. She explores some topics that people least expected her to write about particularly because of her gender. Conversely, her achievement as a poet is based on her inner brilliant language which expresses a great deal of meaning using a small number of word. Such few words carrying a bigger meaning is what causes some critics to argue that her work is not easily fathomable. However, when the meaning unveils it becomes crystal clear in the mind of the reader. Hence, it is critical to pay attention to each word in the poems and how the words connect and relate with their previous meaning to understand her message.
Dickinson’s Style
As earlier noted, it is not easy to understand the writing of Emily; it requires a clear observation to her writing as she shows her prowess and extraordinary power of writing poems. She has a peculiar imagination that leads her to imagine bizarre death-fantasies, and unusual metaphorical conceits. Occasionally, she ignores the traditional style of presenting poetry and provides an irregular meter and unusual off rhymes which shows that she does not leave by the rules.
When looking at language which is the core determinant of many literature and work or poetry, it is evident that Dickinson is not only economical in her words but uses simple grammar with deeper meaning. For example, “A bird came down the walk” uses very basic language that describes how a bird came and ate a worm and left upon noticing the presence of a human being that frightened it. On the side of the human, it was only a curiosity that drove him to give the bird some crumbs but the bad flew away. The poem seems easy and straightforward but looking at deeply it becomes clear that it has a deeper meaning. At the beginning of the poem the bird eats the worm comfortably but upon noticing the presence of a human it flies away because it is scared. Nature is shown to takes its course through the bird and the worm but human activities seem to bother the existence of the natural peace. Thus, Emily uses simple words to explain difficult situations and requires the reader to pay attention to get the fully meaning of the message.
Another distinct feature found in Emily Dickinson’s poetry is that they contain slant rhyme which means that lines do not perfectly rhyme but instead have some rhyme. For example, hope is the thing with feathers…perches in the soul...sing tunes without words…never stops at all. Generally from such a poem it is expected that the second and the fourth lines would have some rhyme but in this case they show no clear close similarity or rhythm. The sounds of ‘soul’ and ‘all’ shows a clear example of slant rhyme which is very common in Dickinson’s poems. Looking at another poem “I’m nobody! Who are you…Nobody-too?...you know!” shows another example of half-rhyme. The “too” and “you” may sound like they want to rhyme but actually in a slant form as noted in the previous example. Evidently, Emily does not focus or seem to follow the conventional way of writing poems that seem to dictate that poetry should have some rhythm or repetition to create an appealing sound to the reader.
Another important trait of Dickinson’s poetry has to do with theme and tone. Like many poets, Emily writes about nature and her social orientation. Her poems talk about nature, religion, law, music, fashion, domestic activities among others (Dickinson and McNeil, 2016). Largely, it is an exploration of nature, self-identity, death and mortality, and love. Using the case of the poem “I’ll tell you how the sun rose…a ribbon at a time…” It becomes evident of how Emily perceives nature in relation to man and self (Dickinson and McNeil 2016). In the poem she uses pronoun “I” and “You” which shows I addressing the reader as “You”. Furthermore, the impression created is that Emily does not shy away from any theme regardless of what the society believes. For example, addressing the theme of death shows her deviance from the main stream poets who least address such topics.
Another important characteristic of Emily’s writing is that she explores the inner world-psychological state. She presents a stream of individual awareness and the possible dangers and the loneliness of the world. Evident in some of her work she seems to tell a story of inner events depicting that the personal and psychological awareness were inseparable from the universal. She further epands on the theme of love describing sensual instances such in her poem 506, where in stanza one she says “he touched me, so I love to know...i gtoped upon his breast…minor streams to rest” (Dicknison 40). Such explacit description is witnessed in Dharker’s love poems. Evidently, the poets defy the society norms that assumes such topics should not be addressed openly es[ecially by women who are the custodians of marriage.
Imtiaz Dharker
Dharker was born in Pakistan and brought up in Scotland. She is a poet, an artist, and film-maker who lives in London. Her hails from an Islamic background, unstable childhood epitomized by exile movements and grief. In her writing she recounts her personal experiences and discusses different themes ranging from religion, love, grief, cultures, and terror among others. Accordingly, she is accredited as one of the leading poets of her time and has received a Queens Golden Award for her success in poetry.
Dharker Writing Style
As poet Dharker explores different themes and employees different poetry techniques. Her diction largely can be considered to cater to a large general audience. She does not use vocabularies that are hard to understand. Unlike Emily, her choice of the word does not impede the comprehension of her message. The poems are clear and straight forward which upon reading the second time the message becomes apparent. Evidently, she uses a simple diction that paints out the image of the message as intended. For example, analyzing the poem “tissue” she describes is as a “paper that lets the light shine through.” Throughout this poem there are no vocabularies that one cannot understand easily. In fact, even the explanation of the poem makes it clear to get the meaning of the poem. The message is plain and clear which makes the poem to receive a positive reception from the critics. Moreover, when reading through “the right word”, she uses basic language to explain how view point is shaped based on what people or the government wants the members of the public to see. She paints an image of three personalities of the same individual: a terrorist…a martyr. Such juxtaposition of the words makes the audience to have a clear image of how people are categorized based on the government or other international governments. However, then she ironically questions if she is right in her description as she further reminds the audience it “is a boy…like mine…like your son, too…” (Startup 40). The complexity of such a poem is in how the poet uses contradictory words but as she continues to explain her story it becomes clear in the mind of the audience.
When looking at the rhyme of Dharker’s poetry it is evident that she employees the distinct rhyme scheme that many other poets use. Unlike Emily, she uses the conventional style of rhyme in most of her poems. However, it is also critical to mention that not all her poems follows such usual rhythm as noted is some of her work. For example, “Mumbai? Kissmiss?” uses irregular rhyme with the first stanza having only the first two lines with some rhyme while the others do not rhyme.
In several or most of her poems, Dharker does not shy away from the topic of death and sorrow. Such is the poem “It doesn’t matter” which stocked with reference to darkness. The imagery of darkness asserts the darkness engulfed in the death and the end of human life. Like Emily Dickinson, Dharker uses the theme of death to remind humans of the importance of life. The two poets similarly tackle this unique theme considering that the two have a religious background. Moreover, Dharker also describes the death of her husband as she expresses how she longs for the moments they were together. In “Black and White” she writes “I am trying to write you down…put my arms around you…hold you long enough…” (Dharker, 6, official site). She also writes, “New York plunged into darkness…people said it was a sign…other peole died…Elvis died…” which is a clear indication that she is not afraid of talking about death. Such deep word depict her lover to her later husband and unquestionable courage to talk about the subject of death.
Another theme that the two poets tackles is that of religion. However, their view seems to differ significantly. Dharker focuses on praising God as noted in her poems “blessings” and “postcards from God.” In the wasy she begins her poem postcards from God “yes, I do feel like a visitor” (stanza one), it becomes evident that she believes in God as the last console for humans. In the poem “blessings” stanza two she says “imagine the drip of it…the voice of a kindly god” (Dharker “Emilyspoetryblog” 2017). Such words show her attitude towards God as positive and a firm believer in God. Unlike Dharker, Emily is not a staunch believer in God. As earlier noted, she questions the logic of existence of the mighty god which proves that she is not a full believer of God. Evidently, the two poets tackle the controversial religious themes different and Emily seems to favor the atheist while Dharker seems a religious person.
Works Cited
Dharker, Imtiaz. "'Blessing' By Imtiaz Dharker | A Poem For Every Day." Emilyspoetryblog.com. Web. 7 Oct. 2017.
Dickinson, Emily, and Helen McNeil. Emily Dickinson. London: J. M. Dent, 2006. Print.
Dickinson, Emily, and Helen McNeil. Emily Dickinson. London: J. M. Dent, 2006. Print.
Imtiaz, Dharker. "Imtiaz Dharker." Imtiaz Dharker. Web. 7 Oct. 2017.
Startup, Frank. "Dharker, Imtiaz: Over the Moon." School Librarian63.1 (2015): 49-50.
