Emily Dickinson's poetry covers a wide range of topics, including poetic vision, love, nature, prayer, death, God, Christ and immortality. There is a unity to his poetry, however, in that it focuses primarily on religion. Filled with contradictions, moods, and different perspectives, his poems offer a glimpse into a complex and intelligent mind that struggled throughout his life with religious faith. Clearly, he resisted conforming to his church and school's expectations to publicly identify with the community of believers and accept their traditional doctrines without question. He chose to define his own beliefs rather than accept the “limitations” of the mold of a structured religion – an issue he wrestled with until his death. This struggle is characterized in his poetry by a constant questioning of the goodness of God, by an identification with the sufferings of Christ, and, ultimately, by the lack of connection between a suffering Christ and a loving God, and between a triumphant Christ and hope for humanity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although Dickinson's struggle was deeply internal, external influences played a significant role, particularly in the realms of science, philosophy, religion, and literature. The traditional Protestant worldview was being challenged by a gradual shift toward naturalism, due in part to Darwin's publication of "The Origin of Species" in 1850 (when Dickinson was twenty). Dickinson asks questions and raises doubts about accepted knowledge and worldviews that seem almost ahead of their time. He maintains an unshakable belief in the existence of absolute truth, but with keen observations of realistic detail, his profound insight into human psychology, and unique gift of poetic expression, he formulates questions that continue to be debated in literature today. The religious climate in Amherst was certainly not harsh and puritanical, as is commonly supposed, but was rather characterized by a "curious mix of Whig republicanism and evangelical moralism" (Lundin 13). The strict Calvinism of the Puritans had merged with American culture to produce a religion of internal reform, self-control, and service to an orderly, godly society. Some of Dickinson's poetry reveals her contempt for religious hypocrisy and outward attempts to appear righteous. Poems such as "401" and "324" are examples of this rejection, not only of hypocrisy, but of conformity to those external standards that supposedly constituted righteousness and spirituality according to society and the church. In "401", he mocks "These Gentlewomen" (2) who appear as "Soft - Cherubic Creatures" (1). But under the external and exaggerated facade of perfection there is actually only "Such a refined Horror" (6). They are superficial, without deep-rooted beliefs and have the flaws of "freckled Human Nature" (7) like everyone else. The poem "324" is also a playful jab at religious people and has a tone of self-exultation: he keeps the Sabbath in his own way. She is not bound by church walls or time, and especially not by the expectations of the established church of her time. It is important to recognize and distinguish between Dickinson's rebellion against these kinds of social and religious expectations and her questions and doubts about God himself. Dickinson was also influenced by important Transcendentalist poets such as Emerson, but never fully embraced Transcendentalist philosophies. The Romantic emphasis on the self, intuition, and nature as a spiritual emblem is evident in her poetry, but she does notshares the transcendentalists' strong belief in the power of nature to reveal God or spiritual truth. It focuses much more on the hidden and paradoxical nature of God and the seemingly inexplicable suffering and death in the natural world. In the midst of the literary eras of Romanticism and Realism, he speaks "with a new voice that combined enduring elements of both eras, the old and the new" (Perkins 872). All these factors and more, no doubt, influenced Dickinson's decision to turn inward, to retreat from the limitations and uncertainties of the outside world into the realm of the infinite possibilities provided by her mind. “I live in possibility” (657, 1), he states in a poem that celebrates his freedom as a poet. He does not limit himself: the "hands" of his "occupation" reach out "to gather Paradise" (657, 12). Dickinson, "With the will to choose, or to refuse" (508, 18), deliberately chose his path in life and, in turn, rejected another. At Mt. Holyoke Women's Seminary, she steadfastly refused to publicly declare faith in Christ as her Savior. She did not pretend to be unaffected by the pressure and later expressed regret for her missed opportunities, indicating that she was indeed experiencing a strong internal inclination to become a Christian (Habbegar 202). The poem “576” is similar to “508” in that it looks back to a childhood during which religious expressions were forced upon her. In “508,” she extols her chosen baptism, considering her first as banal as her dolls and “coil pricks.” The poem "576" has a very different attitude towards his childhood prayers. This poem, along with the general tenor of his entire life and works, demonstrates a constant desire to overcome doubt and believe: And often, as, in danger, I count the strength there would be to have a God as strong as that to hold my life for me. (576, 14-17) As she entered adulthood, her simple world as a child became complex, full of constant doubts and struggles to understand "parts of her distant plan / That puzzled me" (576, 10-11) . The strict religious environment in which Dickinson grew up likely left little room for doubt and likely required complete acceptance of church dogma. Perhaps he thought that total trust would be desirable and would provide great security. His doubts, however, do not allow this trust: "How would prayer feel to me - / If I believed" (576, 4-5), he asks himself. She eventually came to believe that "her critical conscience had excluded her from the innocence of childhood and had somehow made the guarantees of the Christian faith unavailable to her in conventional form" (Lundin 47). She longed for a simple faith that would sustain her with joy and hope, but the inability of her critical mind to understand her suffering, coupled with a stubborn refusal to trade her independence for identification with the community of believers, made such faith impossible. . the most threatening obstacle to his faith was what he perceived as the distance and silence of God. One of his poems begins: I know he exists, somewhere - in the silence - he has hidden his rare life from our gross eyes. (338, 1-4) That God seems hidden or silent is not the most disturbing of Dickinson's accusations. The poem “724” is a rather shocking indictment of God’s use of His power and authority. Overall, the poem questions God's purpose for his creation and man's suffering. Does he have a plan or is he playing some kind of game? Are His actions right towards man? Did He simply create the world as a demonstration of His authority and power? God seems to act spontaneously, almost randomly, in this poem - "inserting here - a sun- / there - leaving a man out -" (11-12). It is easy for him to invent a life, but equally easy to “cancel” it (5). Death seems to be a quick solution to this spontaneous creation of life: It's easy erase it - The thrifty deity could hardly afford eternity To spontaneity - (5-8) Suggesting that the blame for death rests ultimately on God reveals his questions of the doctrine of man's depravity Even if we may "murmur" against it, His "Disturbable Plan" (10) proceeds. Dickinson is convinced that "This world is not Conclusion" (501, 1), that the ultimate truth lies beyond the visible and temporal world It is "Invisible, like Music - / But positive, like Sound -" (501, 3-4). What exactly this truth is, however, remains largely a mystery to her, and so "her thematic sense of religion lies not in its certainty, but in his continuous questioning of God, in his attempt to define his nature and that of his world" (Magill 805). This mystery "entices and disconcerts" (501.5), but escapes the understanding of philosophy and the sagacity of men. Christ's crucifixion showed us this, but faith is not yet satisfied and blushes at being seen looking for "a twig of proof" (501.15). Even the "Narcotics" (501, 19) of religion cannot satisfy the longing of the soul. Dickinson identifies with the human desire for visible evidence, for clear answers to questions about God and His plan for humanity. This poem contains evidence that he ultimately found the revelation of the natural world (commonly regarded as God's general revelation) limited. But more importantly, it reveals his dissatisfaction with the special revelation of God, the person of Jesus Christ. That the crucifixion is included in a list of unsatisfactory and disappointing paths to truth is an idea echoed in another poem: Embarrassment of each other and God is revelations. limit (662, 1-3) God's revelations to man have limits; this is why those who have chosen faith must blush and be ashamed of their fellow believers and of God. Even Dickinson's attempts to seek God seem to encounter limits. Prayer is often a source of frustration in his poems: “Of course – I prayed – / And did God care?” (376, 1-2). In his letters he also writes of his frustration with prayer: "I seek and find not, I knock and it does not open" (Johnson 107), and "We pray to Him, and He answers 'No.' Then we pray to Him to revoke the ' No' and He still doesn't answer at all. 'Seek and you will find' is the gift of faith" (Johnson 290). Dickinson truly believed she was a seeker, but echoes of frustration in her poetry (and her letters) indicate that she had not found what faith had promised. Dickinson explores the relationship between the Father and the Son in the poem "357" using a metaphor of the legendary courtship of Miles Standish. God, at home in his distant heaven, sends his Son to "woo" humanity. It is as if God feared that, like Priscilla, humanity would "choose the messenger - and despise the groom -" not realizing that they are one. Dickinson certainly seems to be grappling with complex questions about the origin and identity of Jesus. Could he have been confident that Jesus really came from God? Is Jesus really the answer to all your questions about the Father? Although a difficult concept, the Scriptures make it clear that Christ's mission was to reveal the Father's great love. God is love, and Christ was his ultimate manifestation of that love to humanity: "Thus God showed his love among us: he sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him" ( 1 John 4.9). Dickinson certainly had no problem understanding it from the Bible, but something in her experience prevented her from believing it without ithesitation. Somehow, his identification with the suffering Christ was not adequate to dispel his doubts about His Father. Thus, in his poetry, the Father remains "an unresponsive God, an unrevealed God who cannot be approached with confidence through Nature or through doctrine" (Wilbur 130) - or, as I would add, through life and revelation of Christ. .The suffering that drew her to Jesus was usually caused by death. Although he lived a retired life from his thirties onwards, he maintained a very active correspondence with several friends. In one letter she responds to the death of a friend's daughter thus: "I can no longer remain in a world of death" (Johnson 145). He also realizes the cruelty of death in nature: Frost decapitates the flower in his game - In accidental power - The blond Assassin dies - (1624, 3-5) Like the critic Alfred Kazin, he writes: "He could never overcome the 'the impermanence of all he saw, the fragility of human relationships, the flight of the seasons, the taste of death in winter' (143). This problem of death, especially the death of his close friends and family, haunted Dickinson, so he transformed from a silent and distant Father into another sufferer, His Son. In the poem "698", Christ spans the distance between God and Earth. humanity. Although the uncertainties of death remain for man, the death of Christ justifies him:Death - We do not know - The knowledge of Christ with Him justifies Him - however - (2-4) Christ not only knew death, but all aspects of earthly life :All other distances he crossed first - No new mile remains - Far away as Heaven - (9-12)"I like a look of Agony / Because I know it's true -" (241, 1 -2), he writes in another poem. While many people feign optimism, Dickinson rejects the romantic vision and chooses instead to see death as it is: a stark reality that makes life meaningless without explanation. The life of Jesus, therefore, exerted a great fascination on her; abandon heaven to experience undeserved suffering and death made him true, genuine and trustworthy: The Savior must have been a docile gentleman - To come so far, such a cold day for little companions - (1487, 1-4) Again and again in her poems about Jesus, he is the solution to the distance between God and humanity. Another poem describing Christ's incarnation highlights his divinity and dignity: Although the weak faith of humans may cause the "Bridge" to "shake" or appear "fragile," God "sent His Son to test the Axis / And declared it firm". " (1433, 7-8). The fact that Jesus came and was sent by God reveals his divinity and his love, and this is a strong basis for faith. Yet Dickinson's faith in Christ still seems falter. She questions Jesus in "217," but not in the same way she questions God. Her questions about God often have an accusatory tone, but in this poem she seems shy and childlike, hoping that Jesus can help her, but fearing that he cannot. Will he remember her and will his heart be too heavy for him? Jesus is his companion in misfortune, but what can he do about his suffering? Sometimes he too seems unattainable, or perhaps he cannot reach her. other poem prays, "knocks - everywhere -" (502, 4), but still can't find it his hand is in creation, but "Have you not an arm for me (502, 8)?" they highlight a childlike shyness and fear, unlike the bold independence she asserts in other poems. Perhaps her most disconcerting fear was that Christ would offer her no comfort in death. As she herself imagines "To die! To die in the night" (158, 1)! he asks frantically, And “Jesus”! Where did Jesus go? They said that Jesus - always came - Maybe he doesn't know the House - He wrotethe following to her friend Abiah Root: "when the test grows more and more... whose hand is to help us and to guide us, and they guide us forever, they speak of a 'Jesus of Nazareth' you will tell me if it is him" (Johnson 39)? He believes in the divinity of Christ, but as Lundin notes: “When theology turns into anthropology, Jesus simply becomes a pioneer in the infinite process of enduring pain… [He becomes] trapped with us in our finitude” (5). Dickinson's poetry dwells much on the suffering Christ, but pays very little attention to the resurrected Savior Christ. Her triumph in the resurrection does not seem important in her poem, perhaps because she could not identify with that part of her experience as she could with her suffering. Moments of doubt are not uncommon, even in the life of a believer, but Dickinson never seemed to overcome the anguish of his suffering. She longed for the joy she saw in others when they accepted Christ as their Savior, but she seemed to have never experienced it herself. The presence of Christ in a person's life brings about a radically new perspective on suffering that Dickinson does not appear to have—the perspective that the apostle Paul writes about in Romans: We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint because God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. (5.3-5) God transforms the result of evil, suffering, into a way to work "for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Rom 8.28). In Dickinson's poem, suffering seems only to frustrate her desire to know and understand God's love, and all the comfort she has lies in her shared sufferings with Christ rather than in his healing power and promise of new life through his resurrection. , however, it would be unfair to ignore the poems that seem to contradict him. As one critic states, "In Dickinson's poetry, God himself is paradoxical: he is at once attached and detached, near and far, compassionate and indifferent, generous and jealous" (167). If this is true, then Dickinson herself is paradoxical, stubbornly clinging to faith and hope even as she expresses rebellion and fear. While the dominant tone in the overtly religious poems seems to be that of doubt, it sometimes highlights a simple but sure faith: "Christ will explain every single anguish / In the beautiful hall of heaven" (193, 3-4). , she writes hopefully. His journey with Death in "For I Could Not Stop for Death" includes Immortality as his companion, and their final destination is "Eternity" (24). Another poem uses a simple illustration of nature to demonstrate his trust in God and the afterlife. Just as she knows what the moor and the sea look like without having actually seen them, she says: I have never spoken to God Nor visited Paradise - Yet I am sure of the place As if checks were given - (1052, 4- 8) The That such simple assurance and hope could be expressed by a critical mind so keenly aware of mystery, so prone to doubt and fear, and so wounded by disappointment and death, reveals Dickinson's inner strength and courage, as well as the power of human imagination. It is difficult, and probably impossible, to definitively discern the underlying message of some of Dickinson's poems. The contradictions – the various expressions of both doubt and faith, of joy and sorrow, of peace and turmoil – may simply reflect his emotional distress, or they may be evidence of a lack of true spiritual commitment, or a refusal to to trust God completely. Dickinson's mind may remain a mystery, but her poetry delivers, 1982.