EMILY DICKINSON

OMG I just realized that when I did this on Thursday night..it never posted..so I have to do it again..GRR. okay here it goes..AGAIN


Is Emily Dickinson a transcendentalist or anti-transcendentalist?
Well according to her background (about her lover never returning her love and the way she lives – isolated and remote), one might assume she is an Anti-transcendentalist because one would think she is pessimistic and cynical of life. However, this is actually more transcendentalist than one would think. This isolation lets her connect with nature because she is less disturbed by the society and can focus on the essence and universal connection. This could lead to the fact that many of the main focuses of her poems are of nature. And because she has less contact with the society and its rules and boundaries, she does not conform to it and therefore is more of an individual – without boundaries and rules to block her imagination from reaching its unlimited potential.

She may seem like an anti-transcendentalist at some points because in many of her poems, there are anti-transcendetalist elements, but this might just be the fact that she is exploring the inner mind/ being of humans (which is transcendentalist). In order to completely comprehend something, one has to explore both sides, in this case – anti-transcendentalism and transcendentalism. Like Emerson said “To be great is to be misunderstood.” So while many might be confused about Emily Dickinson, there is a reason for it. It’s because she is also exploring and digging deep into the human mind to seek what we all are looking for- our own individual essence.

From what I gather, that though her poems possibly can be labeled as "Anti-Transcendentalist" or "Transcendentalist", you say that Emily Dickinson herself can't. If so, then no disagreement there.