We Grow Accustomed to the Dark…

Darkness is a recurring image in literature that evokes a universal unkn witness, that is often entrenched in m individu totallyy meanings. A master poet, Emily Dickinson employs immorality as a metaphor numerous times throughout her poetry. In We grow accustomed to the dark (428) she talks of the newness that a stays when we fit our Vision to the Dark. As enigmatic and shrouded in mystery as the dark she explores, Dickinsons poetry seems our only door to understanding the recluse. As she wrote to her friend T. W. Higginson on April 15, 1862, the Mind is so near itself it cannot see, distinctly(Letters 253).In this musing, she acquiesces to a notion that man remains locked in an knowledgeable struggle with himself. This inner date is brought to swallow through a metaphorical unfairness that pervades many of her meters. Evidenced by the sheer bigness of her poetry she penned throughout her life story, it is clear Dickinson indulged and withdrew often into the inner realm of her stimulate mind. The nefariousness is an interesting metaphor because it institutes a dichotomy between an internal and international. Poem 428 illustrates both as the vestige forges as a restraint against understanding, while at the same time a limitless portrayal to potential knowledge.As a poet, Dickinson meticulously fashions her metrical compositions. Each word, each capitalization, each verse situation scheme the vogue is a device carefully calculated and chosen. The cannonball along is rarely reflected on since Dickinson tends to utilize the punctuation in any poem. However, in poem 428, the causeatting is es moveial to the meaning. What do the dashes mean? The punctuation dash has the forcefulness to immediately interrupt the flow of a doom. Dashes indicate pauses ends places to wait sometimes nothingness. Nothingness is what the dimness contains. Isnt nothingness an unknown?As we admit the poem we pause at e very turn, commanded to do so by the dash indicative of inner conflict. Our minds subconsciously repeat this bring through after(prenominal) ever pause every dash. The words it is used on bring out the dark. The dash is used after caudex of businesss directly referencing lousiness itself and its incarnations (line 6s night, line 10s scourings, line 11s Moon, line 19s Midnight) half of the time. In other lines, darkness is not directly referenced, yet evoked through certain associate terms. The power of darkness to hinder understanding and arbitrarily transpose are used fter such words (line 2s away, line 4s bye, line 11s manse, and line 17s alters).The darkness also could re reach an inner conflict, such as the turmoil at heart (line 12) is exclusively kind. The line is indicative of the inner search for truth. The superfluous use of dashes in this unique(predicate) line emphasizes the feeling of hopelessness that plagues the search. This trend continues in line 13 as the subject, the Bravest, still always have darkness that lies a doubtfulness which they must(prenominal) meet -erect- (line 8) and overcome. After doing this, the brave can see (line 16) and reach the deeper insight theyve sought.What virtually the words that lack a dash? These lines emphasize the verbalize enemy of darkness- the electric arc. To begin, line 3s lamp illuminates the darkness. Light is used often as a metaphor to show knowledge that lies ahead or paths to understanding. Therefore, line 5s measuring rod and line 20s straight lack a dash since they show a direction. In darkness, there gos nothingness and no place to tread. In line 14, tree is indicative of devolves other meaning to shed bring down on something. A realization of a truth may be revealed in take fire. This connection causes light to be intrinsically linked to wisdom.Thus, in a poem so immersed in emotional darkness, wisdom would void it. As far as line 18s sight is concerned, no dash is present because without light a visual cannot be seen and impart remain in (a physical and mental) darkness. In these lines without a dash, darkness is not acting as a barrier. In this poem, a rhyme scheme doesnt seem to exist at first. Few of the lines rhyme, except for lines 14 and 16 and lines 18 and 19. However, the poem has fluidity despite its apparent scarcity of rhyme. After examining the alteration of syllables in each line, a pattern is revealed in this poem concerning darkness.The first lodge lines bound between 8 and 6 syllables. These lines are concerned, as any narrative is, with exposition. These lines set up darkness as an internal conflict to come. The conflict intensifies in lines 10 and 11 as we are bombarded by an explosion of 8 syllables in each line. These lines present the conflict within atomic number 53s own mind at its most desperate. After this climax, the syllables in the lead nine lines resolve the conflict presented. In these lines, Dickinson presents us with an archetypal range of a f unction that is faced with a conflict the bravest hero.These lines present the resolution in lines that alternate between 6 and 7 syllables. Just as the syllables decrease, the falling action presents us with a final insight. This insight discusses how darkness is an insurmountable entity that, alike(p) the hero, we must face to continue straight through Life (line 20). The succeeding(prenominal) seemingly arbitrary decision is Dickinsons capitalization. The capitalization at the beginning of the sentence must be capitalized therefore, well focus on the capitalizations that lie within each sentence. In this poem, each of these words is a noun.Past this simple reading, what may we understand from these capitalizations? Each stanza presents a different set of capitalized objects which lend themselves to the interpretation that darkness is a barrier. It is no mere coincidence, that like the darkness they reference, these objects are not easily read. The poem presents itself as a nar rative, but when you want to seek a connection between these capitalized objects, you feel youve hit a contend an impasse. In poem 554, Dickinson presents us with another frustrating statement when she asserts I had not minded Walls .In a similar way, this poem Dickinson is satisfied with the elusiveness that the darkness presents. She takes delight in contradiction and abstraction. In a letter sent to T. W Higginson on June 8, 1862, Dickinson states that she has no tribunal (255). Dickinson, like her poetry, is a paradox. In her house she was Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, yet in her poetry and letters takes on the form of the enigmatic Your Scholar or E. Dickinson (Letters 263-278). However, without seeming too presumptuous with a direct correlation to the poet, these objects remain impenetrable.The objects could be interpreted as external entities, yet each when internalized represents a concept inaccessible. For example, in poem 428, we fetch the Moon and Star, objects present in darkness of the sky, not characterized in the normal way we symbolically represent them. The Moon doesnt represent an omen sign and the Star is found within reach instead of far away. This is besides evidenced when the Bravest in relation to the Tree do not act how we expect. We expect figures exemplifying courage to undergo immense not lesser obstacles and to always not sometimes encounter them (as represented by the tree).But what of all the poems that argue the opposite, that the darkness represents a potential limitless portent to liberty? Indeed poem 428s metaphorical darkness could be interpreted as a veil that covers a deeper hidden truth. In fact, darkness takes on a myriad of manifestations, such as shadow, in Dickinsons poetry. In boding is that long shadow on the Lawn (487), Dickinson uses a long shadow in apposition with a presentiment. A presentiment is an intuition about the future (usually of something evil). In this instance, a limiting of light prese nts us with an forefinger to further wisdom.In another poem, In Ebon box, when years have flown (180), the darkness that covers the box is manifested as velvet dust / Summers have sprinkled there A mere wiping away is all it takes to unlock whats hidden inside. In these poems, darkness is never directly referenced only alluded to. However, in Dickinsons poetry, darkness deal not solely be alluded to. In Through the dark bugger as education (559), the deeper theme of darkness explicitly leads to potential knowledge. In poem 559, the Lily is an entity known to thrive in the light of day (and maybe even Dickinson herself).Then, why is the image of the Dark Sod brought in? Dickinson sure as shooting could have chosen to utilize night, a power point that flowers encounter every night. However, through this uncommon embodiment of lawn, Dickinson exposes darkness as an omnipresent force. Even for a Lily, darkness is a commonplace occurrence. However, here a head on confrontation wi th an omnipresent force doesnt block the pursuer from realizing a deeper meaning. Thus, the Lily needs the darkness for redemption. Poem 559 presents darkness as a metaphor we shouldnt have trepidation or fear for.In the second stanza, Dickinson advances her geographic expedition of darkness. In the meadow, the Lily acknowledges the darkness that it faced by reflecting on its recent hurtle-life. The Mold in the garden-variety setting of the poem has the destructive power to devour and delineates way out of time. However, to ignore the first part of the hyphenated expression, the word Mold, would be to ignore the power of darkness influence. Mold itself could refer back to the process of forming (both physical creation and the mental process undergone throughout life by the mind).In this poem, the Lily undergoes a transformative process that leaves it incessantly in Extasy. Ecstasy here is an interesting consequence when we consider Dickinsons own thoughts on the matter. On thei r first meeting, Dickinson said to T. W. Higginson, I find hug drug in living the mere sense of living is joy itself (Letters 264). (Therefore, if we argue that ecstasy is an effect of darkness, then we could deduce that Dickinson believed it vital element since life is comprised of birth and death. ) The flower in the poem is mutated and enhanced through the period of darkness it experiences.This poem could be seen as a musing on the serviceman condition that befalls us all. A matter relatable and universally silent that life is a never-ending struggle which we all engage. The individual will emerge from the hardships, like Dark Sod, once they come to the realization that light cannot exist without its antithesis, darkness. Just as light cannot exist without its opposite, a discussion on metaphorical darkness in Emily Dickinsons poetry would not be complete without an inclusion of metaphorical light.However, light is such a unremarkably used word, that expressions expounding i ts revelatory constitution have become cliches. To go beyond these two analyses, we must reveal the destructive nature be light. In Theres a certain slant of light (320), Dickinson explicates light in a novel way. In this poem, the setting is a Winter Afternoon. From the very first line, the poet maintains a bias against the light. In the season of winter, it is expected for light to rarely appear. As a New England resident, Emily Dickinson knew this fact well. This poem, unlike many of Dickinsons poetry, does not extol nature or light.Unlike its usual connotation, Dickinson presents a light that contradicts what we expect and that instead exhibits a complicated nature. Interestingly enough, the light at work in this poem is found to be oppressive, despite nature superseding its position. Why then is light oppressive? The answer to this query is arrived at if we carefully decipher Dickinsons diction choice. In this poem, we can argue that change is epitomized by the certain Slant of light as a twist point for transformation. This slant of light is oppressive, but this is no simple, purely prohibit oppression.Rather, like darkness, it is both hard and worthwhile. The diction is heightened in the third stanza, when the poem 320s speaker states how light cannot teach a lesson. An experience of nettlesome transition is deemed more important. This experience is characterized by the stress placed on the word Any. The word both ends the physically written line and limits the expounded experience. except explored, the turmoil disclosed is revealed not as a collective one by the diction choice an imperial affliction. It is almost as if a privileged group can only experience the transformation.In one word, Dickinson refashions light from universal emblem of revelation to a symbol of an exclusive human experience. However, taking light metaphorically where we never thought it could, Dickinson shows how easily transmuted these externals light and dark (which we ve internalized and thought we knew) are. In Dickinsons first letter to T. W. Higginson on April 16, 1862, she asked him, argon you too deeply occupied to say if my verse is alive? (253) The sarcasm lies in the fact that Dickinsons verse is so alive that Emily Dickinson continues to revisal the traditional modes of literature convention past her own lifetime.