Table of Content:
1. Introduction
2. Religious Background to Dickinson’s Poetry
3. Nature and Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Poems
3.1. A Mystical View – The Divine in Nature
3.2. Turning Around – A Sacramental View on Nature
3.3. Towards a Pessimistic View on Nature
4. Concluding Remarks
5. References
1. Introduction:
Emily Dickinson is without doubt one of America’s most interesting and fascinating authors, especially with regard to her quite extravagant vita, living secluded from the public for the majority of her life and not even leaving her house. Confining herself exclusively to poetry, she has created poems of marvellous emotional impact and this especially holds true for her poetry dealing with nature. As there is hardly any poem on nature by her that does not have allusions to or is combined with religious themes, it makes this branch of her work even more interesting to deal with. But to be able to grasp all the allusions Dickinson has made to religion in various ways, her Calvinist-based church and the like, it is necessary to have an insight into her religious life, which is why a brief outline of her religious vita stands at the beginning of this paper.
There are many writings which deal with Dickinson’s faith and the religious topics in her work – among them those used as references in this paper like the works by Doyle, Klein and Knapp, for instance. Jane Donahue Eberwein, a well-respected Dickinson specialist, puts a lot of emphasis on Dickinson’s poetry with regard to the poet’s Calvinist heritage in her writings, all of which are worth reading.
One can find references to religion in more than only Dickinson’s nature poems, for example her poems on the life of Christ, but I will exclusively deal with her poems on nature, primarily focusing on “her quest for knowledge of the divine” , as Grimes puts it, and how this is reflected in her poetry. A few poems shall be exemplary for this and will be commented on. However, each of them will not be analyzed in too much detail. First and foremost, the main goal is to give an overview on how Dickinson refers to the deity through her poetry and how this view on the divine and (parallely) on nature changes over the course of her life.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Religious Background to Dickinson’s Poetry
3. Nature and Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Poems:
3.1. A Mystical View – The Divine in Nature:
3.2. Turning Around – A Sacramental View on Nature
3.3. Towards a Pessimistic View on Nature
4. Concluding Remarks
Objective and Themes
This academic paper explores the intersection of religion and nature in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, examining how she used the natural world as a medium to search for the divine outside the constraints of traditional Calvinist church doctrine. The study traces the evolution of her perception of nature through three distinct stages: mysticism, sacramentalism, and a final, darker pessimism.
- The influence of New England Puritan theology on Dickinson's work.
- The transition from a mystical connection with nature to a sacramental interpretation.
- The eventual shift toward a skeptical and pessimistic view of nature's relationship with God.
- The role of Dickinson's unique poetic language in reconciling her quest for divine knowledge.
- Analysis of specific poems to illustrate the development of her spiritual philosophy.
Excerpt from the Book
3.1. A Mystical View – The Divine in Nature:
Typically, for a reader who doesn’t know about Dickinson’s religious ‘dilemma’, for lack of better term, her nature poems must seem like a mere description of natural phenomena, or nature as a whole. As stated above, this is not the case and religious references are omnipresent, yet hidden in a seemingly simplistic, beautiful and highly visual language, as can be seen in the first four stanzas of poem 122:
A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeuax burn away
Which solemnizes me.
A something in a summer’s noon
A depth – an Azure – a perfume –
Transcending ecstasy.
And still within a summer’s night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see –
Then veil my too inspecting face
Lets such a subtle – shimmering grace
Flutter too far from me-
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter introduces the author's research interest in the relationship between Emily Dickinson’s religious life and her nature-themed poetry.
2. Religious Background to Dickinson’s Poetry: This section provides an overview of the poet’s roots in Connecticut Valley Congregationalism and the resulting alienation she felt from organized church sacraments.
3. Nature and Religion in Emily Dickinson’s Poems:: This chapter serves as the analytical core, documenting the shifting perspective of the poet through three phases of spiritual inquiry.
3.1. A Mystical View – The Divine in Nature:: This section analyzes how Dickinson perceived nature as a direct, mystical medium to encounter the divine.
3.2. Turning Around – A Sacramental View on Nature: This section discusses how the poet reinterpreted traditional church sacraments within the secular and cyclical framework of the natural world.
3.3. Towards a Pessimistic View on Nature: This chapter examines the final stage of Dickinson’s philosophy, where she perceives nature as indifferent or hostile, ultimately challenging the existence of a solely benevolent God.
4. Concluding Remarks: This final section summarizes the poet’s lifelong, unresolved quest for divine knowledge and affirms her commitment to this search through her unique artistic legacy.
Keywords
Emily Dickinson, Nature Poetry, Calvinism, Congregationalism, Divine, Sacrament, Mysticism, Spirituality, Religion, Theology, Transcendence, Pessimism, Poetic Analysis, Religious Vita, Secularism
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this academic work?
The paper examines how Emily Dickinson integrated religious themes and the concept of the divine into her poetry specifically focused on the natural world.
What are the central thematic fields explored?
The work covers the tension between the poet's upbringing in Calvinist theology and her individual search for spiritual fulfillment outside of traditional church institutions.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to provide an overview of how Dickinson’s perception of the divine and nature evolved throughout her life and how this is reflected in her poetry.
Which scientific methodology is employed?
The author uses a literary analysis approach, focusing on the interpretation of specific poems (such as 122, 342, 130, 1624, and 1694) and drawing upon established Dickinson scholarship.
What is discussed in the main body of the text?
The main body investigates three distinct stages in Dickinson's work: the initial mystical view, the subsequent sacramental view, and the final shift toward a pessimistic outlook.
Which keywords best characterize the research?
Key terms include Emily Dickinson, Nature Poetry, Calvinism, Divine, Sacrament, Mysticism, and Theology.
Why did Dickinson choose nature as a medium for her religious quest?
The text suggests she viewed nature as a "secular space" that lacked the limiting, exclusionary dogmas she experienced within the formal Calvinist church.
How does the author interpret Dickinson's "pessimistic" phase?
The author argues that in her later work, Dickinson came to see nature as indifferent to human suffering, which led her to question the benevolence of a God who could be the author of such a creation.
- Quote paper
- Tim Jakobi (Author), 2004, Religious aspects in Emily Dickinson's 'Nature Poems', Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/84786
