Have you ever had your heart broken leaving you feel helpless in despair? Dickinson expresses selfless love, and how she wants to spend her life helping others through their dark times. She felt disconnected with her mom as she didn’t pay much attention to her. In the early 1850’s Emily dedticated her soul to poetry, causing her to recede herself from the outside world. This conflict between Dickinson’s personal convictions and the religious beliefs of those around her is reflected in her writing.
Emily Dickinson’s poem “If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking” uses metaphors and repetition to talk about how we shouldn’t live life thinking about ourselves, but helping others instead.
Emily Dickinson uses a metaphor to write about how if she could stop one’s heart from breaking, she won’t live in vain. She does not want to live in the past, because she wants her life to have meaning and make a difference in the world.
Dickinson wants to “ help one fainting robin unto his nest again”(Line 5 & 6). She uses this metaphor to display imagery of helping the robin into his nest. In the poem she writes about helping a fainting robin, but what she really means is helping someone in need. Emily uses a “robin”(Line 5) to exemplify the human characteristics because birds don’t faint due to stress. Dickinson is creating personification of the robin , being human like, and being stressed and fainting.
Emily Dickinson uses repetition when she writes “I shall not live in vain”(Line 2 & 7) twice in the poem.
She uses repition because it shows a meaningful sense of a wanting love to help others. Emily is trying to express that she doesn’t want to live her life in vain, but instead have a meaningful life. Dickinson says that if she is able to stop one person from experiencing this kind of pain, then her life will not have been lived in vain. This emphasizes her passion for wanting to cure others broken hearts. She wants to “cool one pain”(Line 4), by helping others create a meaningful life.
The poem focuses on helping other people, and not only thinking about yourself. Throughout the poem Dickinson uses a variety of poetic devices to express her love for wanting to help others in need. She concludes the poem with the statement that she “shall not live in vain”(Line 7), which binds to her testimony of creating a worthwhile life for others. Despite her early childhood circumstances, Emily Dickinson portrays many characteristics of a well rounded human being, which is very well reflected in this poem.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
