Emily Dickinson Essay
Assignment: Write a 2 full page minimum
(MLA heading/ title for piece/ double space)
Write a 2 page literary analysis of one of Dickinson’s poems we have not worked on
in class. Use poems in the book or the handout or look up a poem we didn’t read.
Discuss the poem’s overall meaning, particular details of diction, rhythm, tone, allusion,
etc. Use biographical details about Dickinson’s life if they are helpful and connect to
the verses. Try not to “read into” the poem’s ideas or advice that is not actually there.
Personalize your analysis by describing your reaction to it. Your paper must be typed in
MLA format.
Ask yourself:
Opening Paragraph
Does the opening paragraph catch the reader’s attention?
Was the poem included with title and proper punctuation?
Supporting Paragraph
Was biographical details about Dickinson connected to the verses? (if fitting)
Was the overall meaning addressed? Word choice, rhythm, tone, allusion, etc.
Your personal reactions?
Concluding paragraph
Does the closing paragraph summarize?
Does it leave an impact? Sound finished?
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE AN EXAMPLE ESSAY
____________________________________________________________________
Your Name
Berndt
English III G/B #
11 February 2008
Readiness for Inspiration
Sensing that moments of insight or blessing come and go quickly, Emily
Dickinson recommends a mood of expectancy in “The Soul Should Always Stand Ajar.”
The Soul should always stand ajar
That is the Heaven inquire
He will not be obliged to wait
Or shy of troubling Her
Depart before the Host have slid
The Bolt unto the Door—To search for the accomplished Guest,
Her Visitor, nor more—
Picture a shy or perhaps impatient caller who knocks, and then, rather than
waiting to inquire whether the lady is receiving callers, turns and vanishes before she can
unbolt the door and open it. Only the shy Miss Dickinson could have imagines a visitor
becoming discouraged so easily. Perhaps she herself had kept callers waiting while she
screwed up her courage to answer their knocks or to come down to the Dickinson parlor
to receive them. Whatever the social situation Dickinson might have been remembering
here, she uses it as a metaphor for the soul’s welcoming of an idea or perhaps a sense of
God’s presence.
In stanza two the reader can almost sense her struggling to slide back the bolt
which holds the door closed. But when she looks out at last, the visitor—Heaven, she
calls on or “the accomplished Guest”—has gone.
So her advice to the Soul in stanza one is “always stand ajar.” Be open to vision
and inspiration, perhaps even to love, so that those moments will not leave like a shy
guest who doesn’t want to trouble anyone by knocking again. It is the soul itself which
must be open, ready for the guest, Heaven. If she did see inspiration or even God as such
an easily discouraged caller, perhaps this poem explains why she focused so intently and
why she shut herself away from the world that might distract her. If, however, it was
love which came calling in her life, then she may have written the lines in regret that she
ha closed her heart to people and seemed to resist “unbolting” it to any persons but her
own family.
What I personally like about the poem is its opening image for the soul “ajar.”
Anticipating everything, I must be ready because some small wonderful thing may be
waiting to inspire me. If I close my mind and heart, maybe the opportunity will be gone
before I can “unbolt” my old ideas. If I don’t have that attitude of expectancy about life,
Dickinson’s poem seems to suggest I just might miss the little good stuff.