"This is My Letter to the World": An Individual's Perception of Belonging Essay example

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This is my letter to the world
An individual’s perception of belonging evolves in response to the passage of time and the interaction with their world. In what ways is this view of belonging represented in “This is my letter to the world”?
The passage of time can stimulate individual’s personal values and choices whether or not she /he will belong or segregate from the norm, however this does not determine reclusiveness but a personal choice based on the individual’s systematic values and beliefs in life based on their experiences. This is evident in Emily Dickinson’s poem “This is my letter to the world”; it expresses Dickinson’s strong sense of direct purpose towards the readers about her alienation from her contemporaries intimidating her choice to belong to her own world, her imagination. The poem “This letter to the world” displays a paradox of isolation and unity and this paradox is never resolved. It highlights Dickinson’s ambiguous relationship by upholding a strong sense of spiritual connectedness towards nature as she begins to move away from puritan principles over time but also feels that she isn’t able to belong to nature as she doesn’t own it. This poem depicts Dickenson’s isolation within her society and it shows her personal choice to not belong to the cultural consciousness of her time and therefore desires for future audiences to acquire from her messages that nature told her.
In her state of world, Dickson expresses her isolation from her contemporaries and her lack of belonging within her society due to her fears that her society would critically judge her especially based on her gender qualities. The use of metaphor in the first stanza “This Is my letter to the world” delivers a sense of immediacy to the audience that she composes a sense of injustice supported by the second line in the first stanza “That never wrote to me “has been personified to refer to her society who failed to recognize her or acknowledge her poems. This shows that Emily didn’t belong to her cultural consciousness as she was aware that the idea of what was valuable in her she held different beliefs and which triggered a challenge to her life as she wasn’t able to adapt to their beliefs. The role of women and the social expectations of woman triggered her to further distance away from her outer world. Therefore Dickinson left her poems in hopes to gain literary recognition by the future audience as her own contemporaries were not ready to comprehend her poems.

From studying Dickinson poem “This is my letter to the world “ it suggests her aspiration for seeking peace and in particular safety and security so therefore she had decided to shield herself away from her outer world and kept isolated. Her sense of isolation led her mentality to sense that sturdy connection towards nature “ The simple news that nature told with tender majesty “ is personified to express her deep feelings towards nature that affected her writing and how it shaped her as a person also symbolising a change in nature during the years of her isolation . The word “Tender majesty” reinforces gentle pleading for kindness and understanding for not to be judged harshly in the name of the nature. This indicates that nature was an essential part of Emily’s life; she viewed nature divine and felt that she was in core of nature as it exposed a world that did not judge her or ask anything in return. Consequently this shows that Emily’s sense of association to nature were more valued in contrast to her contemporaries. She expresses that her society weren’t critical thinkers towards her messages but rather Dickinson made this a personal choice based on her needs, wants and acceptance for what seems to be an unavoidable situation for her individual qualities and there are no indications that she will change. She spiritually belongs to nature even though she wasn’t able to own nature to herself and strongly believed that there were lessons to be gained from
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