This sonnet focuses on Keats’s initial encounter with an English translation of Homer’s poetry by George Chapman (c. Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes Then felt I like some watcher of the skies Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: ‘ On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’. The first two words of the sonnet were used as the title of the 2009 biopic about Keats’s life, Bright Star, starring Ben Whishaw as Keats.ĥ. University of Illinois.Ĭredits Composed by Rose O’Callaghan, Spring 2017.Keats copied the finished version of the sonnet into a volume of The Poetical Works of William Shakespeare, placing his poem opposite Shakespeare’s A Lover’s Complaint. She only allowed those closest to her to read her work and experience her inner conciseness.īibliography and Further Reading Frequently-Asked Questions | Emily Dickinson Museum Marijane Suttor, Poetry Analysis the Soul Selects Her Own Society by Emily Dickinson, Poets and Poetry “Emily Dickinson.” Emily Dickinson. During her lifetime she rarely published her writing. In this reading “The Soul selects her own Society” registers Dickinson’s social anxiety. Suttor writes that the poem “gives the sense that perhaps others were telling her that she needed to broaden her ‘society.’ It appears that this is Emily Dickinson responding to this type of observation from others indicating that who she accepted into her society was not her decision instead it came from her soul. She withdrew from society and never left the family property, only interacting with her family members and close friends. “This poem allows the reader a sense of her inner thoughts about her own reclusive nature.” It is known that during the 1860s Dickinson became reclusive. Marijane Suttor reads “The Soul selects her own Society” in the context of Dickinson’s life. Even if the speaker is missing out on great people, like an “Emperor,” it is too late to open the door. This indicates that the speaker does not have conscious control over the “Soul.” It is as if the “Soul” makes choices of its own will. Dickinson capitalizes “Soul” personifying it. It is open to interpretation whether the choice of whom the speaker lets in is made on whether they were deemed worthy enough, or perhaps that the speaker had no choice at all. The “Valves of her attention,” like the valves of her heart, are “Like Stone-” to everyone except the “One”. The speaker separates the individual from society, or the “divine Majority,” and “from an ample nation- / Chooses One.” In this way the speaker shuts people out her life. The speaker of the poem starts out by saying that the, “Soul selects her own Society- / Then-shuts the Door.” Once the door is shut no one else is allowed through, not even “an Emperor be kneeling / Upon her Mat-.” This indicates that the speaker rejects larger society and creates her own society based on her individual self, indifferent to wealth or status. The poem is composed in iambic trimeter with the occasional line in tetrameter, using dashes to interrupt flow and create dramatic pauses.ĭickinson’s characteristic use of seemingly out-of-place dashes and capital letters help to set the somber mood of the poem. Then - close the Valves of her attention -Įmily Dickinson’s “The Soul selects her own Society” was composed in 1862 and published posthumously in Poems by Emily Dickinson in 1890. Unmoved - she notes the Chariots - pausing.
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