Essay 2 (Emily Dickinson)

Emily Dickinson is known mainly for her solitude and rebellious behavior in her writing and in her life. Her writing style was very different from the typical writing style of most poets in her day; she uses dashes and capital letters in places in her poetry that would have been frowned upon by most other poets and publishers. Her rebellious nature isn't only in her style of poetry but in the topics of her poetry as well. For instance, in one of her poems (A Narrow Fellow in the Grass) she writes about nature and a snake. At that time, women were expected to stay inside and take care of the children and the house, men were the ones who went out and hunted and experienced nature. The fact that she wrote about nature shows that she has experienced it at least a few times in her life, which at the time would have been frowned upon. She is definitely a rebellious and unusual poet for her time and that is very admirable to me. She had the courage to be different and express it in a way that was specific to her and rebellious in and of itself.

Essay 1 (Naomi Shihab Nye)

In the poems about the Grandmother by Naomi Shihab Nye, relationships were extremely important not only to the poem itself but to the narrator as well. Her poems talk about how the narrator feels a connection to his/her grandmother even though they do not speak the same language and live in separate countries. She also mentions that even though there is a language barrier, there is still a strong understanding of each other and they love each other. Her grandmother was hardworking and tended a farm for most likely her whole life. She mentions that her grandmother is also illiterate saying "When one comes, she announces it, a miracle, listening to it read again and again in the dim evening light.". She is saying that her grandmother listens to the letter being read to her because she cannot read it. Although her grandmother is a simple person, so to speak, she says how she admires her grandmother and wishes to think in the positive and personal tone she does. Their relationship, no matter how far away they are from each other, is strong.