Opposites+Attract

= Opposites Attract = = =

Research: Emily Dickinson was an American poet who was considered to be the "mother of poetry." She was born to a successful (rich) family in Massachusetts. She lived her life isolated in her house and she would never leave unless it was for medical reasons due to her experiences with death. She experienced many events pertaining to death, and as a result, her poetry was based on her fascination of it. She also wrote about love, nature, and how she deserved to be exposed to the world. During her lifetime, only 18 out of her nearly 800 poems were published. Walt Whitman was also a renowned poet and humanist, but he was born to a rather poor family. As a humanist, he was a part of the shift from transcendentalism to realism and incorporated both views into his poetry. From his poetry, Whitman was considered to be either homosexual or bisexual. Deeply influenced by deism, Whitman wrote about religion as well as sexuality, alcohol, slavery, and Shakespeare using free verse.

Spider and Robin: Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman both make a reference to animals to convey how humans live connecting to their overall theme of happiness. Dickinson describes how the Robin gets up early to accomplish its activities; however, in the last stanza she explains how home is the best place to be. This relates to a human's daily life, but it especially refers to Dickinson's life, when she spent the majority of her time inside her home. Walt Whitman describes a lonely spider that needs to build a bridge to no longer be lonely. The spider's thread relates to humanity because humans have to find the reasons to explore and understand the world around them.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Part One: Life CXXXVI This poem by Emily Dickinson is about carefully making a decision, but a negative one; by this, an experience is created for the future so a person can prevent making the same mistake again. "Plank to plank" and "slow and cautiously" describe her being careful before making a decision. "The stars about my head I felt" means the time before making the wrong decision and the dreams and desires of a person; "about my feet the sea" depicts the consequences a person my go through because of a misstep in life. "I know not but the next would be my final inch" refers to how life is always unpredictable. "This gave me that precarious gait some call experience" refers to the knowledge of what is wrong and right that people gain throughout their years of living.

823. The Last Invocation Walt Whitman (1819-1892) This poem by Walt Whitman is similar to the Dickinson poem. The theme of this poem is life, like Dickinson's poem. "Walls" and "locks" represent the dead body of a person. To "unlock" means setting the soul inside the body free. Also, the whole poem explains that a person needs to be gentle and patient in order for good results in life because he mentions words, "softness" and "whisper". This is similar to Dickinson's poem because her poem is about patiently and cautiously making a decision and learning from experiences. Whitman and Dickinson both tell their readers how to live life and they both refer to a life where a person is careful and patient.

Dialogue: Dickinson: Cautiousness is a very important trait to have when you are going through any experience in life.

Whitman: Indeed, being cautious helps us in many situations.

Dickinson: Cautiousness doesn't always protect you though, Mr. Whitman.

Whitman: I disagree! Cautiousness and gentleness always brings good to us.

Dickinson: Something can always go wrong, even if you are cautious.

Whitman: Even if something goes wrong, you learn from the experience.

Dickinson: I guess you learn what things not to do in the future.

Whitman: Yes, that is right. Cautiousness will always free our souls in the end.

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