Voice and Style in DIckinson
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I have read only a few Dickinson poems before, and have always loved her word choice and unique style but also have been generally baffled by her poems. Her unique use of punctuation, grammatical structure, and line breaks are essential to her poems, yet I have never been able to pinpoint how or why her unique choices contribute to her voice and writing- that is, until I read the two different versions of poem #320. The anthology included her original poem and then an edited version where many of her capitalization, punctuation and word choices were changed or erased to be published in a book about her poetry. When reading this edited version, I realized how much her odd choices construct a particular cadence to her poems that make them so distinctly hers and add to their meaning. For example, while her use of dashes seems excessive at times, the line in poem 260 “Are you – Nobody – too?” would have an entirely different meaning than “Are you nobody too?” or any other version aside from the one she wrote in her specific style. After reading the edited version, I re-read the original poem 320 and noticed an overwhelming sense that of her voice in her writing. Her use of these unconventional choices gives a rhythm and style to her writing that almost feels like she is talking to me through the page, like I can hear her speaking the lines in her particular voice.
I also found Dickinson’s unique choice of capitalization and punctuation to show her particular voice. I think the anthology version of poem 320 is an example of an editor changing the work to make it more standardized, but in doing so, something of Dickinson’s voice was lost. The capitalization places emphasis on certain words, which creates another layer of meaning to interpret within the poem.
I agree, her style has always been so intriguing to me! Particularly, I usually have a tendency to read through poems too fast if I’m not speaking out loud, and I think Dickinson’s use of dashes makes my eyes slow down as I read. I love trying to figure out why she brought attention to certain words or phrases and think about the meaning of them on their own. Additionally, her use of unusual capitalization always made me wonder if there is a rhyme and reason to it or whether she just wanted to have fun with her writing!
I also found the specific cadences utilized by Dickinson integral to her style. The hyphens and pauses force the reader to pause and contemplate the portion of a poem or line that she deems the most significant, amplifying the emotions that phrases elicit. For example, the phrase you mentioned that enunciated Nobody, to me offers the poem a somber tone. It forces contemplation of the idea of nobody, enforcing a theme of loneliness and isolation. This pattern or rhythm mirrors the themes that reoccur throughout Dickinson’s works as well. Well reading, I observed a fixation of loss and death, especially through the changing of the seasons. The pauses add a melancholic tone that suits these topics, while also providing a musicality to reading the poem, leaving a tragic dissonance that brings pleasure to the reader.
I agree, I also found it shocking how such seemingly small changes shifted the tone and meaning of poem 320. This comparison made me realize how expertly Dickinson is using language, every word she uses is carefully chosen and is absolutely necessary to the structure and effect of the final poem. In my opinion, her intentional playing with language is what makes her poems so interesting to read.