Although most of Dickinson’s poems were not written with the intent to appeal to the public, many of the core themes she explores are the topics and ideas that seem to be most popular in her time. Throughout this course, we have seen that the 1800s were shaped by war, and a deep, widespread religiousness. 

Likely due to the historical events of the century (the Civil War, the Spanish Civil War), many of the texts we have read  include war or conflict in some form, and Dickinson’s work is no exception. Poem 112 describes a man on the losing side of some conflict dying while hearing cheers of victory in the distance. This reminded me of Whitman’s war poetry, like “Beat Beat Drums“.  Many of Dickinson’s poems reference the beating of drums, possibly a reference to the way the drums of war beat on, irrelevant of the rest of the world. In “I dreaded that first robin so”, the she describes the salute of the flowers and their “unthinking drums”, bringing military terminology into her descriptions of nature.

Most of the texts we have read this semester also contain religious motifs. Particularly the female writers we’ve read (Stowe and Jacobs), seem to write with one of their goals being sharing their faith. Though Dickinson is less explicit about her beliefs or trying to convert her reader, she still includes Biblical allusions in many of her poems. For example, Poem 269 references Eden, Poem 124 references the “members of the Resurrection”, and Poem 320 references “Cathedral Tunes” and “Heavenly Hurt”.  In the poem “I dreaded that first robin so”, Dickinson describes herself as the “Queen of Calvary”. Though the meanings are more obscure, these poems are no exception to the common religious theme of the 19th century.