Close reading a poem and thesis-driven essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Close reading a poem and thesis-driven - Essay Example Using various literary devices, Dickinson follows stepwise the deadness or the feeling that is experienced when a terrible incident happens. In this poem, the emotional pain was discussed. Indeed, numbness is initially experienced before one feels that pain. An illustration that can describe this situation better is the electric circuit breaker. Excess electric current causes the circuit breaker to trip and eventually cuts off the electricity so that the connected devices are not blown up. In the same manner, the excess anguish will trigger the emotional circuit breaker that is numbness temporarily so that we don’t experience pain. The experience may be encountered by some of us or are undoubtedly bound to be experienced some time in future. In stanza 1 of the poem, the use of alliteration has been identified to emphasize a specified aspect. For example, the f sound in line 1 and the subsequent stanzas, the s sound is used. â€Å"Heart† and â€Å"He† sounds are tied together by H sounds. In the subsequent verses, the alliteration is also identified but sometimes only two words are used. In this poem, there is no speaker, no â€Å"1†. Dehumanization of the sufferer occurs until the last two lines. In line 1, the victim is taken as the object. In this sense, â€Å"formal feeling† is the work on him or her. He or she is passive and submissive in a way that there is no freedom of defense during the period when pain is being subjected. The description of the sufferer is in terms of body parts in the form of the heart, the nerves, and the feet. Additionally, the gender of the victim is not revealed. One might wonder whether depersonalization is a technique of portraying the emotional numbness. In t he description of this poem, I decide to give gender to the sufferer, and hence I take it to be a female. It is to reduce or technically remove the constant repetition of using â€Å"sufferer† or â€Å"he or she.† Enjambment used in