艾米丽狄更生诗歌分析.docx

艾米丽狄更生诗歌分析
In A Nutshell
Hey now, just because Emily Dickinson didn't get out much, doesn't mean that she tot艾米丽狄更生诗歌分析
In A Nutshell
Hey now, just because Emily Dickinson didn't get out much, doesn't mean that she totally lost touch with the world. Though the "Belle of Amherst" is infamous for rarely leaving her hometown – or even her home stead– she still had a great many observations about the changing world around her, some of which we see in "I like to see it lap the Miles." Dickinson's father, Edward, was actually an instrumental part of the committee involved in bringing the railroad to their town (Amherst, MA) in 1853, so the 23-year-old poetess must have heard a whole lot about the arrival of the world-changing "iron horse" over the family dinner table.
Interestingly, though her father proudly watched the arrival of the first train in the town, Emily herself watched from a distance, in the woods.* This same distance – a combination of fascination and wariness, perhaps – stands out in "I like to see it lap the Miles." The coming of the railroad definitely meant a change in sleepy Amherst's way of life, and in Emily's own. We have to wonder what personal impact this change of pace made to this reclusive poet and the rapidly modernizing world around her.
*For an interesting and very sophisticated discussion of this family connection, ch