Emily Dickinson Civil War Poetry Analysis

An image alone has the ability to be worth a thousand words, but paired together with poetry, it expresses much more. Emily Dickinson, an American poet, created true works of art that often had ambiguous meaning. Dickinson’s poetry continuously constructed dominant images that, needless to say, didn’t need illustrations. Emily Dickinson’s Civil War poems specifically, contain descriptions of graphic images that also fit well with the photo taken by American Photographer, Timothy H. O’Sullivan. In Dickinson’s poem They dropped like flakes (1863), adding the image, “The Harvest of Death” by Timothy H. O’Sullivan and placing it at the end of the poem, would essentially enhance the impact of the vision Dickinson portrays in regards to the Civil War. This impact of this Dickinson’s vision strongly enhances the photographic techniques used in the photo, while the placement gives the audience a shocking, intense and sympathetic feeling. Throughout Dickinson’s …show more content…
I believe that the way in which a poem leaves you feeling should be represented by light in a photograph. “They perished in the Seamless Grass-/ No eye could find the place-/ But God can summon every face/ On his Repealless- List” (6-9). The last stanza gives a feeling of hope. As these soldiers lay on the floor, they are not remember by anyone, but God. God can “summon every face,” therefor never forgetting His children. This gives off the idea of having a photo that is not dark, but not bright either, it is a balance between the two and this photo by O’Sullivan represents this completely. The most upper part of this photo expresses light as if it God’s calling. Although mostly leaning towards the brighter side, this image does contain a fog that helps to add a more darker idea of the soldiers death. The balancing aspect of light in this photograph adds to the underlying tone of this