Emily Dickinson - Analysis of her poems2

Poem n° 199

There is a comparison of the social role of "wife" & "woman". She compares the life of a young girl and then of a woman. She has finished the so-called duties of a wife, but as a woman she feels that she's the queen. The young girl notes the domestic life as an eclipse, and the one after would feel the pain, who see it from outside thinks it’s correct. She ends the poem on a sarcastic note, that it’s better not to compare things, and she wants to stop being a wife, "It's safer being a woman than a wife".

Poem n° 248

In this poem she exalts a sexual privity, but she does not turn to a person, but to the sea. She describes a pathetic situation, there isn't reality.

Poem n° 258

This poem focuses on the effect of a certain kind of light that the speaker notices on winter afternoons. Faith and God are not easy for E.D., and they cause "Heavenly hurt". She refers to the pain that we kept inside. Death is not purely negative, but it’s a transformation.

Poem n° 441

It's an example of "Metapoetry" - poetry that is aware of itself as a poem, how it's constructed and why it's being composed.

William Edward Du Bois [1868 - 1963]

Against Washington's politics

Testo → "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903)

It’s a sociological text. Du Bois pushed for equal economic and social rights and worked to develop "Black consciousness" by promoting black culture and heritage. In 'The Souls of Black Folk' he argued that blacks needed to become more aware of their history, art, music, and religious backgrounds, in order to understand themselves fully.