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Cassandra Waggett
Poe, Dickinson and Whitman: Exemplars of Form and Style
Comparing the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman
is perhaps one of the best ways to broach the otherwise austere subject of rhyme
and rhythm with students. Even readers who are unfamiliar with the
technicalities of meter can instinctively pick up on the auditory difference
between these three authors. Juxtaposing these authors takes readers from the
extremes of formal verse with Poe, to a comfortable middle ground with
Dickinson, and to the extent of free verse with Whitman. It also gives students
an opportunity to examine what “style” really means, because each of these
authors has a many-faceted and unique style. The works of these authors are
easily distinguishable by their structure and application of stylistic devices.
Poe’s “The City in the Sea” deviates somewhat from his structural and
thematic norms. It irregularly utilizes several half-rhymes such as “towers” and
“ours”, “given” and “Heaven”, and “been” and “serene” (Poe 1.6, 1.8, 4.5, 4.6,
3.11, 3.12). Poe is known for musicality arising from his strict adherence to a
set rhyme scheme and meter, and usually uses true rhymes. In her 2015 Final Exam
essay “Lyrical Poetry with Poe, Whitman and Dickinson”, Sarah Hurt stated that
“Every time I read a poem by Poe I always imagine it being sung because of his
use of rhythm and rhyme.” Although this poem does have a high degree of
musicality, it is still structured more loosely than some of Poe’s other poems.
Additionally, this poem lacks Poe’s most characteristic theme: the death of a
beautiful woman, although it does personify death itself as a king, and Poe’s
personifications and allusions are always gendered (Poe, 1.1, White “Poe style
guide”). This poem also lacks internal rhyme, which Poe applies in other works
like “The Raven” to create a chanting effect.
“The
City in the Sea” does contain several of Poe’s other trademarks, including his
use of archaic language such as “Lo!” (Poe 1.1, White “Poe style guide”).
Additionally, Poe utilizes the religious variant of the gothic, saying that “No
rays from holy heaven come down” upon the city, and that “Hell… Shall do it
reverence” (Poe 1.10, 4.11-12). He also frequently incorporates decaying gothic
architecture, and does so here with “Time-eaten towers” and “spires” (Poe 1.7,
2.6). His “hideously serene” seas are sublime (Poe 3.12). Poe also uses sound
techniques like alliteration to contribute to the musicality of his work (White
“Poe Style Sheet). His use of “The viol, the violet, and the vine” and “gaping
graves” has auditory aesthetic appeal (Poe 2.12, 3.1).
Just
as strict rhyme and meter and auditory appeals betrays Poe’s authorship, Emily
Dickinson’s short, four-line stanzas, use of dashes, and experimental form
distinguishes her work (White “Dickinson style guide”). In Dickinson’s “[I heard
a fly buzz when I died]”, her final line of “I could not see to see—” plays on
the reader’s expectation that the line would conclude with a discussion of
hearing in light of the concentration on the fly’s “stumbling buzz”, a sound. It
would then have been “I could not see to hear”. The implication of this omission
tends towards synesthesia, a technique that Dickinson commonly employs (White
“Dickinson style sheet”). Dickinson also manipulates form in the third stanza by
interrupting the meter of the poem to parallel the imposition of the fly with
the lines “What portion of me be / Assignable…”. In this stanza, Dickinson also
interrupts the pattern of half-rhymes in the second and fourth lines. This
abrupt alteration in form contributes to the irksome then disturbing quality of
the fly. Just as the speaker moves peacefully through the motions of preparing
for death, the reader moves fluidly through the text, but then the jarring
disruption of the poem’s form in the third stanza produces a discordant effect
on the reader, similar to the speaker’s dismay at the appearance of the fly.
Dickinson’s poems have closed, literal beginnings and ambiguous, open
conclusions and occasionally incorporate gothic figures (White “Dickinson style
guide”). “[I heard a fly buzz when I died” has all of these qualities. It opens
with “I heard a fly buzz—when I died”; the association of the fly with death is
logical and literal, as flies emerge from corpses. As such, the fly is a gothic
figure. However, by the end of the poem, the meaning of the fly which
“interposes… Between the light—and [the speaker]” is complicated. Taken along
with the mention of “the King” in the second stanza, the fly is potentially a
demonic or satanic figure arising out of the religious variant of the gothic.
The failure of the “windows” resulted in an inability to see as death set in,
and the eyes are sometimes referred to as “windows to the soul”. Given this
connection between sight and the soul, the fly is an appropriate figure for
spiritual obstruction because is a many-eyed creature. In any event, the
significance of the final stanza is open to varied interpretations, a stark
contrast to the opening line.
“[I
heard a fly buzz when I died]” also contains Dickinson’s characteristic
comingling of abstract and concrete figures and ideas (White “Dickinson style
sheet”). The idea expressed in the third stanza of giving away oneself through
one’s possessions imbues material objects with intangible identity. There is
another instance of this is the second stanza, in which “Breaths were gathering
firm”. Breaths, being movements of air, are not literally firm. This is one of
Dickinson’s most unique stylistic devices.
While Dickinson experiments with formal verse, Whitman dispenses with it
completely, instead imitating vernacular speech. Whitman employs the elision of
silent vowels in order to assure his readers that the pronunciation of words has
not been altered for the sake of meter, as the word “wreathed” is in Poe’s “The
City in the Sea” (Poe 2.11, White “Whitman style guide”). In contrast, Poe uses
the accent aigu to demonstrate the opposite effect. Whitman uses elision in the
title of “When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer” and again in the first, sixth and
eight lines. His next two lines constitute a catalog of the astronomer’s
instruments. Catalog is present in most, if not all of Whitman’s poems (White
“Whitman style guide”). His fourth line features parallelism through the
repetition of “he lectured… in the lecture room” (Whitman 4, White “Whitman
style guide”). The combination of catalog and elision is iconic of Whitman’s
work.
Poe, Dickinson, and Whitman all have very unique styles and they
exemplify key points on the spectrum from formal to free verse. Juxtaposing them
is an excellent way to teach about rhyme and meter, a notoriously intimidating
subject. It is also an excellent way to give developing writers a sense of what
“style” is. By studying these three poets, students can boil down the large,
abstract concept of style to specific, deliberate decisions on the part of a
writer and hopefully move towards developing their own style.
