English Literature

Unit Three – Poems

THE SOUL SELECTS HER OWN SOCIETY:
 Poet: Emily Dickinson.
 Structure: Type: lyric poem: short musical poem that focuses on strong feelings
Division: 12 lines, 3 quadrants (4-line stanzas).
Speaker: 3rd POV, 1st POV.
 Tone: rebellious.
 Mood: thoughtful and spiritual.
 Theme: choosing friends wisely, and not to be judgmental (as people criticized Emily
of being reclusive).
 Transcendental belief: the power of the individual’s inner experiences
 Caesura: rhetorical device or break in the middle of the line; it’s marked by a
punctuation mark; in this poem she used dashes.
o EX: then, shuts the door (don’t underline the dashes) in line 5 take 2 only.
 To make a pause, to create suspense, to make readers think.
 Dashes:
 to create suspense.
 to show her uncertainty and insecurity
 to replace other punctuation marks.
 to pause and let the readers think.
 As a way to rejected the society’s rules by breaking the rules of poetry as if
she is breaking the rules of society as a way to express her radical thoughts.
 Capitalization:
 To personify the words as if they are proper places (gate) and nouns (society)
 To break rules of poetry and society.
 To express her radical style.
 To draw the reader’s attention to those words.
 To show and add importance on those words.
 How did Emily reject masculinity in her society? by making her poems mysterious,
word choice (unmoved, stone, shuts, majority, selects...), unusual punctuation marks,
dashes, capitalization and slant rhyme.
 Slant rhyme: s a type of rhyme where the final consonant sounds of two words are
similar but not identical. (ABAB) => gate, mat, nation, attention, stone, one.
 What is the purpose of sibilance How does it affect the tone and mood? To show
that her decision was made fast and to emphasize on her stubborn nature. “sh” sound
creates a sudden change in decisions.

1
L. Quotation
“The Soul selects her own
1 Society—”
“Then—shuts the Door—"
2
3 “To her divine Majority—"
“Present no more—"
5
Annotation
Sibilance: figure of speech in which a hissing
sound is created within a group of words thru
repetition of s or sh sound.
Personification: soul is personified as a person
who make a decision and chooses/selects her
own people and friends.
3rd POV
Dash: to pause, make suspense and make the
readers think.
EG: the soul is decisive (decision maker),
strong and independent as she did this decision
quickly by the repetition of the sh sound.
Literal meaning (personification): soul is a
female who chooses her own society and closes
the door to the rest of community.
Figurative meaning: Emily rejected her society
and expressed that in poetry as she is
considering herself from the minority and
excluding herself from the majority by being
independent as she has the right to choose her
own friends w/o restrictions.
EG: after she chooses her society, she is not
present any more as Emily barely left her house
Extended metaphor: personification and
image continue all over the poem and takes
more than one line.
EG: even if carriages are coming and pausing
at the gate of her palace, the soul will be
unmoved as she wouldn’t change her mind and
2
 wouldn’t accept anyone in her community as
she will reject them all.
(Stubborn and strong).

“Unmoved—she noted the

Chariots—pausing—”

Metaphor: soul is compared to a princess in a

“At her low Gate—" palace.
6

EG: the soul won’t change her mind even if a

king came to ask for her hand and kneeled for
her to accept him.
7 “Unmoved—an Emperor be
kneeling” Symbol: authority, power and importance

Anaphora: stubbornness and decisiveness are

conveyed through the word unmoved

8 “Upon her Mat—" EG: kneeling Infront of her.

9 “I’ve known her—from an EG: Emily is connecting herself with the soul
ample nation—” as the soul will choose one person from the
whole world

Hyperbole: from this whole world, soul choose

only one. Emily is justifying her position to her
1
critics of being lonely and shy by explaining
0
“Choose One—" that the heart/soul or inter feeling chooses her
friends not her.

EG: after the soul made a decision and chose

only one form this world, the soul won’t accept
“Then—close the Valves of her anyone else form her community.
attention—”
1 Synecdoche: valves represent the heart.
1
Symbol: authority, power and importance

Simile: her heart will be strong and stubborn

3
 and will close like stone

Feminist POV: rejecting her masculine society

“Like Stone—” by declaring herself independent, unique and
1 different as she has a voice as she can express
2 her voice thru her poem.

Dashes: the line is imperfect and a fragment to

show the imperfection of society and to express
uncertainty about her thoughts and life.