Comparing Whitman and Dickinson

Modern Poetry /Whitman and Dickinson

Before delving into Modernist aspects of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson’s poetry, I feel it necessary to explain where and how this movement blossomed.

The Modernist movement was in many ways an extension of the Romantic Movement’s ideals, although it brought it to an elevated level. The Romantic movement blossomed out of the rigid ness and formality of classicism. It was in a sense a kind of renaissance, and rediscovery. It rejected the idea that one could not write about oneself, and explored man’s relationship not just to society, but also to nature and to the mysteries of the universe. Nature ceased to be an objective, intellectual concept, but instead a subjective one. The Romantic poets delved into the beauty of metaphors and imagery to render these ideas. The Romantic Movement would be the catalyst to the Modernist Movement.

It is said that Modernism also arose from a backlash against Victorian ideals, whi...