Discuss ways in which Dickinson explores the sense of the abstract in Going to Him! Happy letter!

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Discuss ways in which Dickinson explores the sense of the abstract in Going to Him! Happy letter!

The sense of the abstract covers a wide varity of ideas such as imagery and language. In ‘Going to Him! Happy letter’ Emily Dickinson explores these ideas of the abstract theme through her use of language. The sense of the abstract is explored through Dickinson’s method of thinking (unlike many of the people in the 1800’s) she was ahead of her time, writing about modern ideas in the 1800’s. Her poems never have a straight forward meaning, this is the abstract, concealing the meaning in her poems and thinking outside of the box. The abstract object in the poem also known as ‘494’ is the letter, which is referred to throughout the poem.

        Stanza one opens with ‘Going to Him! Happy letter!’, immediately we see privacy in Dickinson’s poem, by using ‘Him’ we are left in the dark since we do not know who ‘Him’ is. This indicates that the poem is about a mysterious figure that she may or may not have feeling for. This creates obscurity around the abstract subject of the letter. The use of capitalizing ‘Him’ emphasizes the importance of this person, but still keeps the mystery alive, building up expectations. We know that the poem is about a letter; by including an exclamation mark after the word ‘letter!’ makes it seem joyful, due to the context that it is in. However, the use of the exclamation marks also gives the feeling that the letter is being instructed to be happy; Emily Dickinson needs the letter to be cheerful when it is received in order for her true feeling to be realized. The exclamation marks can also be used in other contexts giving other feelings, such as, ‘Cautious!’ by including this exclamation mark; the letter is made to seem vigilant.

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        The imagery presented by the use of language adds to the sense of the abstract. In stanza one ‘Left the verb and the pronoun out’ shows how Emily Dickinson wants to say things to this mysterious person, but she is not giving away her true feelings and emotions or she is having trouble doing so. This relates to Emily Dickinson’s personal character, we know she was an extremely private woman who enjoyed her own company rather than others, which explains why she is having such difficulties showing her feelings.

        Throughout the poem there is repetition of the word, ‘Tell ...

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