Emily Dickinson’s Exploration of Faith and Science

At first glance, it may seem that the only thing Charles Baudelaire and Emily Dickinson had in common was that they were both poets. Even in their personal lives, they seemed to be polar opposites. She has been labeled as very reclusive, whereas he was described as an adventurer and rule breaker. After reading “The Albatross” by Charles Baudelaire and poem four forty-eight, “This was a Poet – It is,” by Emily Dickinson, I was able to identify some of their similarities as well as more of their dissimilarities.

They both believed in the importance of poetry for the human race. While they share an opinion concerning the significance of poetry, Baudelaire chooses to write about the misfortune of the poets who are not recognized for their greatness.

Whilst Dickinson makes it clear that those who do not appreciate poetry will be deprived of greatness. They made their beliefs clear in these two poems through symbolism, metaphors, and comparison.
Conforming to our surroundings is not always an easy thing to do, and Baudelaire makes it clear to us just how difficult it can be for poets. The Albatross in the poem is a symbol for the Poet. It is so elegant and agile when it is in the sky, but the moment it touches the ground of the ship, it becomes “weak and awkward,” it stands out on land because of its “great wings.” The Poet is the same; when he is writing poems or in his comfort zone, he is at peace and knows he can make an impact on the world.

The moment he steps out of it, just as the Albatross feels out of place when touching the ground, the Poet stands out in society because of his eloquent creativity. In addition, the capture of the Albatross is a metaphor used to represent the Poet’s irritation with the oblivious reader. “One deckhand sticks a pipe stem in its beak; another mocks the cripple that once flew!” The sailors represent the readers who pull the Poet, the Albatross, onto the ground so they can make fun of his vulnerabilities by means of his poem. When the Poet is brought to the ground, onto the reader’s ship, his emotions are uncovered, and he becomes an object of ridicule for ignorant readers. By poking fun at the Poet’s thoughts and feelings, the reader pollutes the Poet’s contribution. The Poet is “riding the storm above the marksman’s range.’ He is not addressing the clueless readers, rather he is writing for the people who will value the importance of his words. Not the ones who “hooted and jeered,” but those people who admire and respect the poets work without harming or belittling it. He writes for those who can value his “great wings.” All in all, reading and analyzing this poem makes it clear to me that it takes a lot of courage for poets to share their work with the world because their greatness will not always be recognized, and they will be ridiculed by those who do not understand them.

Poetry can make a great impact on the world, but it can also cause harm to its author if he is not understood. To begin, Baudelaire makes it clear how great poets and poetry can be. “The Poet is like this monarch of the clouds.” This quote holds the Poet up in very high regard, comparing him or her to a ruler who is on top of the world. Unfortunately, Baudelaire also shows us how tough it can be for these “monarchs” to fit in. When the Poet is not understood by his audience, he feels a sense of rejection and melancholy, which he lets out in this poem. Through this verse, Baudelaire is reaching out to others who feel his loneliness or isolation as well as the people who are causing the rejection being felt. In conclusion, Charles Baudelaire acknowledges that poetry is a great art form, but it can cause the authors to feel like outcasts who are treated with disdain because of their differences.

Poets have the ability to describe even the most ordinary things in the most extraordinary ways, as described by Emily Dickinson. First of all, in this verse, Dickinson compares us to a poet and how the Poet is different from us. The Poet has the ability to change the ordinary and regular aspects of our wearisome lives into an ‘amazing sense’ and an ‘Attar so immense’ that we are dumbfounded at our own incompetence to do this. She likens the Poet to the readers and says we are poor in comparison. The poverty she is referring to is of the non-material kind. People who are not poets may be wealthy, but they are poor in their souls and emotions. Poets are the opposite. They don’t have loads of money or riches to fall back on and will probably need to work other jobs while they write. Unlike us, they are rich in their minds, which increases the profit of their souls. To be rich as a poet means to write poems that are like art. All in all, like Baudelaire, Dickinson recognizes the great magnitude of poetry, but she chooses to feel bad for those who are not poets instead of pitying misunderstood poets like Baudelaire does.

Emily Dickinson, like Charles Baudelaire, uses a metaphor to describe what she thinks, but, in her case, it is about the Poet, not the reader. “From the familiar species That perished by the Door,” it is possible that this is an allusion to mankind, particularly Dickinson’s own type of humanity. It has been said that she would hide to avoid people throughout her life. Her way of life is the solitary kind, where she is occupied by deep observation and creativity. “We wonder it was not Ourselves/Arrested it – before,” here, she once again strengthens the description of the type of person. Dickinson’s use of masculine pronouns “Himself — to Him” in reference to the Poet does not have to be thought of as her following proper grammar rules. In fact, she may have written it in that way to distance herself from the title of a poet so that she could be impartial when evaluating the true nature of poets and poetry. She was probably afraid of having a one-sided view in her observations; she would not have wanted to say the Poet is influential because she is one. All in all, we see in this poem that even her removed observation resulted in praise for the Poet.

In conclusion, both Emily Dickinson and Charles Baudelaire recognized the power of poetry when in the right hands. They each chose to highlight the different impacts on different people. Baudelaire pointed out the sorrows of the poets whose greatness goes unrecognized. Dickinson does the opposite. She makes it evident that those who don’t grasp the genius of poetry will be deprived of a complete and “profitable” soul. Both authors use literary devices like symbolism, metaphors, and comparison to prove their points. In doing so, we learn so much more about the authors of the poems and how they felt about their work.

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