Journal #42

If I were alive in the time period of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, I would most likely have read the poems of Emily Dickinson. Dickinson's poetry caused a bit of an uproar back in the day; however, it was actually interesting and beautiful to read. Whitman, who also raised red flags with his poetry, wrote poetry that I think was just ignorant and way too self absorbed for me to ever be interested in reading his works. Emily Dickinson, in my opinion, was actually a very talented writer and I enjoy reading her poems today, which leads me to believe that I would most likely enjoy reading her poems back when she actually wrote them. Dickinson's poems focus a lot on feminism, which was a big step at the time. Being a girl, I can obviously appreciate her mindset and the points she was trying to make. Dickinson wrote about the power of women, but she did it in an interesting way in which she did not necessarily slam men or their intentions, she just portrayed how women can be strong, powerful, and beautiful. Whitman, when trying to prove his points, would put other people down and be extremely biased, which I just think is annoying, and it makes me not want to read his works. Dickinson, however, just kind of throws out her ideas and does not try to make it seem as if she is right and everyone else is wrong. Dickinson also wrote her "offensive" poems in a very interesting way; her racy poems were actually extremely intriguing and sort of fun to read, while when reading Whitman's provocative poems I was just kind of annoyed and wanted to get to the end of it. Also, he was a homosexual, which I have absolutely nothing against, but I felt that it was sort of controversial how at times he would write about his love with a man and other times his love with a woman. It was just he wanted to woman so that they could actually have sex, which sounds vulgar, but it is true. Dickinson, however, wrote about things such as sex in a way that was not really as offensive or controversial, and it was made to seem much more beautiful. I like the simplicity of her poems and how creative she got, and, even though it was definitely offensive at the time, I would have read her over Whitman any day.