Essential Beauty Essay

2556 Words11 Pages
COMPARE THE WAYS IN WHICH DICKINSON AND LARKIN EXPLORE THE IDEA OF DIFFERENT WORLDS Philip Larkin and Emily Dickinson both express a sense of ideal and reality in their poem; however both have different interpretation and nature of the ideal world. To Larkin, the ideal world is something that cannot be achieved despite being evident in life. Having lived through materialism which was introduced in the 1950s, Larkin is able to witness the impact advertisement had on reality. Through both his poem we are able to his dislike to how the modern society is trying to adapt to the materialistic world. 'Essential Beauty' shows how the advertisement of materialistic object has become a dominant part of society as it creates an ideal world which claims…show more content…
The readers are able to identify an assertive tone in the beginning of the poem through the use of declarative statement 'Heaven has different Signs' to make the poem appear to be an argument as she wants us to know where she stands in the existence and belief of 'Heaven'. The dash and personal subjective pronoun '-me' creates a separation between her beliefs of heaven from those who view it as a religious concept. Later on, she expresses how she strongly believes 'Heaven' to be shown in Earth through the concrete noun 'Orchards, Birds, Clouds'. Two different worlds are created here as she uses natural qualities on earth and presents it in a way other people would expect the ideal world-heaven-to look like indicating these things brings her happiness. Ambiguity is shown in the third stanza as the readers question what 'The Rapture of a finished Day' could relate to. This noun phrase could be seen as a religious context as the connotation of 'Rapture' could be a mystical experience in which somebody believes they are transported into 'Heaven'. However, as Dickinson shows appreciation on life on earth, according to her it could illustrate someone's extreme happiness and enthusiasm of a day
Open Document