Views of God in Theres A Certain Slant of Light and The Brain Is Wider Than The Essay

Emily Dickinson on God

In contrasting Emily Dickinsons Theres A Certain Slant of Light and The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky we get a very different view on the gifts of god, and the power of us as individuals. While the contrasts between the poems are not direct in subject, they both offer up different outlooks on life, and present far different tones. In The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky Dickinson presents human life as a limitless existence, in which god has presented us with the ultimate gift. She asserts that the brain has no limitations, and even goes as far a to say that the human brain is as almighty as god itself. However in Theres A Certain Slant of Light Dickinson presents us with the idea that life is lived on borrowed time, and that because of this fact our limits are great. We are on gods clock, and at his mercy. While the ideas presented in the two poems do not contradict each other, the view on the relation between god and people could not be more different.

The imagery in Theres A Certain Slant of Light is intricate, and can be interpreted in a number of different ways. One peculiar thing about the images in the first stanza is that they are synaesthetic. The Slant of light that gives the poem its name, isnt described as bright, or dull, or with any other visual descriptors. It is described as oppressive Something that oppresses is commonly something of extreme weight, and light has None. This slant of light is also compared to the weight and sadness of cathedral tunes-like the Heft | Of Cathedral Tunes. Since all of these descriptors are extremely uncharacteristic of light, this emphasizes the importance of light as a symbol. I believe that light is symbolic of life, and that the rest of the poem is only an extended metaphor, describing life through contrast with death. The first line of the second stanza presents the reader with a paradoxical statement: Heavenly Hurt. This means that the pain and hurt that light (life) brings are truly heavenly in that they create actual life from simple existence. On the next line, Dickinson goes on to write that We find no scar, from the Heavenly Hurt. From this it becomes apparent that the Heavenly Hurt is only the psychological pain of life. The second half of the second stanza simply reinforces the idea of the importance that psychological pain holds in life. In the third stanza None may teach itAny implies the supremacy of life. Life is presented now as full of knowledge. When this realization if made, light becomes synonymous with God as well as life. The idea of light as God is reinforced in the last stanza: when it comes the Landscape listens. Only an all-powerful being could control nature, and make nature take note of it. Finally when the light leaves, all that is left is death: When it goes, tis like the Distance On the look of Death. This is one reading of it, but I was tempted to believe many others. Whether or not Dickinson intended for it to be that way I have no clue. But it almost gives me the impression that Dickinson is attempting to explain something to herself as she wrote. The imagery in The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky however is much more simple and straight to the point. In this Poem Dickinson is trying to portray that the brain has limitless possibilities compared to the expansive physical attributes of the world. With the line The one the other will contain with ease and you beside Dickinson is comparing the capacity of the sky to the capacity of the mind. From that passage, the reader can infer that minds capability for emotion, knowledge, experience, and memory cannot fit in the vast space of the sky. Our brain is limitless in its capacity. Dickinson also compares the depth of the brain to the sea. The passage The one the other will absorb as Sponges Buckets do shows that the brain has unlimited adaptability and the ability to learn cannot be compared to the depth of the sea. The brain compared to the largest physical features of the world, is truly incomparable because the brains capacity can never be completely measured. Positive and incomparable words such as wider and deeper promote a positive outlook on the capacity of the brain compared to the other large aspects of the world.

In Theres A Certain Slant of Light, Dickinson deals with the concept and realization of the inevitability of death. My visualization of the speaker in this poem is as somebody who is lying in his or her bed on the precipice of death. As this person struggles to release just a few final words of wisdom the person tells whoever is listening of a certain Slant of light, that enters his room. The light is here to take this person from the cold world-winter afternoons- as he or she dies. The person speaks of how that light led this him or her to realize the futile importance of human life. Only with impending death is this person able to understand the meaning of life. The message conveyed through this poem, this mans last words, is that ones life is lived completely on time allotted from God. The price that we pay to god for this borrowed time is being forced to exist for eternity knowing what it was like to live, and missing every second of it. Only you can make that borrowed time worth its price. The theme in The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky however is much different. In this poem Dickinson proclaims that it is us- the people- that truly have the power. She proclaims that our abilities are limitless because our minds are limitless. Dickinson testifies to the mind's capacity to absorb, interpret, and contain perception and experience. The brain is wider than the sky despite the sky's awesome size because the brain is able to incorporate the universe into itself, and thereby even to absorb the ocean. The source of this capacity, in this poem, is God. In an astonishing comparison Dickinson likens the minds capabilities to "the weight of God", differing from that weight only as syllable differs from sound. This is where you see the sharp contrast in theme. The brain differs from God, or from the weight of God, as syllable differs from sound; the difference between syllable and sound is that syllable is given human structure as part of a word, while sound is raw, unformed. Thus Dickinson seems to conceive of God here as an essence that takes its form from that of the human mind. In the first poem you just get the sense that people are at gods mercy, and that it is a cruel existence. The speaker gives us the impression that people are small, and insignificant. Here that is obviously not the case as Dickinson pits humans toe to toe with god himself.

In Theres A Certain Slant of Light Dickinsons use of rhyme reveals her emphasis throughout the poem. The rhyme scheme of the poem is very free in form, as only the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. What is interesting about this is that if you look through the poem, you will find that these lines (2,4) are always the lines that are associated with nature. This gives the regularity of nature a kind of beauty. The irregular lines (the first and third of each stanza) dont rhyme. These are the lines that represent mankind. The lack of rhyme in these lines enhances the randomness and lunacy of the human race. Theres A Certain Slant of Light has the same rhyme pattern, however it does not have the same effect. Since the entire poem is in one tone and evokes similar images throughout, I dont feel the same stark contrast that is presented in the first poem.

In conclusion, while these two poems are ultimately about two different things, the appearance of god in two very different lights makes for some interesting contrast. Dickinson both views God as an almighty being who has complete control over its beings, and as an equal. One poem makes you think about the grand scheme of things, and truly makes human existence feel limitless, while the other makes you feel insignificant, and as if you are looking at life though a tunnel of which the ceiling is about to collapse.