Abstract

Emily Dickinson’s works still bring great interest in modern critics and have great impacts on literature. This paper intends to have a study on natural imagery group in Dickinson’s poems to provide a path for deep understanding of the images. First of all, the author will trace back to Emily Dickinson’s life environment and explore the origin and background of the images, to combine the subtle images with the poet’s life environment and emotional experience. Then, according to the characteristics of the images, the author will make a classification. Finally, the author will analyze the application of three main natural imagery groups in her poems: water imagery, plant imagery and animal imagery.

  Through the selection of some representative poems, this paper aims to explore Dickinson’s imagery, it finds that based on the reader’s background knowledge and the text, it can be proved that the text world theory is efficient in exploring the discourse construction mechanism and Dickinson’s imagery. The present paper offers the readers a practical way to interpret poems and a new point to study Dickinson’s poems.

Key words: Emily Dickinson; Natural Imagery Group; Water Imagery; Plant Imagery; Animal Imagery

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1  Introduction-1

1.1 General Introduction of Emily Dickinson-1

1.2 General Introduction of Emily Dickinson’s Poems-2

1.2.1 The Themes of Her Poems-3

1.2.2 The Application of Natural Images-3

1.2.3 The Main Natural Imagery Group in Her Poems-4

2  Analysis of Natural Imagery Group-6

2.1 Analysis of Water Imagery-6

2.1.1 Passionate and Dynamic River-6

2.1.2 Amiable and Bold Sea-7

2.2 Analysis of Plant Imagery-7

  2.2.1 Flower-Independent and Composite Image-7

  2.2.2 Reasonable and Civilized Pursuit-8

2.3 Analysis of Animal Imagery-9

2.3.1 Peaceful and Painful Lifecycle-9

2.3.2 Harmonious Relationship with Human-10

3  Conclusion-13

Bibliography-14

Acknowledgements-15