A Comparison of Emily Dickinson and Henry David Thoreau
...horeau’s life while he lived in the third-floor attic of his parent’s home. Dickinson also found inspiration for her poems in nature and her surroundings. The subjects of many of her poems were birds, trees, flowers, the weather and even insects. She also made many of her observations in her garden while living in her father’s home. Another similarity is found in the influence that death had on the works of Thoreau and Dickinson. John Thoreau, Jr. was Henry David Thoreau’s older brother and was a great influence in his life. Together they opened a school in Concord where Henry taught until his brother’s death in 1842. Three years later Henry built a small cabin on the shores of Walden Pond on land owned by Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is a common belief Thoreau went to Walden to escape civilization. In reality, he went there to work on the book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, a tribute to his late brother about a trip they had taken together. Much of Emily Dickinson’s poetry seemed to suggest a near obsession with death. She seemed to examine death and it’s possibilities from the perspective of her own grief. The subject of death in her poetry is often linked with the deaths of her parents, a favorite nephew and the Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Many persons believe that Wadsworth was the basis for Dickinson’s love poems and, even though he was married, Emily loved him deeply. Heavily influenced by his mentor and friend Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thoreau was a true believer in the transcendentalist ideas of individualism, self-reliance and that God exists in man and nature. His two years spent in a small cabin on the shores of Walden Pond was a reflection of these ideals. Free of materialistic beliefs, Thoreau spent his time observing and writing about nature and the woods around Walden Pond. In contrast, Emily Dickinson did not subscribe to any particular philosophy or school of thought. She was simply true to herself and her individuality. Emily lived her simple life secluded in her father’s house. Looking inward for her inspiration, Emily wrote of love, death, and nature while searching for God and the meaning of life. Emily Dickinson is not associated with the transcendentalism movement by her beliefs, but by the simple way she lived her life and the nature of her poetry. Another contrast is found in the political views of the authors. In his essay Resistance to Civil Government, Thoreau urges the reader to disobey unjust laws. This rejection of traditional authority is also a signature of his transcendentalist nature. On one occasion Thoreau a...