Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson quotes explained

Kathryn Galbraith

American Lit.

Emily Dickinson was a brilliant writer and is often considered the "mother" of poetry. For this reason I choose a passage from her writing to start this paper.

Some keep the Sabbath going to church

I keep it staying home

With a bobolink for a choirister

And an orchard for a dome (Emily Dickinson)

This is a strong passage about religious faith and how one chooses to worship. In the eyes of Dickinson worship was in her home. She did not feel the need to go out and be seen at a church to embrace God. She felt that nature, as pure as it is, was a strong connection with God. Why not embrace nature then? That is what she did. In the line "With a bobolink for a choirister" she is stating a bird's song can replace a chorus, and still sing a sweet symphony.

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An orchard is nature at it's best, a beautiful sight, the trees producing fruit, a completely natural state. Due to this, Dickinson believed she could worship at home, with the bobolink, and the orchard being her Sabbath. Dickinson also believed the type of adoration to God she chose was equally as strong as those who believed in going to church. She felt completely equal to all of God's children, instead of being praised through a churches eyes, she praised through her own and with nature.

This passage is relevant to my life because I feel the words she is saying. Nature is and will always be my church and my God. Nature is the product of God and is just a close to heaven as church is.

My strong affection for nature contributed to my decision to go on a hiking trip in the Olympic Rainforest. I spent close to...