Emily Dickson and Charles Wright

Faith and spirituality can be explored in the poetry of the New England poet Emily Dickinson and the Southern poet Charles Wright. Dickinson seeks for inspiration in the Bible, while Charles Wright looks to Dickinson as a source of information, guidance and inspiration. Wright suggest that "[Dickinson's] poetry [is] an electron microscope trained on the infinite and the idea of God…. Her poems are immense voyages into the unknowable."(Quarter) Charles Wright whose poetry captures a compilation of influences states that "There are three things, basically, that [he] writes about - language, landscape, and the idea of God." Dickinson and Wright centered their poetry in their belief in God and both share the influence of the Bible.

Although, Emily Dickinson physically isolated herself from the world she managed to maintain friendships by communicating through correspondence. Ironically, Dickinson's poetry was collected and published after her death. Dickinson explores life and death in most of her poems by questioning the existence of God.

English: Grave of Emily Dickinson in Amherst, Mass...

Dickinson wrote and sent this poem ("A Route to Ev...

Dickinson's handwritten manuscript of her poem "Wi...

Dickinson applies common human experiences as images to illustrate the connection from the personal level of the human being, to a universal level of faith and God. This can be seen in Dickinson's Poem (I, 45).

There's something quieter than sleepWithin this inner room!It wears a sprig upon its breast-And will not tell its name.

Some touch it, and some kiss it-Some chafe its idle hand-It has a simple gravityI do not understand!I would not weep if I were they-How rude in one to sob!Might scare the quiet fairyBack to her native wood!While simple-hearted neighborsChat of the "Early dead"-We-prone to periphrasisRemark that Birds have fled!Dickinson employs vivid impressions of death in this poem. In the first line, she employs the analogy between sleep and death; sleep is silent but death lives within silence. She uses the word "it" to help...