The Self-Searching Spirit

This study provides a panoramic view of Emily Dickinson's poetry from a perspective different from tradition. It treats the huge body of her 1775 poems as an integrated whole, composed of three indispensable ingredients, namely, the poet's searching soul, the outer form of her poems, and her dominant themes. By borrowing from the western theory the composition of man, and from theology the term"trinity", the thesis ventures an opinion that her most frequent themes—death, nature, immortality and love—are the four essential components of the contents of her poetry, similarly as man is made up of four elements: earth, water, air and fire, and that her searching soul, and outward seeming of her verses, and her favorite themes constitute the trinity of her poetry. The value of this study lies in its innovation in the treatment of the poet, regarding her poetry as her second self.