Sexuality And Sexual Language During The Times Of...

Sexuality was a sensitive topic during the times of Dickinson and Whitman. It was a time dominated by religion and church, where sex is between a man and a woman who are married. The term and idea of homosexuality hadn’t developed in people’s minds yet. Trying to understand two men or two women being attracted to each other was difficult for people. And even if someone could imagine these relationships, there wasn’t a word to describe them like today. Somewhat unfortunately for Dickinson and Whitman, they were born in this time period where they could not be truly understood without these concepts of homosexuality. Writing about sex during this era was dangerous and controversial, but writing about homosexual relations was nearly unheard of. When Whitman published Leaves of Grass, it was overtly sexual. Critics of the book saw it as obscene and vulgar. However, if Whitman were to edit and remove some of the sexuality seen in his writings, it would simply not be a Whitman poem any longer. Dickinson on the contrary used sexual references and sexual language much less often and much more discretely. Her poems did not revolve around the sexual nature of humans the way Whitman did. Whitman throughout his poetry writes against the status quo of prudeness in regards to sexual relations. While Dickinson may have agreed with Whitman and his writings, she was not as influential at changing sexual stigmas as Whitman was. Whitman overall compared to Dickinson, was more explicitlyShow MoreRelatedHow Fa Has the Use of English Language Enriched or Disrupted Life and Culture in Mauritius15928 Words   |  64 Pagesnature of the carriage (stationary and in motion), indicates the poet’s unwillingness to make a decision one way or another. At several times in the poem, Dickenson changes the pace of the reading. Upon the death of the narrator, even though she could not stop for Death, the stanza features end-stops after each line – the reader has to stop multiple times for Death. However, in the last stanza, she allows the reader to run through it very quickly, appropriate since the stanza details the quickRead MoreEssay on 103 American Literature Final Exam5447 Words   |  22 Pagesrelatively high wages and job security (C) low wages but effective union organization that ensured worker safety and reasonable working hours (D) There were few urban factor workers at the end of the nineteenth century; most laborers worked in agriculture during that period. 5. Which of the following best describes the effects of the end of Reconstruction in the southern states in 1877? (A) African Americans enjoyed unprecedented economic opportunities and protection of their civil rights. (B) The southern