Belonging In Emily Dickinson's 'This Is My Letter To The World'

eleBelonging Essay
“An Individual’s sense of belonging depends on their personal context”
Belonging can provide a sense of comfort, assurance and allegiance. However, belonging in one aspect in life can consequently cause a sense of alienation, marginalisation and disengagement from wider society. Belonging can mean forming a close relationship with one’s inner-self, hence creating a sense of personal belonging, and as a result, can mean estrangement and isolation from the outer world. This concept of belonging is explored in the poems “This is my letter to the world” and “I died for beauty but was scarce” by Emily Dickinson and Andrew Wyeth’s artwork “Christina’s world.” Feelings of isolation of the individual are perpetuated throughout
The persona demonstrates that her letter is her contribution to the world and makes this evident by repeatedly affirming her personal letter. “This is my letter to the world” is a metaphor for the persona’s life and expresses how an individual can belong to his or her inner world and be dislocated from society at the same time. The word choice of “This is my letter” suggests that it is her personal emotions and thoughts. This is followed by “to the world” which conveys a sense of reaching out to the outer world and yearning for acceptance. The statement “that never wrote to me” is a definitive, negative and imperative statement which demonstrates the rejection she has experienced from the outer world and the absence of reciprocity. The outer world is unresponsive in regards to her outreach and the persona is made aware of this unreciprocated act through this statement. This exemplifies the persona’s belonging to self and distinct marginalisation from the outer
Where “This is my Letter to the World” demonstrates disengagement from the outer world, this poem also explores her alienation from the outer world through her unusual relationship with death. Through the imagery in the lines, “I died for beauty but was scarce/adjusted in the tomb” the persona demonstrates her unconventional attitude toward death in contrast to the ideologies of the outer world regarding the topic of death. This statement contains distinct imagery of dying for beauty which is intangible, accentuating the personal belonging of the persona. The imagery is very macabre, morbid, and martyr-like. The issue of death is considered to be an unspoken topic in the polite world and the persona is putting herself out there into the world, despite conservative ways of thinking. The persona speaks of death bravely which shows her unwillingness to avoid the topic of mortality. This causes her not to belong. The persona causes her own sense of detachment from