Mysticism in Emily Dickinson's Early Poems

Abstract

Mysticism is a kind of spiritual practice of the soul that got weary of the material world and sought a religion of love of the Divine. It is an experience that reveals the existence of an extrasensory aspect of reality which cannot be detected through sense perceptions, expressing love between Man and the Divine. Mystical poetry refers to an ecstatic relationship between the poet and ultimate truth that many never find and this is at the heart of Emily Dickinson's poetry. Most of Dickinson's poems deal with themes like death, love and spiritual ecstasy and immortality. This paper therefore is an attempt to explore mysticism, mystical experience and the mystical language and symbols in Emily Dickinson's poems composed between 1851 and 1864.