This is my favourite essay from my first year. This was an open assignment, allowing us to analyze the poem of our choosing, and I chose one of my favourites of all time “I taste a liquor never brewed” by Emily Dickinson. It’s so sweet, so incredibly Dickinson, and reminds me of the beauty of nature.
One thing I find annoying about my degree is that there are so many areas I am already very interested in and wish to do more research on, but am not given that opportunity within the classes for my major. Example: I love literature, but my favourite types of literature is from the Romantic Period in Europe, from the fifties to the seventies in North America, and children’s environmental literature. I’m sorry, but The Aneid is so not my thing. However, I am an English major, so I need to take a lot of Pre-1800 Lit courses and get the whole array. Eventually, I came to appreciate some of the literature I was not excited at all to study, like Canterbury Tales; however, I love a little opportunity to do whatever I want, which is what this essay was offering.
Dickinson’s poetry is so beautiful and I think quite often overlooked for some reason. Her deep appreciation and connection with the environment is evident in her poetry as well as her herbaria. I hope one day to visit her pressed-flower journals housed at Harvard. I also hope that we study some of her work in my American Authors course that I am taking in the fall of 2024.
