Poets may arrange their material to encourage the reader to move rapidly through the lines or in a

way that encourages reflection. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, consider how

the pace of poems is created and its relation to the way meaning is delivered.

In poetry there are many ways to empathize a certain sentence or stanza. A way to do this is by using punctuations usually with a comma. However, Emily Dickinson took it to a new level instead of using the generic way like a period or a comma she did something different. She chose to use dashes which was a bold move at the time causing many people to hate it. But, when reflecting back on her poetry today you can realize that it is a very important part of her writing she uses it to change the pace of how the reader reads the poem.  By reading the poem with the dashes you pick up more on rhymes and patterns within the text that you could have missed. Pace is important to poetry because it makes you really thinking about what you read, and also makes the writing timeless. Always having to come up with more patterns and try to figure out the meaning behind the dashes.

When reading the poem “Hope” is the thing with feathers - it makes a lot of more sense when you read it the way Emily Dickinson wanted it to be read by stopping at the dashes. By doing this the poem rhymes more this is because of the pace of the poem and how it causes you to slow down to all of the pauses you need to do. Another way you can read this poem is by reading the last two words before the dashes, by doing this the reader almost is reading a poem inside a poem. Like in the second stanza “is heard - , the storm - , little Bird, many warm - “ these are the last two words before the dashes and when reading them it makes sense, this is one thing that the pace of the poem has to do with how it was written. The reason why the pace of the poem has to do with you being able to reflect on it is because with the punctuation it gives to time to think about that you just read. And it would be harder to do if there wasn't any.

Emily Dickinson took a chance by thinking outside of the box and instead of using the traditional way of writing poems she took a chance. An becuase of that chance she revived a lot of criticism of that time. But, reflecting on the work she has done today it still leaves people scratching their head in wonder what the dashe truly mean. Is it to change the pace of the poem to a slower speed to help you reflect on what you read. This is how the author wanted the poem to be delivered when the reader is reading, to think about that the words mean. These are things that are still talked about today creating a timeless feel to her writing.