Exemplifying Seclusion in Emily Dickinsons Poelm, The...

â€Å"The Soul selects her own Society† is one of Emily Dickinson’s poems that best exemplifies her life of seclusion. Through this poem she emphasizes the importance of the individual having absolute authority and freedom over their own life. Dickinson promotes these individualistic values in the poem through the use of several literary devices, including alliteration, dashes, imagery, repetition, and simile, and creates a poem that is able to be interpreted in several different ways by the reader. Dickinson opens the poem with obvious alliteration of the words â€Å"Soul,† â€Å"selects,† and â€Å"Society,† which signifies their importance in the poem for the reader. She is stating that it is most important for individuals to remain true to themselves when deciding their lifestyle. At the time the poem was written, maybe people had been suggesting that she needed to broaden her â€Å"Society.† This could be her response to such critics, de fending her authority over her own life. In the second line, Dickinson uses a dash to separate the word â€Å"Then† from the rest of the line. This gives the line a sense of temporary anticipation that makes the reader want to discover what is going to happen next. The dash is followed with the phrase â€Å"shuts the Door,† which promotes a rich imagery of a door shutting people out from entering and joining the speaker’s society. She also uses the phrase â€Å"divine Majority† as a way to show that her society, or lifestyle, is dominated and determined by the beliefs and