Journal 42 - Dickinson or Whitman

If I were alive in Walt Whitman's or Emily Dickinson's time, then I would definitely read Walt Whitman's literature over Emily Dickinson's. Walt Whitman was just a beast. True, Emily Dickinson's writing was more accepted at this time than Walt Whitman's, but Whitman's was just so much better than Dickinson's. There were so many different meanings to Walt Whitman's poems and writings that it made it way more fun to read than Dickinson's. If I were alive at this time though, I probably would not be reading at all. I would be too busy farming and driving horse buggies around. Maybe living in a small house on the Prairie. So I do not think that I would have actually been reading any writing at all, except for maybe the Bible because it was like the only accepted book at the time. This time period, the mid 1800s, was a very boring time period. People had nothing to do outside of live on the prairie, make fires, and farm. Then they would live in the same house for their whole lives which would be very unexciting. I mean I would not really mind living in this time period because I do not particularly enjoy television, computers, or telephones. This is true that it makes things bearable when it is boring, but for the most part, I do not need them in my life. I think that if I did indeed live in this time period, then I would be an explorer. I probably would have discovered Atlantis or something crazy like that. But I much prefer Whitman's writings over Emily Dickinson's writings because there are so many different ways you can take this one poem. Yes, there is only one set of words, but there are several different ways to interpret the poem. IT IS JUST SO EXCITING! So if you were counting votes, then I believe that over the consensus of this English class, Whitman would over power the voting polls.