The American poets Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are best known for their confessional works, in which they express their inner desires and impulses. Both poets reflect their own unique qualities through their choice of style, form, and language, while discussing their feelings of sexual dissatisfaction and desire. Dickinson and Whitman are at opposite ends of the poetic spectrum in terms of the expression of desire, which is clearly reflected in “Wild Nights—Wild Nights!” by Dickinson. and Whitman's eleventh section of "Song of Myself". Each poem addresses a different model of desire, contains different language and structure, and describes different ways in which desires are fulfilled. While both poems may appear quite distinct from each other, there is a constant similarity to consider. In the two poems, Dickinson and Whitman merge through their expressions of separation and expulsion from their somatic desires. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay “Wild Nights—Wild Nights!” by Emily Dickinson. it is commonly known as his most erotic poetry. The title of the poem itself indicates a sense of mental and sexual liberation as the word "wild" is often associated with wild freedom and loss of self-control, and "night" is known as a time of darkness and secrecy like conscience. of society fades with the ticking of the hours. The title ends with an exclamation point, indicating strength and intensity, as if the speaker is full of excitement, passion, or anger. Such emotions are directed toward a particular unnamed individual/lover, whom the speaker refers to as “you.” This pattern of desire is singular and specific, a common poetic trait of Dickinson. The individual is absent, which causes great dissatisfaction and displeasure in the speaker. The only way the speaker will be satisfied is if the individual is physically with her rather than symbolically: “Wild nights…were I with you” (3-4). Dickinson uses nautical imagery throughout the second half of the poem to describe the harsh, sensual wind and ocean-like energy the speaker wants to create with her lover: “Wild nights should be our luxury! Useless – the winds…Ah, the sea!” (3-10). If the speaker's lover were physically present, they would create their own stormy, "wild nights" of sexual passion, indulgence, and privilege. The stability of their love allows the speaker's heart to remain “in port,” as if it were a boat on calm water (6). Furthermore, their love does not require a “compass” or a “map,” which means no source of control or reason is needed; it is as wild as nature itself. The speaker then imagines the pleasures of “Rowing in Eden” (9) which connects sensuality and eroticism to the earthly paradise. The poem closes with energetic, urgent lines: “I could only moor – Tonight – In you!” (11-12). The speaker wants this pleasure tonight, not any other day; however that won't happen as her lover is nowhere to be seen. Therefore, she remains unsatisfied as she can only dream of the sexual satisfaction that her lover's presence claims to provide. While the subject of “Wild Nights—Wild Nights!” is not necessarily conservative or reticent, the way Dickinson expresses such provocative and carnal material is rather compressed as she hides it under nautical elements that at first glance appear non-sexual. The poem's structure is condensed and short, containing only a few words in each line, which parallels Dickinson's desire to keep her poetry and thoughts private and containeddeep. Compression is Dickinson's unique method of thinking, as it draws attention to the silence and the unsaid. There are multiple dashes throughout the poem, formalizing the silence into what cannot be said to oneself or the lover. Like many of his other poems, this poem is about lyrical loneliness. The speaker and lovers are the only figures in the poem, yet there is no real conversation between them, which provides a more remote tone, as if the mind thinks for itself. Silence itself becomes Dickinson's way of mastering feelings, which intensifies the speaker's demand for erotic pleasure and the torturous pain of receiving none. Walt Whitman shows no repression of eroticism in his poetry. The eleventh section of “Song of Myself” focuses narrowly on corporeal and physical desire, as it includes multiple anatomical descriptions of the male body. The speaker in the poem is a remote observer, identified as a woman through the use of the female pronouns "she" and "her." A dramatic vignette is presented in the first lines: “Twenty-eight young men bathe on the shore” while a lone woman watches, hidden behind the shutters of her window (1). This woman belongs to the upper class, as she owns a “beautiful house near a bank building” and “hides herself beautiful and richly dressed” (4-5). The woman fantasizes about participating in the men's joy and playfulness, calling herself the “twenty-ninth bather” (10). Like Whitman himself, the woman enjoys observation and experiences sexual liberation through conjunction with other individuals. The imagery of the poem suddenly becomes erotic when Whitman begins to describe the physical qualities of the men as they bathe: "the young men's beards shone with moisture, flowing from their long hair, little streams ran all over their bodies" (12-13) .The woman's fantasy deepens when she imagines herself as an "invisible hand" that sensually touches each man's body, which deepens the woman's desire for an intimate physical connection. she never gets the real pleasure she craves; she can only experience such sexual satisfaction mentally, remaining isolated in her home. However, she does not seem to feel any frustration as the poem still ends with a sexual fantasy: “they do not know who snorts and declines with pendant. and bent bow, they do not think who they douse with spray” (18-19). Neither speaker receives physical intimacy, yet Whitman's speaker experiences some form of fulfillment towards the end of the poem while Dickinson's speaker is only left discontented. As previously stated, Whitman shows no difficulty in expressing eroticism. His model of desire is all-encompassing, as he refers to each of the twenty-eight bathers as the poetic other. The structure of the poem is fluid and elaborate, containing multiple short stanzas. There are no dashes or dots, indicating a sense of openness, generativity and expansion. His language is strictly observational and without embellishment, describing only the real and physical aspects of his environment. There is no sense of regularity or concern for correctness, which gives the poem crudeness and carelessness, demonstrating Whitman's strong aspiration to share his inner desires with the public world. A sense of fulfillment and hope appears through the poem's concluding lines, ultimately reflecting Whitman's determination to discover pleasure through simple visual examinations of the ordinary world. Dickinson keeps her desires and urges repressed and contained through a first-person narrative, which transforms the speaker's physical cravings into a strong spiritual longing. Whitman conveys the desires and impulses of chi.