Dickinson and Wilderness

I did a bit of research on this poem because it wasn’t really clicking with me and I saw a website use the term “wilderness of the mind.” I think that describes this poem perfectly. To me, it sounds like Dickinson was struggling with something mentally and has finally overcome it. The wilderness that she was going through in her mind, created something more beautiful, a better wilderness. She doesn’t mean the physical place of wilderness. This contrast with my idea of wilderness. I thought of wilderness as a way to escape, but to Dickinson, the wilderness was what she was trying to escape from. She had to make something out of her wilderness, while I think that wilderness should be something that just is. This also contrasts with Whitman’s ideas of wilderness. He views wilderness as a way to escape society. You need it to remain sane. It was just the opposite for Dickinson. She was trapped within her own wilderness. She had to see the “Sun” for everything to change for her. She had to escape from the wilderness not escape to the wilderness.