Mommy and Daddy of American Poetry

I have read Whitman and Dickinson prior to this class. I love them both immensely. An old professor of mine referred to them lovingly as the Mommy and Daddy of American Poetry, and from then on, that is how I remembered them.
With Whitman's extreme love for life and the self juxtaposed with Dickinson's quiet, meek, and introverted nature of isolation, the metaphor is often questioned. The Song of Myself and One's-self I Sing are my favorite Whitman poems. His celebration of age, suffering, nature, and our bodies is refreshing in comparison to the puritan negativity and realism. Whitman is at times overkill with his positivity but in moderation he is wonderful.
Dickinson is by far one of my most beloved woman poets. Her extreme introversion and all of the autobiographical work written on her enchants me. She lived inside her mind and not in the world. It's extreme isolation for the sake of communication. Her poem, "I heard a Fly Buzz"is so interesting because most of her work is imagined. She has never died. This realm in her mind is magnetic to readers. In "Because I Could Not Stop For Death", she writes on Death's Chariot and the passing of her memories. I have no realm of thought for what death would be like. Her writing skill, and punctuational inventiveness with the dashes, tells of her modern thinking for her time and still today. She created the modern woman and refused the "Four Pillars of Womanhood": Submissiveness, Domesticity, Purity and Piousness by redefining her role in society with a lack of one.