The Multidimensional Metaphorical Network and Ecological Philosophy in Emily Dickinson’s Garden Poetry

Abstract

This thesis examines Emily Dickinson’s garden poetry by establishing the epistemological commensurability between cognitive poetics and ecopoetics. Grounded in embodied horticultural practice, by applying Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT), this thesis reveals how Dickinson’s verse achieves an “emergent structure” of mental spaces, dissolving boundaries between self, garden, and cosmos in her multidimensional metaphorical network. This network reevaluates the 19th-century reductionism through a “participatory consciousness” and a “relational self.” Ultimately, Dickinson’s “slant” truths in her garden poetry foster an ecopoetic holism, revealing the interconnectedness of all life.