Develop three criteria for identifying literary worth. For this assignment, you will presume to make decisions about what determinations should be used to decide who will be read in the classrooms of college English students. You might develop your ideas for inclusion around considerations of who the literature would represent. Or maybe you will decide that established literary tradition should be part of your formula for deciding who is "in" and who is to be left out.
Apply your three criteria to the poetry of Emily Dickinson. In your response, discuss how her poetry is characteristic of the literary break found in traditional 19th century poetry. Note some of the similarities and differences between Dickinson's and Whitman's poetic style.