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Emily Dickinson “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul – and sings the tunes without the words – and never stops at all.”
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) Calvinist: A follower of the teachings of John Calvin, a 16th-century magisterial Reformer and theologian. Calvin emphasized the sovereignty of God, the unconditional election of the saved, and the irresistible grace that saves a sinner. • Emily Dickinson is, in a sense, a link between her era and the literary sensitivities of the turn of the century. A radical individualist, she was born and spent her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, a small Calvinist village. She never married, and she led an unconventional life that was outwardly uneventful but was full of inner intensity. She loved nature and found deep inspiration in the birds, animals, plants, and changing seasons of the New England countryside. • Dickinson's terse, frequently imagistic style is even more modern and innovative than Whitman's. She never uses two words when one will do and combines concrete things with abstract ideas in an almost proverbial, compressed style.
Her best poems have no fat(no unnecessary words); many mock current sentimentality, and some are even heretical. She sometimes shows a terrifying existential awareness. • Like Poe, she explores the dark and hidden part of the mind, dramatizing death and the grave. Yet she also celebrated simple objects -- a flower, a bee. Her poetry exhibits great intelligence and often evokes the agonizing paradox of the limits of the human consciousness trapped in time. She had an excellent sense of humor, and her range of subjects and treatment is amazingly wide. Her poems are generally known by the numbers assigned them in Thomas H. Johnson's standard edition of 1955. They bristle with odd capitalizations and dashes.
A nonconformist, like Thoreau she often reversed meanings of words and phrases and used paradox to great effect. From 435: • Much Madness is divinest sense -- To a discerning Eye -- Much Sense -- the starkest Madness -- 'Tis the MajorityIn this, as All, prevail -- Assent -- and you are sane -- Demur -- you're straightway dangerousAnd handled with a chain -- Paradox: a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true Much Madness is divinest sense= implying that there is sense or logic in madness and vice versa
Her wit shines in the following poem (288), which ridicules ambition and public life: I'm Nobody! Who are you?Are you -- Nobody -- Too?Then there's a pair of us?Don't tell! they'd advertise -- youknow! How dreary -- to be -- Somebody!How public -- like a Frog -- To tell one's name -- the livelongJune -- To an admiring Bog!
Dickinson's 1,775 poems continue to intrigue critics, who often disagree about them. Some stress her mystical side, some her sensitivity to nature; many note her odd, exotic appeal. One modern critic, R.P. Blackmur, comments that Dickinson's poetry sometimes feels as if "a cat came at us speaking English." Her clean, clear, chiseled poems are some of the most fascinating and challenging in American literature.
Background • Born on December 10th 1830 • Grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts • Emily admired and respected her father • She didn’t have a close relationship with her mother until after she had a stroke • She was close with her siblings (older brother, younger sister) • Had a passion for learning
Education • Amherst Academy • Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary • While at school she had a religious crisis, struggling to join the church with doubts • Poems reflect her religious struggle • Educated herself at home • Discovered her passion was poetry
The Influential Years • 1862: The turning point because the man whom she loved, (Rev. Charles Wadsworth) moved to California • Wrote 366 poems in that year • When she was in her 30s, she withdrew from the world, becoming a recluse by choice.
Dickinson Downhill • By middle age, she rarely went out of the house • Frequently wore a white dress (People associate it with her being a bride? Or not) • Corresponded with family through letters • She interacted with neighbors on occasion • In 1884 she fell ill • Died from Bright’s Disease (Kidney Failure) on May 15, 1884 • Her brother rescued some of her poems upon her death.
Dickinson’s Style • Although secluded her poems reveal a life that was, “one of the richest and deepest ever lived on this continent.” (Allen Tate)
Punctuation (Dashes) Allows for pauses to emphasize the rhythm of the poem
Capitalization Emphasizes words to draw attention to them
Assonance or Slant Rhyme Also to draw attention to certain words or ideas. At that time, an unconventional way to rhyme poetry. Similar to near rhyme but words are not as closely rhymed; usually a rhyme scheme is already in place
Rhythm Usually set up as eight syllables, six syllables, eight syllables (Give or take) for stanza (four lines long). This is why many of her poems can be sung to the theme song of Gilligan’s Island
Rhyme Scheme Per stanza, usually it is A B C B
Metaphor In poetry that is as short as Dickinson’s, metaphor is powerful. It is an efficient way to produce complex themes in only a few lines (lots of PERSONIFICATION!)
Common Themes Nature and death. She often would take a simple scene and use it to communicate a more profound message until the last stanza (twist).
Example Dickinson Poem: I like to see it lap the Miles- And lick the Valleys up- And stop to feed itself at Tanks- And then- prodigious step Around a Pile of Mountains- And supercilious peer In Shanties-by the sides of Roads- And then a Quarry pare
Example Dickinson Poem (cont.): To fit its sides and crawl between Complaining all the while In horrid- hooting stanza- Then chase itself down Hill And neigh like Boanerges- Then- prompter than a Star Stop- docile and omnipotent At its own stable door-
