Emily Dickinson

1. Selections fromEmily Dickinson,John Ruskin,Walt Whitman, and Alexander PetrunkevitchElements in Literaturepp. 12-23

5. Emily Dickinson http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155

6. What’s so great about a poem? • Distilled language / word play • Makes an incident an event • Helps us understand humans (the inner processes and emotions) • Usually follows the same structure as prose • Beginning or introduction • Development or middle • Ending or denouement (resolution)

7. A Bird Came Down the Walkby Emily Dickinson A Bird came down the Walk—He did not know I saw—He bit an angle-worm in halvesAnd ate the fellow, raw,And then he drank a DewFrom a convenient Grass,And then hopped sidewise to the WallTo let a Beetle pass—

8. A Bird Came Down the Walk (continued)by Emily Dickinson He glanced with rapid eyesThat hurried all around—They looked like frightened Beads, I thought—He stirred his velvet headLike one in danger, Cautious,I offered him a Crumb,And he unrolled his feathersAnd rowed him softer home—Than Oars divide the Ocean,Too silver for a seam—Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,Leap, plashless as they swim.

9. A Prompt, Executive Bird by Emily Dickinson A prompt, executive bird is the Jay, Bold as a Bailiff's Hymn, Brittle and Brief in quality – Warrant in every line; -- Sitting a bough like a Brigadier, Confident and straight, Much is the mien of him in March As a Magistrate --

10. It Sifts from Leaden Sievesby Emily Dickinson It sifts from leaden sieves, It powders all the wood. It fills with alabaster wool The wrinkles of the road.    It makes an even face Of mountain and of plain— Unbroken forehead from the east Unto the east again.

11. It Sifts from Leaden Sieves (continued)by Emily Dickinson It reaches to the fence, It wraps it, rail by rail, Till it is lost in fleeces; It flings a crystal veil    To stump and stack and stem— The summer’s empty room-- Acres of joints where harvests were, Recordless, but for them.    It ruffles wrists of posts, As ankles of a queen— Then stills its artisans like ghosts, Denying they have been.

12. Walter "Walt" Whitman(May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass.Born on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and – in addition to publishing his poetry – was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel, Franklin Evans(1842). Whitman's major work, Leaves of Grass, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common person with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892. After a stroke towards the end of his life, he moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. He died at age 72 and his funeral became a public spectacle.

13. A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman A noiseless, patient spider, I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated; Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself; Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them. And you, O my Soul, where you stand, Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space, Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them; Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold; Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. 

14. John Ruskin (8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900) was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. Ruskin penned essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art was later superseded by a preference for plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural structures and ornamentation. About John Ruskin who wrote "The Fly"

15. Alexander IvanovitchPetrunkevitch was an eminent Russian arachnologist of his time. From 1910 to 1939 he described over 130 spider species.  His aristocratic father, Ivan IllitchPetrunkevitch, was a liberal member of the First Duma and founded the Constitutional Democratic Party. After finishing his studies in Moscow and in Freiburg under August Weismann, Alexander settled in Yale in 1910, becoming a full professor in 1917. Apart from describing present-day species, he was a major figure in the study of fossil arachnids, including those in amber and from the Coal Measures. He also experimented with live specimens and worked on insects. He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1954. Throughout his career he remained politically active, trying to increase awareness of problems in Russia. He was also a skilled machinist and wrote two volumes of poetry (under the pseudonym Alexandr Jan-Ruban), and translated Pushkin into the English language, and Byron into Russian. He died in 1964.