Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

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Emily Dickinson(1830-1886)
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The Hidden Poet

• Dickinson was virtually unknown as a poet during
  her lifetime, but now, along with Whitman, is
  considered the most important American poet of
  the 19th century.She wrote at least 1,789
  poems, but only a handful were published while
  she was living.

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Influences

• Puritanism (severity, sin, temptation plus form
  of hymns)
• Romanticism (nature, writing beyond rational
  thought, spontaneity)
• Transcendentalism (deep connection with nature
  and philosophy)
• Isolation except for a close circle of family and
  friends (in contrast with Whitman)possibly
  Agoraphobic?
• Ultimate context is actually herself and her
  mind her poems, in fact, feel timeless.

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Isolated, but not alone
Emilys older brother, Austin (Married Emilys
best friend and lived next door)
Emilys younger sister, Lavinia (encouraged the
posthumous editing and publishing of Emilys
poetry)
Emilys father, Edward (Politically prominent,
married to Emily Norcross Dickinson)
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Chronology of her Life

• 1830 Emily Dickinson is born in Amherst, MA
• 1840-47 Emily attends Amherst Academy Mt.
  Holyoke Seminary (1 yr.)
• 1858-65 Emilys period of greatest poetic
  production
• 1878-84 Emily considers marriage to Otis
  Phillips Lord
• 1883 Emily leaves home for the first time in 15
  years
• 1886 Emily dies
• 1890 First edition of Emilys poems is published

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The Homestead in Amherst, MA
Where Dickinson was born, lived the majority of
her life, and died.
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One of Dickinsons handwritten poems
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Poetic Style

• Her poetry is immediately recognizable with its
  use of ballad and hymn meter (musical qualities-
  in fact, many, like the next poem, can be sung to
  the Gilligans Island theme song!), extensive use
  of dashes, and unconventional capitalization
• Non-conventional use of vocabulary and imagery
  also add to her ground-breaking style
• Forceful language and imprecise rhymes are at
  times shocking and dissonant

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• Hope is the thing with feathers
• That perches in the soul
• And sings the tune without the words
• And never stopsat all
• And sweetestin the Galeis heard
• And sore must be the storm
• That could abash the little Bird
• That kept so many warm
• Ive heard it in the chillest land
• And on the strangest Sea
• Yet, never, in Extremity,
• It asked a crumbof Me.

• Iambic trimeter
• (sometimes expanded)
• Loose ABCB scheme
• Rhythmic flow broken
• with long dashes
• Overriding metaphor
• Religious overtones
• Nature!

How does this interesting symbol of hope- a bird-
capture it in a true and new way?
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At first received favorably, but then came the
criticism

• Thomas Bailey Aldrich (poet/editor) published an
  influential negative review anonymously in the
  January 1892 Atlantic Monthly
• It is plain that Miss Dickinson possessed an
  extremely unconventional and grotesque fancy. She
  was deeply tinged by the mysticism of Blake, and
  strongly influenced by the mannerism of
  Emerson....But the incoherence and formlessness
  of her poems are fatal....An eccentric,
  dreamy, half-educated recluse in an
  out-of-the-way New England village (or anywhere
  else) cannot with impunity set at defiance the
  laws of gravitation and grammar.

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But then time caught up with this rule-breaker

• As Modernism became popular in the 20th century,
  Dickinsons poetry was rediscovered and
  celebrated as far ahead of its time.
• A new wave of feminism also brought her much
  deserved attention as a great, ground-breaking
  poet.
• She and Whitman are now considered to be the
  greatest American poets of the mid to late 19th
  century. Think about their similarities amid the
  obvious differences

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The
End