Emily Dickinson 1830 1886 Poetry Emily Dickinson One

Emily Dickinson 1830 – 1886 Poetry

Emily Dickinson • One of the most significant poets America produced in the period following the Civil Way • Virtually unknown during her lifetime • Born and resided in Amherst, MA • Eccentric and extremely shy • Later years dressed entirely in white • Later years ran to hide from visitors • Conversed with friends while sitting behind a nearly closed door

Dickinson’s Work • Regionalist – New England • Works signaled the beginning of modern American poetry • Challenged traditional attitudes about content and form • Altered traditional forms and thought • Experimented with language and form • Expressed her doubts, irreverence, bitterness, and even outright rebellion • Favorite subjects nature, love, death, and immortality • Saw the uncommon in even the most ordinary things.

Dickinson’s Work • Inspired by religious upbringing, which influenced her content and form. • Grew up singing hymns of Isaac Watts and adopted their meters for her own use. • Rebelled against God. • Verse reveals the modern attitudes of doubt and denial

After her death • Sister found many manuscripts of poetry and had them published • Because of her deviation from contemporary poetry, editors tried to “improve” it by regularizing it (1886 – 1896) • 1955 Thomas H. Johnson published the originals • She did not title her poems. All titles are editorial additions.

Prologue • Dickinson considered herself a nature poet • In poem, she says she writes what Nature tells her • Reveals her relationship with the world to be onesided • According to the Prologue, what’s the poet’s task?

I’m Nobody! Who Are You? • One of her most playful lyrics • Glories in being a “nobody” • How does this poem support the idea that a person’s desire for privacy or isolation is acceptable? • What simile does she use? What does it mean?

Success • Success is appreciated most by those who don’t succeed • In the same way a beverage tastes best when one is very thirsty • One who understands victory is the one who, as he dies, hears the sounds of triumph coming from his enemies; for he knows that neither now nor later will be ever be able to share in the glory of winning. • What’s the irony of this poem?

Aspiration • First stanza: It takes a crisis to reveal a man (old maxim) • We often surprise ourselves by being able to do something we thought we couldn’t do. • Second stanza: The heroic deeds of men in history would not have seemed so unusual if we hadn’t been in the habit of expecting so little of ourselves. • What’s the irony of this poem?

To Make a Prairie It Takes a Clover • Dickinson rarely left Amherst, but travelled greatly in her imagination • Poet combines nature and daydreaming • What does she mean when she says that a prairie can be created by reverie alone “if bees are few”?

Hope • Suggests hope is constant and unchanging in spite of the worst circumstances. • Hope is unselfish: it expects nothing in return for its cheering song. • What is the extended metaphor?

A Book • More use of imagination • Travel in a book • You don’t have to be rich to use this form of transportation. • Identify and explain the similes in this poem.

Simplicity • What qualities of life does Dickinson seem to value in this description of this happy stone? • What does she see as the purpose in the stone’s life?

She Sweeps with Many. Colored Brooms • Glimpse of nature • What are the possible interpretations? • Who is She? • The sun at sunset compared to a housewife, who is sweeping the floor. Brooms would be the streaks of color across the sky at sunset, and those streaks fade into stars as night approaches. • Housewife is the wind and the brooms are the colorful leaves she scatters.

The Snake • Recalls how as a barefoot child she would react to seeing a snake • Does her description seem true to life? • What does it look like to her? • How does she feel when she sees it?

Dickinson, Death, and God • Preoccupation with death likely stems from her rejection of Christ • Describes suffering and pain before death, and what family members go through after a loved one dies. • Grew up in a religious home, rejected Christ, then regretted it • “I have neglected the one thing needful when all were obtaining it, and I may never, never again pass through such a season as was granted us last winter. … I am not happy, and I regret that last term, when that golden opportunity was mine, that I did not give up and become a Christian. It is not now too late, so my friends tell me, so my offended conscience whispers, but it is hard for me to give up the world. ”

I Never Lost as Much but Twice • Refers to the death of two people she loved • She was a beggar asking God for comfort. • How was God a burglar? • How was God a banker? • How was God a Father? • How is she poor once more?

The Bustle in a House • Considers those left behind after a death • Is she referring to physical or emotional activity? • What is the metaphor in the second stanza? What’s the comparison?