1 / 21

Emily Dickinson 1830-1886

Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830 Father was an attorney, a state rep. and senator. Attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a Calvinist school. Failed to “convert” or conform to religious expectations of the school. This liberated her to think on her own. Emily Dickinson 1830-1886.

ianthe
Download Presentation

Emily Dickinson 1830-1886

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830 Father was an attorney, a state rep. and senator. Attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, a Calvinist school. Failed to “convert” or conform to religious expectations of the school. This liberated her to think on her own. Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  2. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) • She was well read and was especially interested in British female contemporary writers: the Brontes, George Eliot, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. • As an adult, she became increasingly isolated, rarely leaving her home. • On the last ten years of her life, she remained within her house and garden. • Dressed only in white and would not allow neighbors or strangers to see her. • Between 1874 and 1885, she lost her father, her mother, her beloved nephew, and her close childhood friend. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  3. Not publicly recognized during her lifetime. • Dickinson published seven poems during her lifetime. After her death in 1886, her sister discovered over 1,000 poems in her bureau. A collection was published in 1890. • Some poems were edited to make them more conventional. (Gasp!) • Considered one of the greatest poets in American literature. • Dickinson and Whitman exerted the most influence on poetry to come after them. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  4. Her style • Distinctive voice, looks inward • Transformed traditional forms and meter of poetry to irregular meter. • Enjambment • Slant rhyme • Dash • Unconventional capitalization • Startling imagery American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  5. Topics of her poetry • Personal pain and joy • The relationship between self and nature • The intensely spiritual • The intensely ordinary • Confronting death • Immortality: “the flood subject” • Religion: reverence, rebellion, uncertainty • Love American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  6. “Hope is the thing with feathers” 254"Hope" is the thing with feathers—That perches in the soul—And sings the tune without the words—And never stops—at all—And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—And sore must be the storm—That could abash the little BirdThat kept so many warm—I've heard it in the chillest land—And on the strangest Sea—Yet, never, in Extremity,It asked a crumb—of Me.

  7. Because I could not stop for Death –  He kindly stopped for me –  The Carriage held but just Ourselves –  And Immortality. We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –  We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring –  We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –  We passed the Setting Sun –  Or rather – He passed us –  The Dews drew quivering and chill –  For only Gossamer, my Gown –  My Tippet – only Tulle –  We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground –  The Roof was scarcely visible –  The Cornice – in the Ground –  Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity –  Because I could not stop for Death –

  8. I heard a Fly buzz (465) I heard a Fly buzz (465) I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –  The Stillness in the Room Was like the Stillness in the Air –  Between the Heaves of Storm –  The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –  And Breaths were gathering firm For that last Onset – when the King Be witnessed – in the Room –  I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away What portions of me be Assignable – and then it was There interposed a Fly –  With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –  Between the light – and me –  And then the Windows failed – and then I could not see to see – 

  9. Emily Dickinson • Born in 1830 in rural Amherst, Massachusetts, Emily Dickinson spent her entire life in the household of her parents. Between 1858 and 1862, it was later discovered, she wrote like a person possessed, often producing a poem a day. It was also during this period that her life was transformed into the myth of Amherst. Withdrawing more and more, keeping to her room, sometimes even refusing to see visitors who called, she began to dress only in white—a habit that added to her reputation as an eccentric. • In their determination to read Dickinson’s life in terms of a traditional romantic plot, biographers have missed the unique pattern of her life—her struggle to create a female life not yet imagined by the culture in which she lived. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  10. Emily Dickinson • Dickinson was not the innocent, lovelorn and emotionally fragile girl sentimentalized by the Dickinson myth and popularized by William Luce’s 1976 play, the Belle of Amherst. Her decision to shut the door on Amherst society in the 1850’s transformed her house into a kind of magical realm in which she was free to engage her poetic genius. Her seclusion was not the result of a failed love affair, but rather a part of a more general pattern of renunciation through which she, in her quest for selfsovereignty, carried on an argument with the puritan fathers, attacking with wit and irony their cheerless Calvinist doctrine, their stern patriarchal God, and their rigid notions of “true womanhood”. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  11. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) • The chief tension in her work comes from her inability to accept the orthodox religious faith of her day and her longing for its spiritual comfort. Immortality she called “the flood subject,” and she alternated confident statements of belief with lyrics of despairing uncertainty that were both reverent and rebellious. • Her verse, noted for its aphoristic style, its wit, its delicate metrical variation and irregular rhymes, its directness of statement, and its bold and startling imagery, has won enormous acclaim and had a great influence on 20th-century poetry. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  12. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” -Emily Dickinson American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  13. Before the ice is in the pools, Before the skaters go, Or any cheek at nightfall Is tarnished by the snow, Before the fields have finished, Before the Christmas tree, Wonder upon wonder Will arrive to me! What we touch the hems of On a summer’s day; What is only walking Just a bridge away; That which sings so, speaks so, When there’s no one here, — Will the frock I wept in Answer me to wear? Before the Ice Is in the Pools * American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  14. ‘Twas just this time last year I died. I know I heard the corn, When I was carried by the farms, — It had the tassels on. I thought how yellow it would look When Richard went to mill; And then I wanted to get out, But something held my will. I thought just how red apples wedged The stubble’s joints between; And carts went stooping round the fields To take the pumpkins in. I wondered which would miss me least, And when Thanksgiving came, If father’d multiply the plates To make an even sum. And if my stocking hung too high, Would it blur the Christmas glee, That not a Santa Claus could reach The altitude of me? But this sort grieved myself, and so I thought how it would be When just this time, some perfect year, Themselves should come to me. Retrospect * American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  15. The Mystery of Pain * Pain has an element of blank; It cannot recollect When it began, or if there were A day when it was not. It has no future but itself, Its infinite realms contain Its past, enlightened to perceive New periods of pain. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  16. As imperceptibly as grief The summer lapsed away, — Too imperceptible, at last, To seem like perfidy. A quietness distilled, As twilight long begun, Or Nature, spending with herself Sequestered afternoon. The dusk drew earlier in, The morning foreign shone, — A courteous, yet harrowing grace, As guest who would be gone. And thus, without a wing, Or service of a keel, Our summer made her light escape Into the beautiful. As Imperceptibly As Grief * American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  17. The Bustle in a House * The bustle in a house The morning after death Is solemnest of industries Enacted upon earth, — The sweeping up the heart, And putting love away We shall not want to use again Until eternity. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  18. Forbidden Fruit * Forbidden fruit a flavor has That lawful orchards mocks; How luscious lies the pea within The pod that Duty locks! American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  19. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading--treading--till it seemed That Sense was breaking through-- And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum-- Kept beating--beating--till I thought My Mind was going numb-- And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space--began to toll, As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race Wrecked, solitary, here-- And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down-- And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing--then-- I Felt a Funeral in My Brain * American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  20. Speech is One Symptom of Affection * Speech is one symptom of Affection And Silence one -- The perfectest communication Is heard of none -- Exists and its indorsement Is had within -- Behold, said the Apostle, Yet had not seen! American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

  21. American Literature (I) Autumn 2008

More Related