The Verbose Insomniacs
Emily Dickinson:
"The Poet in Her Bedroom"
Biography (1830-1886)
*Remember: Dickinson's solitary lifestyle translated directly to her works.
Fast Facts:
-Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a prominent family. She was the daughter of a minister.
-She attended Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary.
-Although she had an active social life as a teenager, she grew to be very reclusive. By the age of thirty, she rarely left her home and devoted her time to writing poetry.
-Only a few close friends and family members knew of her poetic genuis during her lifetime.
-Dickinson only published a handful of poems during her lifetime.
-After her death, her sister found over a thousand poems tied in fascicles in her drawers.
-Despite Dickinson's request to burn her poems, her family decided to get them published.
-The early publishers unfortunately made her poems more conventional by doing things like removing the hyphens. Thankfully, in 1955, Thomas H. Johnson published her poems in the original form; because of this edition her poems were even more appreciated.
-Dickinson's fame was entirely posthumous.
-Her home is now a museum.
This video offers a brief insight into the life of Emily Dickinson.
Because I could not stop for Death-
Synopsis:
Death, in the form of a gentleman suitor, stops to pick up the speaker and take her on a ride in his horse-drawn carriage.
They move along at a pretty relaxed pace and the speaker seems completely at ease with the gentleman. As they pass through the town, she sees children at play, fields of grain, and the setting sun.
As dusk sets in our speaker gets a little chilly, as she is completely under-dressed – only wearing a thin silk shawl for a coat. She was unprepared for her impromptu date with Death when she got dressed that morning.
They stop at what will be her burial ground, marked with a small headstone.
In the final stanza, we find out the speaker's ride with Death took place centuries ago (so she's been dead for a long time). But it seems like just yesterday when she first got the feeling that horse heads (like those of the horses that drew the "death carriage") pointed toward "Eternity"; or, in other words, signaled the passage from life to death to an afterlife.
Analysis/ Relation to Dickinson's Life:
Dickinson was the daughter of a minister. So, her belief in eternal life after death is evident in this poem. In this poem, Dickinson potrayed death as kind, and was welcoming of it. This could relate to Dickinson's actual feeling about death; at times she might have looked forward to it because of depression from living a life in solitude.
This video analyzes "Because I Could Not Stop for Death."
I heard a Fly Buzz- when I died
There's A Certain Slant of Light
Full poem:
There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference –
Where the Meanings, are –
None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –
When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –
This video is a lecture on this poem.
Meaning/ Analysis
Dickinson's Style
Literary Techniques:
*Dickinson's use of slant rhyme at points where an exact rhyme is expected helped to make her poetry surprising
-exact rhyme: two or more words have indentical sounds in their final stressed syllables
-end rhyme: the final sounds are similar but not identical
-paradox: a statement that seems condtradictory but actually represents truth
Common Themes:
-death, fear, solitude
*Remember: As a daughter of minister, Dickinson believed in heaven. Yet, she still did not want to die.
Important Literary Techniques:
Dickinson used capitlization to personify characters such as Death and Immortality; this technique made death and immortality even less frightening.
Poem:
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 portion 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 -
Meaning/ Analysis:
The speaker of this poem is dead and telling us about this fly, a seemingly insignificant object. The dashes in this first line makes the statement much more poignant. Then, the speaker decirbes the peaceful lull in contrast to the buzz, which was an example of onomatopoeia.. The "Heaves of Storm" could represent the heaves of crying relatives, or even the heaves of a dying person.
The speaker describes the other family and friends in the room, who are in an emotional lull and have stopped crying. The others seem to be prepared and even at peace for what is to come. The King (which is capitalized), as Dickinson was a Chritian, probably represents Jesus Christ.
The speaker already wrote her will to give away all of the tanglible things that she could. Then, the fly interrupts all of this peacefulness and stillness.
The fly is stumbling as it flies. The dahses in this first line mimic the not fluid path of the fly. The fly gets in between the light and the speaker, as if the fly spoiled her peaceful death. Then, the speaker suddenly dies. Dickinson made these last two lines almost haunting; she did not hold back when describing death.
This slant of light is produced by the sun, when it hangs low, casting a slanted shadow on a winter afternoon. This particular light oppresses her, like cathedral tunes (imagine a loud organ playing). Many people belive the slant of light represents the close of something, which is why it is oppressing.
Dickinson uses the paradox of "Heavenly Hurt" to describe something that is not meant to be harmful, but is. The phrase "no scar" tells the reader that the speaker is hurt emotionally, not physically. The slant of light illuminates these internal differences that the speaker (and Dickinson) had.
The speaker is saying that no one can teach this "internal difference;" it is all based off of perspective. The "seal Despair" is refferring to the light as a seal, and what it illuminates as internal despair. This affliction is refferring to the light, which simply reflects the speaker's internal struggle.
Nature, just like the speaker, pauses when this light comes. This personfication connects the speaker's inside and outside worlds. When the light leaves, it is compared to death from a distance; both the light and death are difficult to understand.
for a deeper anaylisis of elements of the poem!
My life closed twice before its close-
Poem:
My life closed twice before its close—
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me.
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven.
And all we need of hell.
Meaning/ Analysis:
The speaker has experienced two events that were so horrible they could be compared with death. Many believe that these two closes represented the deaths of two of Dickinson's close relatives. Then, the speaker wonders if a third event will happen, which is clearly a bleak outlook.
The speaker wonders if the third event (or death of a loves one) will be as horrible and is impossible to prepare for as the first two events. Then, in the last two lines, the speaker compares the current world we live in to hell and that all we need is heaven, since heaven is where the speaker knows all our loved ones who have parted, reside.
This video is a lecture on this poem.
The Soul
selects her
own Society-
Poem:
The Soul selects her own Society —
Then — shuts the Door —
To her divine Majority —
Present no more —
Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing —
At her low Gate —
Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat —
I’ve known her — from an ample nation — Choose One —
Then — close the Valves of her attention —
Like Stone —
Meaning/ Analysis:
This poem is Dickinon's explanation of her own reclusiveness. Dickinson capitlizes the soul to personify it. Then, the speaker says that "the Soul" (which is her soul) chooses who to associate with, and then "shuts the Door." It is almost as if the speaker has little control over what her soul chooses.
After shutting the door, the soul does not care even if an empororer was kneeling before her. That is how reclusive the soul, or Emily Dickinson's soul, becomes after choosing the few people to associate with.
The speaker describes how few people the soul chooses before closing "the Valves" and becoming "like Stone." This strong imagery presents the theme of reclusiveness in a negative way, as if Dickinson is trying to encourage the reader not to be like her.
This video is a reading of this poem.
The Brain-is wider than the sky
Poem:
The Brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will include
With ease, and you beside.
The brain is deeper than the sea,
For, hold them, blue to blue,
The one the other will absorb,
As sponges, buckets do.
The brain is just the weight of God,
For, lift them, pound for pound,
And they will differ, if they do,
As syllable from sound.
Meaning/ Analysis:
Dickinson begins this poem with a paradox. The brain is not literally winder than the sky; Dickinson used this figurative language to suggest the brain has a greater capacity than the sky as far as intellect. The speaker then says that the brain contains the sky and "You;" it has the fantastic capacity to understand these things.
In this stanza, Dickinson uses parallelism to say that the brain is deeper than the sea; the brain has an incredible itellectual capacity and abosorbs like a sponge.
In this stanza, the speaker says that the brain is just as important as God. However, the speaker goes on to say that they differ "as syllable from sound," meaning that God (sound) is the only things that can fully interpret the brain (syllable).
There is a solitude of space
Poem:
There is a solitude of space,
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to Itself-
Finite Infinity.
Meaning/ Analysis:
In the beginning of the poem, the solitude of space, the sea, and death that Dickinson talks about are forms of solitude that can come and go. Those who experience these forms of solitude in society often have relations with other people in that society at the same time but escape these people and are enveloped in solitude at only certain times.
However, towards the end of the poem, Dickinson talks about a different kind of solitude, one that surfaces when an individual keeps to him or herself throughout his or her life, which makes this individual truly alone. This type of solitude is one of the most inescapable forms, an the one that Dickinson experienced.
The last line of this poem is an oxymoron. Dickinson said that the soul "admitted to Itself- Finite infinity." So, the soul admits to itself that when in this kind of solitude, the soul is limited yet feels unlimited.
This video is a lecture on this poem.
Water, is taught by thirst
Poem:
Water is taught by thirst.
Land-by the Oceans passed.
Transport-by throe-
Peace-by its battles told-
Love, by Memorial Mold-
Birds, by the Snow.
Meaning/ Analysis:
In this poem, Dickinson states that the highs of life only exist because of the lows of life; for example peace only exists because of battles and transport (ecstasy) only exists because of throe (pain). So, the lows of life, although not enjoyed, should be appreciated.
