Emily Dickinson
(Biography from poets.org)
Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, but only for one year. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was actively involved in state and national politics, serving in Congress for one term. Her brother, Austin, who attended law school and became an attorney, lived next door with his wife, Susan Gilbert. Dickinson’s younger sister, Lavinia, also lived at home, and she and Austin were intellectual companions for Dickinson during her lifetime.
Dickinson’s poetry was heavily influenced by the Metaphysical poets of seventeenth-century England, as well as her reading of the Book of Revelation and her upbringing in a Puritan New England town, which encouraged a Calvinist, orthodox, and conservative approach to Christianity. She admired the poetry of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, as well as John Keats. Though she was dissuaded from reading the verse of her contemporary Walt Whitman by rumors of its disgracefulness, the two poets are now connected by the distinguished place they hold as the founders of a uniquely American poetic voice. While Dickinson was extremely prolific and regularly enclosed poems in letters to friends, she was not publicly recognized during her lifetime. The first volume of her work was published posthumously in 1890 and the last in 1955. She died in Amherst in 1886.
Upon her death, Dickinson’s family discovered forty handbound volumes of nearly 1,800 poems, or “fascicles,” as they are sometimes called. Dickinson assembled these booklets by folding and sewing five or six sheets of stationery paper and copying what seem to be final versions of poems. The handwritten poems show a variety of dash-like marks of various sizes and directions (some are even vertical). The poems were initially unbound and published according to the aesthetics of her many early editors, who removed her annotations. The current standard version of her poems replaces her dashes with an en-dash, which is a closer typographical approximation to her intention. The original order of the poems was not restored until 1981, when Ralph W. Franklin used the physical evidence of the paper itself to restore her intended order, relying on smudge marks, needle punctures, and other clues to reassemble the packets. Since then, many critics have argued that there is a thematic unity in these small collections, rather than their order being simply chronological or convenient. The Manuscript Books of Emily Dickinson (Belknap Press, 1981) is the only volume that keeps the order intact.
Poems for study:
- Hope is the Thing with Feathers
- I Felt a Funeral in My Brain
- I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
- A Bird Came Down the Walk
- The Soul Has Bandaged Moments
- I Taste a Liquor
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
“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 Bird
That 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.
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
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 Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died
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 –
A Bird Came Down the Walk
A Bird, came down the Walk –
He did not know I saw –
He bit an Angle Worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass –
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass –
He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad –
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head. –
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And 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.
The Soul Has Bandaged Moments
The Soul has Bandaged moments –
When too appalled to stir –
She feels some ghastly Fright come up
And stop to look at her –
Salute her, with long fingers –
Caress her freezing hair –
Sip, Goblin, from the very lips
The Lover – hovered – o’er –
Unworthy, that a thought so mean
Accost a Theme – so – fair –
The soul has moments of escape –
When bursting all the doors –
She dances like a Bomb, abroad,
And swings opon the Hours,
As do the Bee – delirious borne –
Long Dungeoned from his Rose –
Touch Liberty – then know no more –
But Noon, and Paradise
The Soul’s retaken moments –
When, Felon led along,
With shackles on the plumed feet,
And staples, in the song,
The Horror welcomes her, again,
These, are not brayed of Tongue –
I Taste a Liquor
I taste a liquor never brewed –
From Tankards scooped in Pearl –
Not all the Frankfort Berries
Yield such an Alcohol!
Inebriate of air – am I –
And Debauchee of Dew –
Reeling – thro’ endless summer days –
From inns of molten Blue –
When “Landlords” turn the drunken Bee
Out of the Foxglove’s door –
When Butterflies – renounce their “drams” –
I shall but drink the more!
Till Seraphs swing their snowy Hats –
And Saints – to windows run –
To see the little Tippler
Leaning against the – Sun!
Emily Dickinson Overview
When answering a question on a poet, you can be asked
- Theme (what subjects did the poet write about?)
- Style (How did she write about them?)
- Or a combination of both
| Themes | Style |
| DeathMental suffering/despair Moments of elation (extreme happiness)Nature | Unconventional (not ordinary) and innovative (comes up with new ideas) use of punctuation (dashes) and random capitalisation Use of metaphors/similes Use of personification Assonance, alliteration, sibilance Vivid imagery (either to depict the beauty of nature or the suffering of the human mind) Repetition |
| Hope is the Thing with Feathers | I Felt a Funeral | I Heard a Fly Buzz | A Bird Came Down the Walk | The Soul Has Bandaged Moments | I Taste a Liquor |
| Themes | Themes | Themes | Themes | Themes | Themes |
| HopeResilience Suffering | Mental suffering | Death | Nature | Mental suffering v moments of escape from suffering | Joy derived from nature |
| Style | Style | Style | Style | Style | Style |
| Extended Metaphor (hope is compared to a bird which perches in the soul) Repetition (and) Verbal music in the form of sibilance (soothing sounds- ‘And sweetest- in the Gale- is heard’ ) Dashes to indicate pauses | Extended Metaphor (the speaker’s mental suffering is compared to a funeral in her brain) Repetition of ‘and’ ‘and then’ – to prolong the suffering- repetition of ‘treading’ and ‘beating’ Simile ‘as all the heavens were a bell’ Slant rhyme ‘fro’ and ‘through’ Use of dash to indicate a pause- useful in the last line ‘and finished knowing –then-‘ | Assonance SimileSibilanceAlliterationMetaphor ‘and then the windows failed’ –in this instance, the eyes are compared to windowsOnomatopoeia | Simple abcb rhyme- almost reflective of a nursery rhyme changes to blank verse- becomes more complex Assonance SibilanceSimile | Metaphor- comparison of the soul to a frightened women and then later, a bird PersonificationSibilance SimileAlliteration | MetaphorSimilePlayful toneSibilance |
“Dickinson’s use of an innovative style to explore intense experiences can both intrigue and confuse.”
Discuss this statement, supporting your answer with reference to the poetry of Emily Dickinson on your course.
Poems: Hope is the Thing with Feathers, I Felt a Funeral in my Brain, I Heard A Fly Buzz When I died, A Bird Came Down the Walk, The Soul has Bandaged Moments, I Taste a Liquor
Overview of the question:
Innovative style: This refers to Dickinson’s unusual punctuation (the dashes), her seemingly random capital letters, her use of metaphor (comparisons), personification, vivid imagery
Intense experiences: (her themes) Fascination with death, mental suffering, moments of elation, love of nature
Intrigue: What is intriguing about her poetry? – Her descriptions of suffering, fascination with death, metaphors, personification
Confusing: Her personification of abstract ideas (turning hope into a bird, turning the soul into a woman) – her unusual punctuation, unusual sentence structure
The poetry of Emily Dickinson is instantly recognisable. Not only is her unconventional punctuation a trademark of her poetry, but her intense and varying themes, which range from dark and rather morbid to playful and bright, are indicative (they represent) of Dickinson’s frequent and intense highs and lows. I found her fascination with death intriguing, and her use of metaphors and personification to express her thoughts and experiences fascinated me. Her poetry appears simple; but this is deceptive. She explores abstract concepts (death, mental suffering, hope, the soul) and this can challenge readers who search for meaning in her poetry.
Dickinson appeared to have a morbid fascination with death. In I Felt a Funeral, the poet uses an extended metaphor (in this case, a funeral) to describe the death of her sanity and sense of reason. Dickinson’s innovative and unconventional style is extremely evident in this poem. Dickinson describes the feeling of mourners ‘treading’ in her head. The repetition of this word, separated by one of her signature dashes, adds to the sense of suffering and torment, as does the long vowel sound created by the ‘ea’ in the word treading. The mourners take a seat, and the speaker is once more tormented by the sound of ‘beating-beating-‘ until she feels her mind is ‘going numb.’ Again, the repetition here is effective, and the dash once more adds to the sense of perpetual (continuous) suffering. The speaker hears the mourners ‘lift a box and creak across (her) soul.’ This is a particularly dark and intense statement and indeed, the poem becomes rather challenging and confusing from this point. Dickinson describes the heavens as ‘a bell’ and all that exists is an ear to receive the torturous tolling of the bell. At first, I found this concept rather confusing. However, the speaker is being tormented by the overwhelming sound in her mind, which represents her mental suffering. Once I understood this comparison, I found it intriguing.
Her fascination with death is also explored in I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died. The poem is bizarrely written from the perspective of someone who has already died. She describes the stillness in the room as being like ‘the stillness in the air between the heaves of storm.’ I particularly like the assonance here, as I feel it creates a calming and still atmosphere. The simile is particularly effective, however, as it suggests that the stillness is not a comforting one; rather there is an expectation that something is going to happen. There is a sense of anticipation created, as the people in the room wait for ‘that last onset – when the king be witnessed-in the room’. There is no climactic religious experience, however, as the speaker dies. Instead, the last thing she will see and hear is a fly. The fly fills the speaker’s senses with ‘blue-uncertain- stumbling buzz’. Once more, the assonance here is particularly effective and coupled with the dashes, it adds to the sense that the fly is stumbling haphazardly around the room. The onomatopoeic word ‘buzz’ also helps the reader to hear the last sounds heard by the speaker.
For me, Dickinson’s fascination with death, explored in her inimitable style is intriguing, as it is a rather morbid subject.
Dickinson’s poetry reflects a mind that is clearly rather troubled. She describes intense states of mental sufferings and uses either metaphor or personification to express a deep sense of torment. In I Felt a Funeral, Dickinson describes a complete mental breakdown. In the final stanza, she states ‘and then a plank in reason, broke and I dropped down, and down-‘ In the final line, the speaker states that she ‘finished knowing’, which alludes (refers) to the death of her sense of reason.
Dickinson also explores intense mental suffering in The Soul has Bandaged moments. Dickinson describes the intense highs and lows experienced by the soul, which she firstly personifies as a woman and then compares to a bird. Once more, these comparisons may appear confusing to readers, but the personification of both the soul and fright in the poem aid the reader in relating more closely to the sense of terror expressed in the poem. In the first stanza, the poet uses the word ‘bandaged’ to suggest images of weakness and vulnerability. The soul is personified as a weak and fragile woman, frozen by fear. This fear is aptly compared to a goblin, who caresses the soul’s ‘freezing hair’. The uncomfortable imagery here (fear is sipping from the mouth of the soul) suggests that Dickinson viewed fear and doubt as something that is intrusive, but also seductive. It has a power over the soul. Any happiness experienced by the soul is short-lived, as ‘The Horror welcomes her’ once more. The capitalisation of the word horror emphasises its importance in the speaker’s life. While I was initially rather confused by the abstract concepts explored in this poem, I began to understand them and relate to them after a few readings of the poem. I found Dickinson’s use of personification and metaphor fascinating.
Not all of Dickinson’s poems explore extreme states of depression or suffering. Indeed, Dickinson also describes intense happiness and elation in her poetry. Most of this happiness seems to derive from Dickinson’s strong appreciation of the natural world. Again, her innovative and characteristic style conveys her love and sense of excitement for the natural world. Dickinson seemed to particularly appreciate birds, as they appear in three of the poems I have read and are associated with freedom and escape in each of these poems. In Hope is the thing with Feathers, the poet uses a metaphor to compare hope to a bird which ‘perches in the bird sings a perpetual tune, signifying the enduring power of hope. The poet describes hope as being at its most comforting during times of adversity, which the poet likens to a ‘gale’. The sibilance in this stanza, created by the repeated ‘s’ sound in the line ‘and sweetest in the gale is heard and sore must be the storm that could abash the little bird…’ is soothing and reinforces the comfort offered by hope. I found this to be one of Dickinson’s more accessible poems, but it has had an enduring impact on me, as I found the metaphor used by the poet very intriguing.
A Bird came down the Walk is similarly accessible, particularly at the beginning of the poem. In fact, the simple rhyming scheme is comparable to a child’s nursery rhyme: ‘A bird came down the walk/ He did not know I saw/he bit an angleworm in halves and ate the fellow, raw.’ The language used by the poet is initially simple and playful, as she describes the bird drinking dew from a ‘convenient grass’ and hopping ‘sidewise… to let a beetle pass.’ The imagery in this poem is also particularly beautiful, as she describes the bird’s ‘velvet head.’ I admire the poet’s skilful use of assonance, as she describes how the bird ‘unrolled his feathers and rowed him softer home.’ The water imagery is explored further in the final stanza, as she compares the bird’s flight to ‘oars divid(ing) the ocean’. The complexity of the language here contrasts with the simplicity of the language in the opening stanzas, and conveys the poet’s appreciation for the bird’s flight.
Dickinson’s enthusiasm and passion for the natural word is perhaps most evident in The Soul has Bandaged Moments and I taste a liquor never brewed. Despite being an otherwise dark and restrictive poem, Dickinson does describe moments of intense elation in The Soul has Bandaged moments. She describes the soul as having ‘moments of escape’. This elation is so intense, however, that it almost appears manic and reckless. The soul bursts free from its confines and ‘dances like a bomb’. I found this simile rather confusing, but on reflection I realised that Dickinson is possibly conveying the danger posed by excessive happiness and celebration. In the next stanza, the poet describes the bee returning to its favourite flower in order to reinforce the feeling of elation experienced by the soul when it is content and carefree. The word ‘delirious’ once more conjures up images of intense and almost excessive happiness. This sense of ecstatic happiness derived from nature is also explored in one of Dickinson’s most playful poems, I taste a liquor never brewed. This time, however, there is no sense of restriction; the poem explores excess and indulgence. It is possible that this poem is written from the viewpoint of a bird, who becomes inebriated by the beauty of the natural world in the summer. I particularly enjoy the beautiful imagery in this poem, which is intensely celebratory and bright. The poet describes flowers as ‘tankards scooped in pearl’ and as ‘inns of molten blue’. The bird is ‘reeling- thro endless summer days-‘, becoming intoxicated from nectar. Again, the sibilance in the last stanza is wonderfully euphonious (it sounds really nice) ’till Seraphs swing their snowy hats and saints to windows run’. The image of the ‘little Tippler leaning against the sun’ is comical, and reflects the intense and almost religious experience of the poet’s sense of wonder for the natural world.
I agree that Dickinson’s innovative style, coupled with her exploration of intense experiences can both intrigue and confuse readers. Her fascination with death, her descriptions of intense suffering and her appreciation of the beauty of the natural world (a world she willingly shut herself off from) are fascinating to me as a reader and this fascination is only reinforced by her inimitable style. Her quirky use of punctuation, her expert use of metaphors and personification, and her vivid and memorable imagery all add to Dickinson’s enduring appeal as a poet. While her exploration of abstract concepts (such as death, suffering and hope) and her sometimes complex language can be rather challenging to comprehend, reading the poetry of Dickinson has been a wholly rewarding experience.
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