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Emily Dickinson

L

LoeMa

Member
"Good Morning - Midnight -
I'm coming Home -
Day - got tired of Me -
How could I - of Him?

Sunshine was a sweet place -
I liked to stay -
But Morn - did'nt want me - now
So - Goodnight - Day!"

I'm interested what you are thinking about Emily Dickinson. Does she depress you, does she inspire or help you?
I only know a few of her poems (most in translation) - and I love here, and I'am interesting what you are thinking of her.
Please let me know.

Greetings
 
One of my all time favorites has always been A Narrow Fellow in the Grass.The poem's imagry is something else, I can see and almost hear the slithering snake make it's way through the grass. On another note, others have noted that the snake represents a Freudian psychological interpretation for another item. Given her background and the time period that she lived in, who is to say that interpretation is entirely wrong?


Dickinson Electronic Archive

Dickinson and religious symbols
 
I’ve read your poem. I had to look up some words in the dictionary, and I’m not sure that I have completely understood – at least I have the feeling, that I’ve done it.:)
There is quite a fundamental problem with poems in a foreign language – an exact translation is impossible if the sense should be preserved.
I think if you are not a literature critic it’s not necessary to understand every word in poems, because for me poems create some kind of atmosphere that often can’t be expressed with words. They transmit no message, they transmit mood.
And in the case of Emily Dickinson I would say that this mood is mostly very depressing. But similar to Dostoyevsky I think it’s possible to get help of this depression and not to fall into.

I often have the feeling that some writers are better psychologists than the learned one could ever be. They don't classify people in fixed categories, they don't put a scheme on them - they respect individuality.

While thinking of Emily Dickinson I also have to think about Friedrich Nietzsche. I don’t know if this is justified, but maybe both had been “too much genius” so that there was no way out to get a little bit “strange” at their end??

Greetings
 
I don't like ED. She's good, no two words about it, but I can take her in small doses only. It's not depressing, it's deranged. My favourite lines - " A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King".
 
shiraz said:
" A little Madness in the Spring Is wholesome even for the King".
Click to expand...
What a nice sentence!:)
Is „deranged“ sometimes really so bad? In my opinion it could be very useful to read such things.
First: because we get the chance to see a complete different view of the world. And with all these different perspectives, even though some of them seem deranged, it might be possible to understand the world in its totality.
Second: I know this is not very charming for me, but don’t we all sometimes have the feeling, that we are thinking completely different than the rest of the world? That we are getting “deranged”? And in such a case I would say poems of Emily Dickinson could be very soothing, because they show us that we are not the only one with extravagant thoughts, and so there is no necessity to worry about mental health?:rolleyes:

“Much Madness is divinest Sense –
To a discerning Eye –
Much Sense – the starkest Madness –
...”

Greetings
 
Deranged?, nah, not someone who never left the house for years.:rolleyes: The beauty of people who are so artistic and who have such turbulent passions is that they experience things intensely and can communicate it to those of us who are more sated and less unstable.

All but Death, can be adjusted.

All but Death, can be Adjusted—
Dynasties repaired—
Systems—settled in their Sockets—
Citadels—dissolved—

Wastes of Lives—resown with Colors
By Succeeding Springs—
Death—unto itself—Exception—
Is exempt from Change—
Click to expand...
 
SFG75 said:
The beauty of people who are so artistic and who have such turbulent passions is that they experience things intensely and can communicate it to those of us who are more sated and less unstable.
Click to expand...

It can’t be said better!:)
I think the central point is the possibility of communication. There may be a terrifying high number of such people, who are so extremely sensitive, but they are just unable to express it in words – and consequently they couldn’t get some help nor even help their self.
Normally they stay a mouse in their hole, in the worst case they take a gun and run amuck.
So Emily Dickinson could be seen as an example that also “deranged” people could express with words and with nothing else.
Maybe the whole society of today with its obvious lack in communication (when you take a look at the high number of such amuck runs or suicides) could use Emily Dickinson as a kind of “therapy” to see that there are always other people in the world with the same problems, and so there is no use to desperate – but I’m afraid I’m a little bit digressing.:rolleyes:

“’Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –“

Greetings
 
The *deranged* thing is also an interesting societal construction. Those who feel the passsions more intensely could be said to be more in tune with the environment around themselves, or perhaps, blessed with the ability to feel the depths of certain emotions. Well-rounded individuals who feel nothing intensely and who go about life a o.k. are clones so to speak. Yet, the Dickinson's and others like her are the ones who are *sick* You have to wonder if the great works of literature would have been written had Keats been on SSRI anti-depressants or if Dickinson and Nietzsche were medicated to the point of becoming walking zombies.

Dickinson's poems are excellent as they touch upon that which is depressing, but not all her works are along those lines. There is a hint of hope and transcendental consciousness in this one:

Some keep the Sabbath going to church
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—
I keep it, staying at Home—
With a Bobolink for a Chorister—
And an Orchard, for a Dome—

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice—
I just wear my Wings—
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton—sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman—
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last—
I’m going, all along.
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I agree that the society gives the definition of what is called normality, and therefore also what we have to see as “deranged”. So these all are “artificial” constructions, and so they can change some time. In a world where only one person leaves the house regularly Emily Dickinson would live on the “normal” side of life.
In relation to this I have to think of “The Rhinoceros” by Eugéne Ionesco: In the beginning there suddenly appears one rhino in town, and this seems to everybody so strange and absurd, but at the end there is only one human being left and so this one isn’t normal any longer.
I wanted to point out that such societal constructions could change. Maybe the world will change some time, and then everybody is thinking so intensively. Though I think that this is very improbable - and also not very desirable, because in a world where everybody is thinking so much there wouldn’t be done the necessary work to keep the world moving?!:rolleyes:
And finally it doesn’t matter which world we have and which one will be, as long as there won’t be everybody the same – let’s live diversity! :) Without people like Dickinson or Nietzsche, or otherwise in a world where totally everybody is like these two, life would be very boring.

Greetings
 
Just have to add another favorite. I couldn't remember the title, but luckily, I found my old anthology book at work.

After great pain, a formal feeing comes (341)
After great pain, a formal feeling comes-
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs-
The stiff heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round-
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought-
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone-

This is the Hour of Lead-
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow-
First-Chill-Then Stupor-Then the Letting g-
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Thank you for this poem – it’s so great.:)
The word “pain” let me think of another one:

“Pain – has an Element of Blank –
It cannot recollect
When it begun – or if there were
A time when it was not –

It has no Future – but itself –
Its Infinite contain
Its Past – enlightened to perceive
New Periods – of Pain.”

Greetings
 
You should come to Massachusetts. The town Mr Mehastings works for is the center of the Emily Dickinson universe. She lived here, she's burried here, the bookstore sells ugly dolls that "look" like her (yes, the kid has one). I've always wanted to go visit the Emily Dickinson House, but I've never gotten around to it.
 
Emily D

My favourite is the one which begins: "Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me ..." I love the way the perspective modifies as the poem develops - very subtle .... and Death is so "civil"!

American gothic, but richer than that as well.
 
This one has always been one of my favorites by Dickinson:

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
'T is the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, -- you're straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.

I especially enjoy the way the slant rhymes and the just-barely-off rhythm reflect the theme of madness. I've always disliked going with the crowd just because that's what everyone else is doing, too, so that's part of why I like it also.
 
Not deranged, but independent

I have enjoyed this thread. ED was not deranged in my book, but independent emotionally, able to enjoy her own mind and imagination.

Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

This was written by a 19th century "spinster lady", which tells you something. She was also a 19th century spinster lady who resisted the social pressures of the time to "convert" to protestant christianity.

I don't find her depressing, I find her bold. She knew that life was not easy, but she faced its implications:

Because I could not stop for Death -
He kindly stoped for me -
The carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.

There are many more, including Hope is a Thing with Feathers.... quoted above. That is a poem, by the way, which really strengthened me at a time when my own life was going badly.

I don't know how ED would read in a foreign language. I think much would be lost. The music is in the lines and the patterns which are very reminiscent of hymns in English.
 
aemy said:
My favourite is the one which begins: "Because I could not stop for Death/ He kindly stopped for me ..." I love the way the perspective modifies as the poem develops - very subtle .... and Death is so "civil"!

American gothic, but richer than that as well.
Click to expand...
I finally finished the book I have of her poems and I must agree that this is my favorite one as well.
 
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