HOME

AML 4503: American Romanticism
Prof. Bruce Harvey  

Four Tips for Reading Dickinson's Poetry

1) Don't become obsessed with getting every detail to fit an overall interpretation.  The more complex poems invariably contain lines/ideas that are difficult to make sense of.

2) Because of the absence of standard punctuation, you have to play around to get a feeling for what words combine with other words to form what otherwise would be a "logical" sentence unit.

3) Keep in mind that she switches metaphors/similes very abruptly, and that she may simultaneously be talking, say, about God and love.

4) You won't like every poem--perhaps only a few; but treasure, reread, etc., the ones that you do.  (E.g., I prefer the poems in which she or her persona addresses a particular, palpable, personal experience rather than the ones that are more abstract and gnomic, or nature-oriented.)

Dickinson's Poetic Technique

  --Based upon simple hymns/ballads (3/4 beats per line)

  --Formal simplicity/appearance belies compressed complexity of image sequence (often cryptic)

                        --Whitman: all inclusive 
                        --Dickinson: minimalist 
                        --but her manuscripts reveal:  
                        --small poem/large handwriting fills whole page, as if blank page were mind or world filled to margins with some intense 
                        idea  
                        --dashes set off each idea, puts emphasis on each stamp or impress of the mind

  --God/truth so intense must be approached obliquely; techniques provide obliqueness and obtain intensity:         

--whimsical conceptions  
            --paradox 
            --metaphor/ simile  
            --elision (skipping middle terms of an analogy or association)

  --Dickinson has different voices/ personalities (persona):

                        --little girl 
                        --sentimental poet of nature 
                        --lover 
                        --Christic martyr 
                        --feminist

--Full epiphany/revelation often withheld; fascination with threshold moments (death)  

  Dickinson's Poems: Thematic Groups

The groups below will help you get a handle on the typical issues/themes in D's poetry--but keep in mind that many of the poems fall into several thematic categories and explore much more than what the categories/themes indicate.

some simple ones (not great poems)

            61            Papa above 
            67            Success is counted sweetest 
            125          For each instance

nature used for mood (religion?)

            130            These are the days

feminist poems

            187            How many times these low feet staggered 
            303            The soul selects her own society 
            732            She rose to his requirements

depression

            258            There's a certain slant of light 
            341            After great pain, a formal feeling comes

death or threshold of truth/grace

            241              I like a look of Agony 
            315              he fumbles             
            338              I know that he exists  
            547              I've seen a Dying Eye 
            465              I heard a fly buzz

  unorthodox/poetic power (artistic self vs. dull masses or authority)

            593            I think I was enchanted 
            1545          The bible is an antique 
            1072          The divine is mine

HOME