You guys, prior to reading Emily Dickensen’s poems, I knew nothing about her. Perhaps it was a flaw in my education, or my individual studies, but for realz, nothing, nada, everything we talked about in class surprised me.
Which brings me to, THOSE CRAZIES. Do you have to be crazy to write good poetry?
I can’t even imagine living Emily’s life, but also I view her life from a completely different context. Of course living in a time when women’s only job was to be home maker and not a intellect could make it easy for a writer like Emily to be a recluse.
More importantly if she wasn’t a crazy would her poetry be as genius as it is?? I say no. My evidence to support his claim is… name a poet who isn’t crazy!
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| This is how I imagine crazy writers. |
Part of being a crazy poet I think just lends to the theme of death in said poetry, which there is plenty of in her poetry. What interests me most is her first and last poems in out collection, 39/49 and 1773/1772… incidentally the first and the last seem to me to be saying the same thing… having come close to death twice but never made it. In her last it makes sense that she is further speaking to her third experience with death: “if Immortality unveil/ A third event to me” (91). Her focus on the next encounter with death is much different than her first account of the first two, when she feels robbed having been twice so close, but never reaching heaven: “Angels- twice descending/ Reimbursed my store-/ Burglar! Banker – Father!/ I am poor once more!” (78).
These quotes bring me to my final thought, GOD I WISH I COULD THROW MY DASHES AROUND LIKE HER. Dashes are so brilliant but aren’t used enough! I was so thrilled to find a writer who likes them, seemingly, as much as I do!
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| He looks so happy being a dash! ... That's because they're awesome. |
That's an interesting point about the speaker in those poems coming so close to death, Ashina--and Dickinson does use dashes to great effect. It's as though she's challenging death.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that all poets have to be crazy to be good writers. I actually know a few and they are not crazy...eccentric but not crazy.
ReplyDeleteI kind of thought that maybe she had depression, which would also bring on her fascination with death. However she could have been a bit crazy which would also be a reason why she wrote about death.
I think that you are right...she does seem to feel robbed at being cheated of death yet again. I kind of wonder if she was drawing on personal experience when she was writing the line.
As far as the dashes go...she does use them quite well.
~Amy
Ashina, I agree that a lot of the well-known poets tend to have led very bizarre lives. As for the theme of death arising out of the craziness, I think you have a valid point, although I usually think that Dickinson’s fascination with death comes more from her own health problems and the deaths of many of her family members. Perhaps the grief gave her a morbid fascination or perhaps her grief mad her crazy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree that the first and the last seem to be saying the same thing. The last poem does not have a date of composition, so perhaps she wrote them around the same time, after coming close to death herself.
Finally, I agree on the dashes. I love dashes myself, and Dickinson certainly knows how to use them well. I find it interesting, though, that the last poem “My life closed twice before it’s close” does not contain any dashes. The footnote states that no manuscript survives for this poem and that it was transcribed by Mabel Loomis Todd. My guess is that Todd tried to make the poem more conventional by eliminating the dashes, but it raises the question: would Dickinson’s version of this poem read differently if it contained dashes?
I just have to say that I particularly love your show of support for The Dash. I suggested someone replace commas with em dashes today and they didn't go for it. So disappointing. Dash it all! (Couldn't resist using the phrase, sorry.) There's nothing as aesthetically pleasing on the page as a properly used em dash, so I applaud your loyalty.
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