Dickinson in the Chapter Introduction

Dickinson

In the chapter introduction to Dickinson: The Poet's Voice (pp. 321- 327), the author focuses on three key areas distinct to Emily Dickinson's work: her personal voice, the poet as a person, and Dickinson's commitment, or that which she was mainly trying to accomplish or communicate within her poetry. The author also makes the point at the beginning of this chapter, that contrary to suggestions by New Critics, no poem ever stands completely on its own, independent of its author; its author's style, or other poems by that author. Readers of poetry, like readers of books or appreciators of art or music, have their preferences of poet and style, based on their past memories and preferences.

The work of Emily Dickinson is one of the best examples, in all of American poetry, of distinctive voice, style, and creative purpose; and the woman who wrote the two thousand-plus poems discovered after Dickinson's death was herself quite distinctive. Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830. Her father was deeply religious in a "stern Puritanical" (323) way. He was a lawyer, the pillar of the family, and a pillar of the Amherst community.

He wanted his children to read only serious books, not novels or other kinds of books that might "joggle the mind'" (323), so Emily and her brother and sister had to sneak such books into the house when he was not looking. Emily graduated from high school and attended college for one year (Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary) which was fairly unusual for women at that time. She remained at home in her parents' house all her life, caring for her invalid mother and becoming increasingly reclusive. It is from this quiet reclusive lifestyle that the many poems for which Emily Dickinson is so well-known today sprang, among them "Because I could not stop for Death" (712); "I Heard a Fly buzz -- when I died (465)"; "The Bustle in a House" (1078); "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant" (1129); "There's a certain Slant of light" (258), and "After great pain, a formal feeling comes -(341). Each of these poems captures a distinct atmosphere, a frozen moment in time, a mood, or a fleeting impression, as if the poet is attempting to capture an ephemeral or temporary impression or subject and metaphorically examine it under a microscope of words, phrases, dashes, and capital letters to create a distinct and memorable impression.