Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Confessions of an Emily Dickinson Hater

It is with extreme reluctance that I confess to a deep and abiding dislike of Emily Dickinson's poetry. I know that it's considered the best thing since movable type. I know that our very own textbook says, and I quote, "Her poems shed the unmistakable light of greatness." I know that as a teacher of literature I'm supposed to oooh and ahhh and marvel at her origniality in using dashes instead of punctuation and capitalizing weirdly.

I can't do it.

Where other people see a mysterious recluse, abiding by the rules of her own genius, I see a drama queen, hiding behind doors because she has realized that the best way to get lots of attention is to be hysterical most of the time. Her publisher, Thomas Higginson, met her in person twice, and afterward said he thanked God he didn't have to do it more often.

Emily took a toll on people. Her letters, such of them that survive, are punctuated with the same dashes as her verse, and they give her a breathless, schoolgirl quality. She doesn't speak directly, but in a series of ellipses, designed to convey that she feels something very powerfully, but declines to specify what. No wonder she became the darling of postmodernism; she could be saying anything.

And then there's the matter of slant rhyme. When the late Julia A. Moore used it, people rightly decided that she had a tin ear. When Emily Dickinson does it, it's genius. The only difference I can see is that Emily chooses better subject matter.

Here's the crux of my belief about Emily Dickinson. I think that her poems were "discovered" at exactly the right time. Her idiosyncratic style fit perfectly with the 20th Century's rejection of traditional poetic forms. Furthermore, since she was dead and was not, even when alive, all that communicative about her poetry, people could read into it, and her, whatever they wanted. Her singular lack of metric variation, her slant rhyme, her missing punctuation, could all be marks of genius, or they could be personal tics. We'll never know.

Yes, her poems are short. Yes, they're unconventional (for a given value of unconventional). Yes, her images are usually clear. Yes, she occasionally creates a striking phrase. I dont' care. I've tried to care, and I can't. You can sing most of her poems to the tune of the theme song for Gilligan's Island. She is as preoccupied with death as E.A. Poe, and as narrow as Anne Bradstreet, possibly even narrower. She wades in pools of grief and enjoys the expression of agony on other people's faces. She feels funerals in her brain, hears flies buzzing when she dies, and goes for buggy rides with Death. Frost beheads playful flowers, houses bustle when someone dies, and brains run smoothly in their grooves. She could be Ezra Pound's mother.

Naturally, I do not wish, by so exposing my own bias, to discourage anyone from going into transports of delight at Dickinson's poetry and strewing boquets about. The appreciation of poetry is largely a matter of taste, and as E.D. herself said, "I taste a liquor never brewed." I don't think we mean the same thing.

In the interest of fair play, here is a blogger who has brought Emily into a different, and better light, and if you want to read a positive review, check this out. You'll like it. Be advised, there's some dropping of the f-bomb in this blog, along with some other "strong" language.

21 comments:

  1. "Abiding by the rules of her own genius"--- Isnt it safe to say that, people who make great strides in litterature, or science make their own rules based on their goals. It is admirable that she went out on a limb just like galileo went out on an limb with his new ideas. And yes i would have to say your bias is overwhelming and it sounds like you hate her haha

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  2. i dont understand why people don't look more into the reasons emily dickinson wrote. obviously it wasnt for money or career so haw can her work even be taken seriously? so someone just picked up a notebook wriiten be her, liked it, and considered is a genius work of art? am i wrong? if im right i refuse to even be tested on her lol

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  3. I liked when you described he dashes as giving her poetry a "breathless, school girl quality." That's pretty much how I feel about those dashes... they make it feel breathy, dramtic, and somewhat imature. They remind me of something I might have written in middle or high school; just words on a page, with no sort of perfection to them, just me writing for the heck of it to get some emotions out. I'm not trying to knock her, because (agreeing with Roberto), I think that was what she was trying to do, to. She just wanted to get some emotions out (and she seemed to have A LOT of them!!), and if you are just writing for yourself, then it doesn't matter if you don't punctuate or write about great deep things. I think the poor woman gets TOO much credit from some people, which makes her get a bad rapt from others.

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  4. So as be began to discuss Emily Dickenson I could only help but side with Mrs. Hanks. So I understand that she went through a hard time considering her best friend’s death... but for the love of all that is good in the world, every time I read a letter I feel like I just hallucinated, it doesn’t sink in for me ( at least with Poe there was mystery and darkness… never thought I would say that )... buuuuttt on the other hand it made me think about her correspondence with her sister-in-law. With her always being concerned if she was mad at Emily or the amount of letters written made me question if Emily was projecting her feeling of the dead best friend to her sister-in-law. Was she was close to another female figure? Emily Dickenson is an interesting character to end on

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  5. the above comment is Ashlyn DiCiero

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  6. Genny said...

    I can't decided what I think about Emily Dickinson...I agree on one hand with you Professor Hanks but then I have to feel sorry for her. Maybe she was a drama queen but when I read her work and know she was writing it for only herself to see I think she was suffering with depression. And, it's said that she would push all of her feelings on to one person and exhaust them..and that is a good sign of depression and self conscience problems. And, as for the dash. Yes it is pretty annoying when you're trying to read her poetry but as said in class I think it's her thinking. She wasnt sure if she was done with her idea or thought yet so instead of puncuation she put a dash...to each there own I guess.

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  7. I like reading Emily Dickinson, but really it’s only because it easier to read and understand then a lot of poetry. After reading Genny’s post I am going to have to agree. I to think that if Dickinson was writing for herself and dealing with depression it’s very sad that her personal writing were published. But then I think about what she writes about and have to say, wow this lady is messed up in the head.

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  8. Might I recommend adding new ZEST! -- FRESHNESS! -- VIGOR! -- to Ms. Dickenson's poems by singing them instead to either "Amazing Grace" or "The Yellow Rose of Texas"

    Such genius

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  9. During discussion yesterday in class I also wondered if her poetry just happened to come along at the right time. Genius? I think not. Although I did really enjoy a few of her poems. I also have a tough time reading poetry so this is just easier for me to "get". Another thing to think about, if she were so preoccupied with death why was she always wearing white? Why not black?

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  10. In reply to Hank... I starting singing them in my head in class to a hymn, maybe, Rock Of Ages or something, and I started to crack up, so I had to stop. hehe.

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  11. Oh dear, you CAN sing them to "Rock of Ages." Now I really am in trouble.

    Okay, I in NO WAY want to discourage people who find ED profound and appealing. Clearly there's something important in her poetry and the images she creates -- thousands of scholars can't be all wrong and/or delusional. I'm just sayin' . . . give me Mary Oliver any day.

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  12. I think Elizabeth made a good point in saying that maybe Emily gets too much credit from some people and therefore that makes other people dislike her more. I was also wondering about her always wearing white. It seems like if she was so preoccupied with death she would wear black. Who knows maybe she looks better in white. I think that her putting dashes in all of her poems was a way to let herself stop and think about what to say next.
    -Katy Simpkins

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  13. Ok, ladies and gentlemen, Emily's sartorial choices don't matter very much. She wore white as an affectation, but black would not have been one of her options. Black clothing on a woman indicated widowhood, and Emily was not a social innovator; she would have been thought nuts had she worn black, and she wasn't about to invite that kind of criticism from her family and friends. We'll have a more productive discussion if we stick to her work.

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  14. i liked her writing due to its easy reading but it was all about death and darkness it felt like to me which isnt my favorite type of reading and i dont think is very good poetry to read over and over

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  15. I think I'm finding it tough to discuss her work without delving into why she was the way she was. Her poetry doesn't fascinate me as much as Emily Dickinson the person. My theory is that she did have some terrible things happen to her but didn't deal with them in a healthy manner due to her ultra-sensitive emotions. That said, I agree with the comments that she never intended for these to be published. She used dashes for goodness sake! I know I don't use proper punctuation in my personal notes and never will. I feel as if she has been exploited, which makes me pity her.

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  16. Emily said.....

    I think that Dickenson was living with the times. She was apart of the Victorian era and was death not a major enjoyment for most individuals, particularly women, of the Victorian era? She may have been a recluse, a hystrionic, and all of the above, but in that day in time most women were. Prehaps her recluse was just a way of getting away from male oppression that was rampent then.

    I dont agree with her work and her quirks get on my nerves, but when I read the poetry I received a picture even as biased as it may have been I recieved a mental picture non the less and that has to acount for something in the fact she creates a mental image in just a few lines. Im not saying that she is the best, but she is kind of good.

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  17. I personally did not enjoy reading her poetry because i think they are too short and somewhat pointless. But maybe I just don't appreciate good poetry? In her defense though, she was only writing for herself and I can only imagine how hard it is to lose a good friend at such a young age. But trapping yourself in a room and secluding yourself doesn't help things. The writing probab ly helped her get through life. And on the other hand maybe it made things worse. Constantly drowning herself in the thought of death may have been what made her a little nuts. Maybe this writing was her healing...or her curse?

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  18. I agree with Mary in the fact that her poetry was too short and pointless. Although maybe to her, her poetry was the only thing she had to keep her going. I don't think that she knew her poetry would become this popular and she would be recognized as one of the major poetic figures in the history of poetry.

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  19. Again, let's dance away from the obvious. Of course she didn't know her poetry would beome popular; she was a recluse. And "pointless" is a dangerous word. She definately had a point, even if it's hard to find. Sometimes her points are needle-sharp, which is why she's still read after all this time. Don't let the fact that I dislike her make you think she sucks.

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  20. Adam said....

    I feel that the reasons her poems are short is because she is writing how she feels at that time. I feel her poems are the inner voices inside of her talking. Maybe its "strange" to write about death all of the time, but it could be that she wrote when her emotions where at its breaking point and she used her writing as a release. I think thats why so many people like her works is because in a way she shows use how we fell inside even though we don't like to show those emotions.

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  21. Wow. You give it to her hard Ms. Hanks! I never really pictured her as a glory hog, but maybe I just hadn't looked into her enough? I personally always had a problem with her singsonginess...but all in all didn't have a problem reading it as long as I didn't read more than two or three at a time....
    Seems like everyone that writes about death gets a hard knock or two over it, and I really like some of her poetry regardless of it all...actually.

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