Poetry Project

POETRY

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (Amherst, Massachusetts-10th December, 1830) regarded as one of America’s greatest poets, is also known for her unusual life of self imposed social seclusion.

Although living a life of simplicity and seclusion, she wrote poetry of great power; questioning the nature of immortality and death, two recurring topics in the letters to her friends.

First Years• As a young child, Emily proved to be a bright and

conscientious student. She showed a sharp intelligence and was able to create many original writings of rhyming stories.

• In response to his father strictness in censorship, she was highly deferential to her father and other male figures of authority.

• But, despite her attempts to please and be well thought of, she was at the same time independently minded and quite willing to refuse the prevailing orthodoxy’s on certain issues.

Her work & death

In her poetry she didn’t use to use titles very often. The rhyme in her poems is usually the slant one, within short

lines in which she expressed far-reaching ideas. Moreover, her poetry, which is amidst paradox and uncertainty, has

an undeniable capacity to move and provoke.

The work that was published during her lifetime was usuallyaltered by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules

of the time.

She died in May 15, 1886 due to Bright’s disease, a chronicnephritis.

Religion

A crucial issue at the time was religion, which to Emily was the “all important question”.

The antecedents of the Dickinson’s can be traced back to the early Puritan settlers, who left Lincolnshire (England) in the late 17th Century in order to practice religious freedom in America.

Legacy• Her first collection of poetry after her death

was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances who heavily edited the content. But, finally, a complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson.

• Despite unfavorable reviews during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider her to be a major American poet.

A selected poem “A Book” A Book

“There is no frigate like a bookTo take us lands away,Nor any coursers like a pageOf prancing poetry.This traverse may the poorest takeWithout oppress of toll;How frugal is the chariotThat bears a human soul!”

Emily Dickinson

The poem expresses the importance Dickinson gives to books and literature in general, specifying the importance of poetry. For her, books are capable of making us travel when reading them. Books tell us stories of any kind, at any place, real or not, and with the company of many different characters. She also compares the “pages” of poetry books with the coursers, stating that the first ones are better. The comparison is established upon the similarity between the prancing movements of coursers and the sensation of the same movement when reading poetry (it make us stay “nervous” until we know the end of the poem, for

example).

A selected poem “A Book” II

She adds that this is a travel all people can do, even the poorest, without being injured and without having to pay much. With the words “oppress” and “toll” she may be referring to how poor people would feel when travelling, because of having to pay lots of money (a “toll”, a loss of money, for example).

The two last lines express how the human soul has to deal with lots of problems, being that “chariot” all the things we do during our life and that a Spanish poet, Antonio Machado, will call “way” in one of his poems.

Looking at the poem in general, it reflects how Dickinson

saw life. She would prefer being alone, reading, rather than travelling, being surrounded by people.

My opinion

I like this poem because I feel the same as Dickinson when reading books (in my case, the fantastic and adventures ones). Books make us travel around places we have never been before or remember the ones we have already visited. For me, books are important as well as interesting and astonishing.

Before my poem…

I found a poem by Maya Angelou which I found interesting. Because of this, I would talk about it and about his author a bit.

Another American Writer

Pa s s i n g T i m e

Your skin like dawnMine like musk

One paints the beginningof a certain end.

The other, the end of asure beginning.

Maya Angelou

In this short poem, Angelou expresses a typical theme in literature: the passing time (as she announces on her poem’s title).

The skin of young people is smooth, but we know that this youthful look will disappear and will turn into a wrinkled face, an old person (the beginning of a certain ending”).

On the other hand we know that the wrinkled face of old people has not always been wrinkled, they have been children too (the end of a sure beginning).

My opinion & Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (April 4th, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri) was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. There, Angelou experienced racial discrimination as well as she absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American families, community and culture.

She is one of the most famous and influential people of our time, being a celebrated poet, novelist, dramatist, actress, filmmaker and civil rights activist among other things.

She has served on two presidential committees and has been awarded several times (the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and 3 Grammy Awards among others).

I like her poem because it summarizes in a very few lines what happens to all human beings during our lives.

She keeps simple something that if you think it in depth it is not that easy, being this the reason why her poem is so unique and beautiful.

My Poem- “The Importance of Ideas”

Ideas are just so difficult to forget.When one is set on your mindIs impossible to be deleted.

The world is carried by ideas,They make it be what it is

And what it can be,Also what it could be.

Ideas are strong, powerful.They give us the strength forDoing great thingsOr horrible ones.

Ideas scare me,But they also delight myself.

They give me my passion My ambition,My obsession.

Ideas always depends on The person who carries them.But why on earth should man Use them for doing the bad?“No idea, mate.” 

The End