Emily Dickinson (10 December, 1830 –15

May,1886)

A famous 19th century American poetess, enjoys equal popularity with Whitman and is conferred the pioneer of the 20th century English and American Imagist Movement.

The Homestead of Amherst in 1813

Repainted Homestead

Their house known as “The Homestead” or “Mansion” was often used as a meeting place for distinguished visitors including, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The Dickinson Homestead as it appears today. In 2003 it was made into the Emily Dickinson Museum.

Dickinson’s Bedroom

A Nun in White Dress （白衣女尼）

Contents

I. Biographical Introduction

II. Dickinson’s View and Theme

III. Features of Dickinson’s Poems

IV. Because I Could Not Stop for Death—

V. Appreciating Because I Could Not Stop for Death—

1) Emily was born in 1830 into a Calvinist family of Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father was a Whig lawyer, and later in her life, treasurer of Amherst College and Congressman. This old Puritan, with a heart “pure and terrible,” influenced her in no small way. Emily enjoyed a normal and vivacious girlhood. From her family she had love, though not always understanding. She was shy, sensitive, sometimes rebellious.

Emily Dickinson (10 December, 1830 –15 May,1886)

2) For two years she studied at Amherst Academy and spent one more at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. The school was strongly congregational, but she refused to observe its religious customs.

3) At the age of 17 she settled into the Dickinson home and turned herself into a competent housekeeper and a more than ordinary observer of Amherst life. She lived a leisure and simple life and kept single all her life. She enjoyed gardening and writing and tried to avoid visitors.

4) She began writing seriously during her twenties. She wrote 1775 poems, but only seven of them were published in her life time. Dickinson called this stream of tiny, aphoristic poems a continuous fragmented “letter to the world,” a way to bridge her private world with the public.

After her death in 1886, her poems were discovered by her sister Lavinia. With the help of Mrs. M. L. Todd and Thomas Wentworth, the first volume of 115 poems appeared in 1890. After her poetry continues to be issued, her fame has kept rising. She is now recognized not only as a great poetess on her own right but as a poetess of considerable influence upon American poetry of the present century.

5) On June 16, 1874, Edward Dickinson suffered a stroke and died. on June 15, 1875, Emily's mother also suffered a stroke.

6) Dickinson died on May 15, 1886. The cause of death was listed as Bright's disease (nephritis 肾炎 ).

She always wore white. She often lowered snacks and treats in baskets to

neighborhood children from her window, careful never to let them see her face.

Known for being a recluse, she didn’t leave her family’s homestead for any reason after the late 1860’s.

Being felt painful from unrequitted love, she remained isolated and single.

Facts to be Known

Benjamin Newton, a young lawyer, who improved her literary and cultural tastes. She refers to him “a friend, who taught me immortality.”

Charles Wadsworth, a married, middle-aged minister who provided her with intellectual challenge and contact with the outside world. Dickinson felt an affection for him that he could not return.

Two Men Who Influenced her Life

II. Dickinson’s View and Theme

Dickinson’s poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But within her little lyrics she addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love and nature.

A. In some of her poems she wrote about her doubt and belief about religious subjects. While she desired salvation and immortality, she denied the orthodox view of paradise. Although she believed in God, she sometimes doubted His benevolence.

B. By far the largest portion of Dickinson’s poetry concerns death and immortality, ranging over the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death. She looked at death from the point of both the living and the dying. She even imagined her own death, the loss of her own body, and the journey of the soul to the unknown. Death and immortality lie at the centre of Dickinson’s world. Death comes imperceptibly as grief and marks the beginning of a higher life.

C. Dickinson sees nature as both gaily benevolent and cruel. Her nature poems are also great in number and rich in matter. Natural phenomena, changes of seasons, heavenly bodies, animals, birds and insects, flowers of various kinds—all these and many other subjects related to nature find their way into her poetry.

D. Love is another subject Dickinson dwelt on. One group of her love poems treats the suffering and frustration love can cause. These poems are clearly the reflection of her own unhappy experience, closely related to her deepest and most private feelings. (“I cannot live without you”)

The other group of love poems focuses on the physical aspect of desire, in which Dickinson dealt with, allegorically, the influence of the male authorities over the female, emphasizing the power of physical attraction and expressing a mixture of fear and fascination for the mysterious magnetism between sexes.

E. Besides the above themes, her poems are also concerned about ethics, with respect to which, she emphasizes free will and human responsibility.

Original, imitating nobody. Dickinson’s poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way.

Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines.

In her poetry there is particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence (rhythm) and capital letters as a means of emphasis.

The form of her poetry is more or less like that of the hymns in community churches, familiar, communal, and sometimes, irregular.

Dickinson’s irregular or sometimes inverted sentence structure also confuses readers.

III. Features of Dickinson’s Poems

Perhaps Dickinson’s most famous work, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” is generally considered to be one of the great masterpieces of American poetry. Written around 1863, the poem was published in Dickinson’s first posthumous collection, Poems by Emily Dickinson, in 1890. It has also been printed under the title “The Chariot.”

Because I could not stop for Death—

Death is unavoidable for everybody, what’s your opinion about death?

According to the speaker, is death terrible or charming? (stanza 1 and 2)

What are the symbolic meanings of “the School”, “the fields of Gazing Grain”, “the Setting Sun”?

What is the speaker’s view on death?

Discussion Questions

More views on death…

To die: to sleep; No more;

—by William Shakespeare A life time is a year, death is winter.

—by Robert Browning Death, esp a young beautiful lady’s death, is the most poet

ical topic in the world. — by Edgar Allan Poe

LIFE IS A JOURNEY

Dante begins his Divine Comedy:

In the middle of life’s road,

I found myself in a dark wood.

DEATH IS DEPARTURE

Dickinson’s coachman is paralleled by T.S.Eliot’s footman:

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,

And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,

And in short, I was afraid. (“The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock”)

A LIFE TIME IS A YEAR; DEATH IS WINTER

Robert Browning’s “Prospice”:

FEAR death?—to feel the fog in my throat,  

The mist in my face,

When the snows begin, and the blasts denote  

I am nearing the place,

Because I could not stop for Death—One of the perfect poems in English.

One of the greatest in the English language.

—Allen Tate

Stanza I

1 Because I could not stop for Death –

2 He kindly stopped for me –

3 The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

4 And Immortality.

He: death; angel of death. In this poem the angel of death is personified. The angel of death is here presented as a very polite gentleman.

The word “kindly” relaxes the solemn tone of this poem about death. Carriage: vehicle pulled by horses for carrying people; in this line,

“Carriage” Refers to hearse( 灵车 ), a car to carry a body in a coffin to the funeral before being put in the grave.

Ourselves: the angel of death and the poetess. Immortality: state of living forever (Here it is also personified); immo

rtality appears in the same carriage with “death” and the poetess.Stanza 1: The angel of death, in the image of a kind person, comes in

a carriage for the sake of Immortality and the poetess.

Stanza II

5 We slowly drove – He knew no haste

6 And I had put away

7 My labor and my leisure too,

8 For His Civility –

He: god of death. God of death isn’t in a hurry when doing his duty.put away: left over; gave up.Civility: politeness; respect.

Stanza 2: To show my politeness to

god of death, I gave up my work and my enjoyment of life as well; I give up my life.

Stanza III

9 We passed the School, where Children strove

10 At Recess – in the Ring –

11 We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

12 We passed the Setting Sun –

Recess: play period during school session.in the Ring: in the playground; standing in ring when playing games.Gazing Grain: the grain which is gazing upwards. The figurative speech of personification is skillfully used here to remind the reader that we, as human being, are just passers-by in this world; comparatively, the grain in the fields, growing year after year, is able to gaze upwards one generation after another.

Stanza 3:

The journey of our carriage implies the experience of human life; school implies time for childhood; the fields of gazing grain, for youth and adulthood; while the setting sun, for old age.

Stanza IV

13 Or rather – He passed Us –

14 The Dews drew quivering and chill –

15 For only Gossamer, my Gown –

16 My Tippet – only Tulle , –

Notes He: the setting sun. The Dews: the appearance of “the dews” implies the falling

of night. drew quivering and chill: brought me a sense of fear. (I felt chilly and frightened) because I was dressed only wit

h Gossamer and Gown. Gossamer: fine, silky substance of webs made by small spi

ders; very thin, silky materials, usually for woman’s dresses. Here it refers to the shroud on the dead body.

gown: grave clothes. Tippet: shoulder cape or scarf ; long piece of fur, etc., worn

by a woman round the neck and shoulder, with the end hanging down in front. 披肩

Tulle: soft fine silky net— like material used especially for veils and dresses. 薄纱

Stanza 4 ： Probably we may say the sun sets b

efore we reach the destination—the night falls, death arrives. I felt a fear and chilly after death, for my shroud is thin and my scarf too light. Despite the description of “death”, the usual gloomy and horrifying atmosphere is lightened by the poetess with the elegantly fluttering clothing she describes.

Stanza V

17 We paused before a House that seemed

18 A Swelling of the Ground –

19 The Roof was scarcely visible –

20 The Cornice– in the Ground –

House: grave.Cornice : ornamental moulding in plaster, round the walls of a room, just below the ceiling. ( 飞檐 \ 檐口 )

Stanza 5 ： This stanza shifts to th

e description of the tomb. With the words as “House, swelling (which conveys a suggestive similarity to “vault”) roof,” especially “cornice,” the grave is described as a magnificent building.

Stanza VI

21 Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

22 Feels shorter than the Day

23 I first surmised the Horses' Heads

24 Were toward Eternity –

then: the arrival of my death.surmised: supposed; guessed. ( 猜度 )

Stanza 6: Several centuries had passed

since the arrival of death upon me. However, I felt it is shorter than a day. On that day I suddenly realized that death is the starting point for eternity, and the carriage is heading towards it.

Death is a way leading to immortality. In this poem, the speaker personifies death into a gentlemen, who leads him to immortality with kindness.

They represent three stages of life. The school is the childhood and young age; the fields of gazing grain refers to the mature period and the setting sun the old age, that is the end of one’s life.

Suggested Answers to Questions

In the poem, a woman tells the story of how she is busily going about her day when a polite gentleman by the name of Death arrives in his carriage to take her out for a ride. Incidentally mentioned, the third passenger in the coach is a silent, mysterious stranger named Immortality. Thus begins one of the most famous examples of personification and figurative language in American literature.

Death takes the woman on a leisurely, late-afternoon ride to the grave and beyond, passing playing children, wheat fields, and the setting sun — all reminders of the cyclical nature of human life — along the way. The woman describes their journey with the casual ease one might use to recount a typical Sunday drive. They pause a moment at her grave, perhaps Death’s house, which “seemed / A Swelling of the Ground,” and then continue their never-ending ride “toward Eternity.”

In the end, through a brilliant use of hyperbole, or intentional exaggeration, the woman insists that all the centuries that have since passed have felt “shorter than the Day” that she took that fateful carriage ride which revealed to her for the first time the true meaning of Immortality.

Tone: the tone is changeable with the stanzas develop. First, the tone is light and pleasant. Then, it becomes serious and finally, the tone changes to be meditative.

Theme: Death leads to immortality. Death is an endless journey; It’s a journey from life to death, from physical to spiritual, from time to timelessness.

Tone and Theme

Reflective Questions

A comparison between Dickinson and T

horeau, Walt Whitman, and Tao Yuanm

ing.

Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson

Similarities: Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an

emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.

Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry. Differences:

Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional”.

Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesn’t have.

Homework

Preview Mark Twain and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Introduction to Huckleberry Finn