EMILY DICKINSON

Jiaxin Chen Alexa Euceda Anna Moggia-Polzer Arabela TorresClass:21 ELA

Another Sky - 1890

I cannot live with You 1890

EMILY DICKINSON

Born on December 10 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Educated at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female

Seminary. Emily’s father Edward Dickinson was a famous lawyer. She met Reverend Charles Wadsworth who she later called him

“dearest earthly friend” on her way to Philadelphia in 1854 and probably have great influence on poems she wrote later year.

She fell in love with a married man, a minister and probably greatly influence her love poems.

She live in a simple life and kept single for her whole life. This probably the reason why many of her poem express loneliness.

throughout her life she wrote more than 2,000 poems but only few of it got publish during her life time. Later, after Emily’s death on May 15, 1866 her sister Lavinia Dickinson publish rest of Emily’s poems.

HISTORICAL/ SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Emily Dickinson lived in the 1800s, during a time of social and politicalturmoil in the United States. During her lifetime, she experienced theCivil War and its aftermath. She also would have experienced thesignificant improvement of movement due to the spread of railroadtracks. In the 1800s, many people were moving to major cities in searchof work. However, Dickinson’s hometown of Amherst, Massachusettswas largely unaffected by this migration and remained dependant on anagriculture-based economy. Although almost no colleges acceptedwomen, Dickinson went to one of the few that did, called Mount HolyokeFemale Seminary. Dickinson rebelled against the strict standards forsociety in the 1800s. She attended a school that did not includehousework in its curriculum. She did not get married, which was veryabnormal for her time.

THERE IS ANOTHER SKYThere is another sky,Ever serene and fair,And there is another sunshine,Though it be darkness there;Never mind faded forests, Austin,Never mind silent fields -Here is a little forest,Whose leaf is ever green;Here is a brighter garden,Where not a frost has been;In its unfading flowersI hear the bright bee hum:Prithee, my brother,Into my garden come!–Emily Dickinson, There is Another Sky first published in Poems by Emily Dickinson, First Series (1890).

‘THERE IS ANOTHER SKY’ ANALYSIS ‘There is Another Sky’ is an

innovative poem or an America sonnet which is a fourteen line poem.

3 – 5 metric feet long for each line The rhyme scheme for this poem is

scheme ABCBCDECFCGHIH.

‘THERE IS ANOTHER SKY’ EXPLANATION This poem by Emily Dickinson focuses on the afterlife. In Dickinson’s eyes, the afterlife is much better and more

important than the life we are living in currently. There are many interpretations of what this afterlife is. Some say its heaven; but some also say it is the Garden of Eden.

‘There is another sky, / Ever serene and fair,’- She starts by clearly stating that there is ‘another sky’ that she describes as this just and peaceful place.

‘And there is another sunshine, / Though it be darkness there;’- This part was confusing as to what she was trying to convey. She compares this afterlife to sunshine this time but she also says it has darkness. The idea of the afterlife Dickinson describes seems to be metaphorically the Garden of Eden. In biblical terms, the Garden of Eden is the "garden of God", and the Bible describes it as something outstandingly beautiful. Then she states that darkness is also there; which makes sense. In the Garden of Eden, there was a tree of Knowledge of good and evil. As the story goes, the first woman, Eve, was tempted by a snake to eat from tree. Metaphorically, the snake symbolized Satan, which is where Dickinson’s mention of darkness comes to play. There is hidden darkness in the garden.

‘Never mind faded forests, Austin, / Never mind silent fields—‘- Austin refers Emily Dickinson’s brother. She tells her brother not to fret about ‘faded forests’ or ‘silent fields’. The fields and forests refer to things he has lost and things he does not have in the life he lives now. She advises him not to worry about things.

‘Here is a little forest, / Whose leaf is ever green;’- She presents to him the idea of the afterlife. She describes it as a healthy forest unlike the one he is living in right now.’

‘Here is a brighter garden, / Where not a frost has been;’- She furthermore describes her idea of the afterlife. She says it is a better and brighter garden rather than the ‘faded forests’ and the ‘silent fields’. Sadness has not been there either.

‘In its unfading flowers / I hear the bright bee hum:’- I believe Dickinson compares herself to a bee because the next line she starts talking to her brother directly.

‘Prithee, my brother, / Into my garden come!’- This is the bee (Dickinson) speaking directly to her brother and inviting him into the garden. 

I CANNOT LIVE WITH YOUI cannot live with you, It would be life, And life is over there Behind the shelf

The sexton keeps the key to, Putting upOur life, his porcelain, Like a cup

Discarded of the housewife, Quaint or broken; A newer Sevres pleases, Old ones crack.

I could not die with you, For one must wait To shut the other's gaze

down,You could not.

And I, could I stand by And see you freeze, Without my right of frost,Death's privilege?

Nor could I rise with you,Because your faceWould put out Jesus',That new grace

Glow plain and foreign On my homesick eye, Except that you, than he Shone closer by.

They'd judge us-how?For you served Heaven, you know,Or sought to;I could not,

Because you saturated sight,And I had no more eyesFor sordid excellenceAs Paradise.

And were you lost, I would be,Though my nameRang loudestOn the heavenly fame.

And were you saved,And I condemned to beWhere you were not,That self were hell to me.

So we must keep apart,You there, I here,With just the door ajarThat oceans are,And prayer,And that pale sustenance,Despair!

‘I CANNOT LIVE WITH YOU’ EXPLANATION

This is a poem of loss and disheartened resignation; like a lot of Emily Dickinson’s work. The tone is very gloomy, life is “over there-Behind the shelf”, put aside or hidden away. A Sexton is a church groundskeeper. These beginning verses refer to Charles Wadsworth, Emily’s infatuation at the time. “Our Life-His Porcelain-Like a Cup,” refers to Emily’s dreamed of relationship with the married minister. ] The Sexton who keeps the key to the china cabinet probably refers more to preservation of the marriage. “A newer Sevres pleases, Old Ones crack,” says that the minister’s wife will quickly grow old, while she is young.

I AM----

I am a girl,Who daydreams every single day.Like many girls,I appreciate the beauty.

Foods is my favorite things,Chorolate and candy taste best.Sweet and sour Dessert made by mom,Taste awsome too.

Music is my world,madrigal -ballad -my favorite.

School is my second home,Eight hour per day.Homework is the work I need to doEvery single night.

I am a girl,Like all the girl .Food, Music, and School,Is the things I touch everyday. 

Jiaxin Chen

WORKS CITED

Dickinson, Emily. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. 1st ed. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1960.

"Emily Dickinson." : The Poetry Foundation. "Emily Dickinson and The Church | Emily Dickinson

Museum." Emily Dickinson and The Church | Emily Dickinson Museum.

"Emily Dickinson: The Writing Years (1855-1865) | Emily Dickinson Museum." Emily Dickinson: The Writing Years (1855-1865) | Emily Dickinson Museum.

McDonnell, Helen, James E. Miller, and Russell J. Hogan. Traditions in literature. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1991.