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Summary: Emily Dickinson: A True Original
Review: Emily Dickinson, who lived from 1830 to 1886, is to me the symbol of a poet with a unique and distinctive voice, a voice that seemed strange to her contemporaries but that gradually came to be recognized and cherished by lovers of poetry everywhere.She led a life withdrawn from the world and, in some ways, reality as most of us know it, for she lived mainly in her imagination. She found no recognition in her day and only six of her poems were published, all modified and conventional-ized by the editors to suit their readers, who liked old-fashioned verse and were not appreciative of new styles and innovative forms. But that didn't seem to bother Dickinson too much. In fact, she didn't even seem to take too much pride in her talent, even if she knew the full extent of it. For one thing, she kept it very private, except with a few correspondents. In fact, her poetry wasn't even discovered until after her death. Her sister went through her belongings in her room and found the many, many loose scraps of paper covered with poems that had been written down through the decades by Dickinson. So, although she was never to attain fame and success in her lifetime ("fame is a bee. / It has a song-- / It has a sting-- / Ah, too, it has a wing"), she eventually had to settle for "fame of the mind"--recognition of her talent in her own mind. It was for posterity to discover her. That didn't take long. Her first collection was put out only a short 4 years after her death. The specific reason why so little of her poetry found its way in print while she was still alive was, largely, because her use of metre, punctuation, and rhyme was so irregular and unusual. Editors mistook her offbeat application of these elements as flaws of "technical imperfections". They did not understand that these "imperfections" were not mistakes at all on her part, but rather, poetic experimentations. But their error can be well understood, of course, when one realizes that what Emily Dickinson was doing was something they just had not seem attempted, by anyone. Even Walt Whitman, another highly experimental American poet of the time, was doing something completely different from her poetry. But like his poetry, hers too was considered uncontrolled and eccentric. It seemed to follow no set of rules for verse in a time when poetry had very clearly defined rules of composition. Times have completely changed and poets today enjoy the fredom of unlimited expression. No longer are there any set rules for this or that, and all styles, forms and uses of punctuation (or lack of) are acceptable. In fact, newness and innovation are now considered a plus, all thanks to true and pioneering originals like Emily Dickinson. David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"
Rating:
Summary: Great Emily Dickinson Book
Review: Great collection by one of the best woman poets ever! All 1775 poems are in chronological order to show her feelings at certain times in her life. It is a great book, I highly recommend it!
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Summary: Dickinson's Letter to the World
Review: How can anyone review Dickinson? To do so would be completely audacious. However, I will attempt to review Dickinson's life work, though it seems like I am reviewing Shakespeare. Dickinson's poems strike the reader like no other poems--once they are read, they stay with the reader forever. They go to a deeper meaning, unfolding more and more as the reader thinks of them. They may at first seem very cryptic, but after deep pondering, they become the most sublime and divine things on earth! A gifted woman, with the most heavenly, celestial voice to grace the world. It is truly a shame that she "refused Society," but at least, THANK GOD, her sister found her work to give to us!!!!
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Summary: Blasphemous! Erotic! Brilliant!
Review: I can't think of "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson" as simply a volume of poetry. Rather, it seems to me to be the uninhibited testament of a latter-day prophetess; it reads like the visions of a rare mind who pierced through the prisons of convention, and who dared to record what she perceived. Forget any preconceptions you may have had about Dickinson, and start reading the book. As a whole, this collection is a stunning exploration of many themes and images: the world of nature, metaphysics, human emotion, and more. And throughout, these short verses radiate with psychological insight. And if you read with the attentiveness that these poems deserve, you will discover many treasures. I have been a particular fan of Dickinson's "blasphemous" verses, in which she deconstructs the conventions of mainstream religiosity, and of her erotic poems, which celebrate the sensuous delights of the human and nonhuman worlds. Check out such gems as #324 ("Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-- / I keep it, staying at Home") or #339 ("My Cactus--splits her Beard / To show her throat"). Dickinson is full of surprises, all written in a style that is stunning and subtly seductive. Dickinson writes, "Exhilaration--is within-- / There can no Outer Wine / So royally intoxicate / As that diviner Brand" (#383). But if you must rely on an "Outer Wine," dip into the "Complete Poems" and get high on Emily. It's an addiction that's good for you.
Rating:
Summary: Blasphemous! Erotic! Brilliant!
Review: I can't think of "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson" as simply a volume of poetry. Rather, it seems to me to be the uninhibited testament of a latter-day prophetess; it reads like the visions of a rare mind who pierced through the prisons of convention, and who dared to record what she perceived. Forget any preconceptions you may have had about Dickinson, and start reading the book. As a whole, this collection is a stunning exploration of many themes and images: the world of nature, metaphysics, human emotion, and more. And throughout, these short verses radiate with psychological insight. And if you read with the attentiveness that these poems deserve, you will discover many treasures. I have been a particular fan of Dickinson's "blasphemous" verses, in which she deconstructs the conventions of mainstream religiosity, and of her erotic poems, which celebrate the sensuous delights of the human and nonhuman worlds. Check out such gems as #324 ("Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-- / I keep it, staying at Home") or #339 ("My Cactus--splits her Beard / To show her throat"). Dickinson is full of surprises, all written in a style that is stunning and subtly seductive. Dickinson writes, "Exhilaration--is within-- / There can no Outer Wine / So royally intoxicate / As that diviner Brand" (#383). But if you must rely on an "Outer Wine," dip into the "Complete Poems" and get high on Emily. It's an addiction that's good for you.
Rating:
Summary: Trancendant...
Review: I couldn't always appreciate Dickenson and perhaps you may not yet be ready to appreciate her work. I can't comment on how it feels to be touched by her because it defies description and rather than try, I would suggest you give her a read. If her metaphor is not lost on you, you will be glad you made the effort. Also, spring for the extra $7 to get the hardcover... if it doesn't speak to you today, tuck it away on a shelf and someday you'll pick it up and wonder why you let it sit for so long...
Rating:
Summary: One of the few poets who ever perfected a method.
Review: I have 1000 words to tell what Dickinson means to me, an impossible task I gladly take up. I'd like to respond to others on this page. I once called Dickinson the "patron saint of lonely people everywhere," so I can identify with what one person said about teenage shut-ins. And I don't blame the person who snubbed her for not leaving a name--I'd be embarrassed to as well. Emily egotistical? The poet who wrote, "I'm nobody"? Wow. I love Dickinson's work so much because her vision of life is so fully her own, so at odds with the views of those around her. Can you imagine knowing you are the most brilliant lyric poet of your time (Whitman was more an epic or narrative poet), and knowing no one understood you? It's like trying to communicate in a foreign language that only you know. In fact, that is exactly what she did--she explodes the syntax, vocabulary, and syllabication of English and transforms it into her own private means of communication. She demands that we meet her on her ground. True, reading her work is not "fun"--there's too much pain and burning beauty in it to be an easy ride. She is not for everyone--only for those who see that life's disappointments both destroy and liberate us at the same time: comparing human hurts to trees destroyed by nature's forces, she says (in poem 314), "We--who have the Souls-- / Die oftener--Not so vitally--." Those may be the finest lines any poet ever wrote in English.
Rating:
Summary: One of the few poets who ever perfected a method.
Review: I have 1000 words to tell what Dickinson means to me, an impossible task I gladly take up. I'd like to respond to others on this page. I once called Dickinson the "patron saint of lonely people everywhere," so I can identify with what one person said about teenage shut-ins. And I don't blame the person who snubbed her for not leaving a name--I'd be embarrassed to as well. Emily egotistical? The poet who wrote, "I'm nobody"? Wow. I love Dickinson's work so much because her vision of life is so fully her own, so at odds with the views of those around her. Can you imagine knowing you are the most brilliant lyric poet of your time (Whitman was more an epic or narrative poet), and knowing no one understood you? It's like trying to communicate in a foreign language that only you know. In fact, that is exactly what she did--she explodes the syntax, vocabulary, and syllabication of English and transforms it into her own private means of communication. She demands that we meet her on her ground. True, reading her work is not "fun"--there's too much pain and burning beauty in it to be an easy ride. She is not for everyone--only for those who see that life's disappointments both destroy and liberate us at the same time: comparing human hurts to trees destroyed by nature's forces, she says (in poem 314), "We--who have the Souls-- / Die oftener--Not so vitally--." Those may be the finest lines any poet ever wrote in English.
Rating:
Summary: Emily Dickinson Rules
Review: I often thought I "knew" Emily in a personal way, though I knew that couldn't really be possible, her being dead and all. Still, I felt there was a connection and later, when I was working as a tarot card reader on Church Street in San Francisco I often met people in the course of a day who were sympathetic to this viewpoint. Of course, I wasn't doing much of a good job as a tarot card reader if I was telling people _my_ fantasies, so I quit and got my PhD studying--you got it--Emily Dickinson herself. Well, this is one heck of a book. From the familiar to the obscure, from the ridiculous to the sublime, this book hits a home run and doesn't miss a base as it jogs around the old sandlot diamond. The familiar ones are like old friends, of course, but every now and then there's a rare gem. I'd like to share this: I'd Like to Get Out of this G-d D-mned F-cking Room It'd be a big help
if I could get out of here for
just a minute.
What a bore this town can be. They say, "Hey, it's grist for the
old artistic mill,
Emily."
I say--"What total b-llsh-t."
So let me out of here.
I always wanted to give copywriting
a try.
Let me be known as the Belle of
Madison Avenue for a change, already.
Screw this. How I miss that woman.
Rating:
Summary: She's just the best
Review: I often thought I "knew" Emily in a personal way, though I knew that couldn't really be possible, her being dead and all. Still, I felt there was a connection and later, when I was working as a tarot card reader on Church Street in San Francisco I often met people in the course of a day who were sympathetic to this viewpoint. Of course, I wasn't doing much of a good job as a tarot card reader if I was telling people _my_ fantasies, so I quit and got my PhD studying--you got it--Emily Dickinson herself. Well, this is one heck of a book. From the familiar to the obscure, from the ridiculous to the sublime, this book hits a home run and doesn't miss a base as it jogs around the old sandlot diamond. The familiar ones are like old friends, of course, but every now and then there's a rare gem. I'd like to share this: I'd Like to Get Out of this G-d D-mned F-cking Room It'd be a big help
if I could get out of here for
just a minute.
What a bore this town can be. They say, "Hey, it's grist for the
old artistic mill,
Emily."
I say--"What total b-llsh-t."
So let me out of here.
I always wanted to give copywriting
a try.
Let me be known as the Belle of
Madison Avenue for a change, already.
Screw this. How I miss that woman.
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