Emily Dickenson

Major themes
Dickinson left no formal statement of her aesthetic intentions and, because of the variety of her themes, her work does not fit conveniently into any one genre. She has been regarded, alongside Emerson whose poems Dickinson admired, as a Transcendentalist.However, Farr disagrees with this analysis saying that Dickinson's "relentlessly measuring mind ... deflates(挫败） the airy elevation of the 挫败） 挫败 Transcendental".Apart from the major themes discussed below, Dickinson's poetry frequently uses humor, puns, irony and satire.
The Homestead 1813
Repainted Homestead
The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts (bedroom)
Dickinson’s Dickinson s Room
Her Grave
♥n her family library, she had access to many religious works as well as books by Emerson, other transcendentalists and current magazines. About 20, she began to write poems . ♥The first person to notice Dickinson’s talent was ’ Thomas Wentworth Higginson. He became a lifelong correspondent and mentor to her. ♥Dickinson had contact with few people, but one was Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Dickinson also befriended novelist Helen Jackson.
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Poem appreciation
Writting features Life introduction
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, a small town in the state of Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830. She was born in an extremely Religious, puritanical family. Her father was a very wealthy, successful and prominent lawyer and congressman.But she was very passive about any social and political activities. Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
Images
• Flowers：emblems for actions and emotions（行动与情 感） • Gardens：imaginative realm（想象的世界） • The Master（君） poems：lover for all eternity（永久的 爱人）； human, with specific characteristics,but godlike(具有鲜明个性的人，但却像上帝一样神圣) • Morbidity(病态)：early and lifelong fascination with illness, dying and death • Gospel poems(福音诗)：poetic tradition of Christian devotion(奉献于基督教的传统诗人)
Characteristics
• Dickinson's poems generally fall into three distinct periods, the works in each period having certain general characters in common. Pre-1861. These are often conventional and sentimental in nature(风格传统，感情自然流入). 1861–1865. This was her most creative period— these poems are more vigorous and emotional. (具活力与激情）Johnson believed that this is when she fully developed her themes of life and death. Post-1866. It is estimated that two-thirds of the entire body of her poetry was written before this year.
“Because
Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me--The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality. We slowly drove—He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility— We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess—in the Ring— We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain--We passed the Setting Sun—
♥Because of the failure of her love affairs,
she began to isolate herself from others and lived a solitary life.
♥The only contact she had with family was in
Or rather—He passed Us— The Dews drew quivering and ` chill— For only Gossamer, my Gown— My Tippet—only Tulle--We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground— The Roof was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— Since then—this Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses’ ’ Heads Were toward Eternity—
♥She almost always wore white.
Dickinson seldom left her house and visitors were scarce. ♥All through her life, she did not get married and lived a very quiet, lonely life in a village.
Meter
♥In each stanza, the first line has eight syllables (four feet); the second, six syllables (three feet); the third, eight syllables (four feet); and the fourth, six syllables (three feet). The meter alternates between iambic tetrameter (lines with eight syllables, or four feet) and iambic trimeter (lines with six syllables, or three feet). In iambic meter, the feet (pairs of syllables) contain an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Viewpoints
Religious views: Doubts about the existence of God and the realization of after-life. Ideas on love : unhappiness, passion Ideas on nature: simple and harmonious Ideas on death: immortality .
carriageheldjustourselveslineweslowlydroveheknewhastelinewepassedgazinggrainline11dewsgrewquiveringchillline14诗行中间停顿处的重读音节与该行最后一个重读音节押韵者叫行内韵linehe
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Complete poetic works Emily wrote more than 1775 poems through out her life. Best work was written in the four years period(1858 -1862 ).
Type of Work
I Could Not Stop for Death” is a lyric poem on the theme of death. The poem contains six stanzas, each with four lines. A four-line stanza is called a quatrain.
whimsical(想入非非的）letters. She often lowered snacks and treats in baskets to neighborhood children from her window, carefully never to let them see her face.ngton DC to
visit her father, then had fallen in love with a married lawyer,Charles Wadsworth（查理 斯.沃兹沃思）, who soon died of TB(结核 病）. ♥ From 1878 to1883, falling in love with an old friend,Otis Laude（欧提斯.劳德）. ♥About this time she wrote, “I sing as the boy does by the burying ground, because I am afraid.”