Emily Dickinson艾米丽迪金森

How dreary-to be-Somebody! How public-like a FrogTo tell your name-the livelong June To an admiring Bog!
做个，显要人物，好不无聊！ 像个青蛙，向仰慕的泥沼—— 在整个六月，把个人的姓名 聒噪——何等招摇！（江枫译）
Dickinson’s Artistic features:
a. no titles b. dashes & capital letters c. short d. personal
I’m Nobody!



I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you-Nobody-too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd banish us-you know! 我是无名之辈，你是谁？ 你,也是,无名之辈？ 这就有了我们一对！可是别声张！ 你知道，他们会大肆张扬
1.She emphasizes free will and human responsibility. 2.She attacks on materialism and commercialism. 3. She thinks that beauty, truth and goodness are ultimately one. 4.Some of her poems are influenced of transcendentalism: ―The Brain—Is Wider than the Sky‖
wk.baidu.com
Key points:
1) “The Eyes around – had wrung them dry” : relatives cried, no tears any more.
2) “the King”: the God of death
3) "windows" : the door to heaven 4) “failed”: her doubt of the existence of eternal heaven 5)“With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz”: the sight of the dying became dim and listening weak.
6)"Last onset" is an oxymoron;
"onset" means a beginning and "last" means an end. For Christians, death is the beginning of eternal life.
2. death and immortality



Her views of death are rather contradictory. For Dickinson death leads to immortality; (―Because I could not stop for death‖) death comes as imperceptibly as grief and marks the beginning of a higher life; (―As imperceptibly as Grief‖) But she often conceived of the process of dying in poems, and was sometimes skeptical and ambivalent about the possibility of achieving immortality. (―I heard a fly buzz when I died‖)
3.Love

One group of her love poems treats the suffering and frustration love can cause. The other group of love poems focuses on the physical aspect of desire. she emphasizes the power of physical attraction and magnetism between sexes. (―Wild Nights– Wild Nights‖)
I willed my Keepsakes—Signed away 我已经分掉了——关于我的 What portion of me be 所有可以分掉的 Assignable—and then it was 东西——然后我就看见了 There interposed a Fly— 一只苍蝇——
With Blue—uncertain stumbling Buzz— 蓝色的——微妙起伏的嗡嗡声 Between the light—and me— 在我——和光——之间 And then the Windows failed—and then 然后窗户关闭——然后 I could not see to see— 我眼前漆黑一片——
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
The themes in Dickinson’s poems





religion death and immortality love nature success and failure
1. religion
Calvinism with its doctrine of predestination and its pessimism pressured her and colored her work so that her basic tone was tragic.

4. nature
In her poems Dickinson is skeptical about the relationship between man and nature . Nature is both benevolent and cruel.
5.On the ethical level
The Eyes around—had wrung them dry— 注视我的眼睛——泪水已经流尽— And Breaths were gathering firm 我的呼吸正渐渐变紧 For that last Onset—when the King 等待最后的时刻——上帝在房间里 Be witnessed—in the Room— 现身的时刻——降临
I heard a fly buzz- when I died
I heard a Fly buzz—when I died— 我听到苍蝇的嗡嗡声——当我死时 The Stillness in the Room 房间里，一片沉寂 Was like the Stillness in the Air— 就像空气突然平静下来—— Between the Heaves of Storm— 在风暴的间隙