EMILY DICKINSON





An ars poetica? “ Dickinson’s poems are made of rich silence.” (Thackerey). Discuss with reference to three poems.






Dickinson is indisputably the greatest woman poet, perhaps the greatest woman writer in the history of American literature, a fact that has stimulated a great deal of feminist interest in her work. Gender critics have sought to explore what is uniquely female in her poetic sensibility, and to consider her life and its choices for what they reveal about the options available or unavailable to women in her culture (and in American culture generally), and for the degree to which the choices that she made can be seen as the manifestations of a specifically feminine sensibility.
The first thing that any reader notices about Dickinson’s poetry is the uniqueness of its style, not only “ the rich silence “ they are made of, as Thackerey said, but also the profoundly personal and highly evocative way in which she uses language.
Throughout Emily Dickinson’s poetry there are three main themes that she addresses : death, nature and love, all of them leading the reader into a world of sensibility, charm and delicacy, a world of “ rich silence “ indeed.
One of the most fascinating things in Dickinson’s poetry is her overwhelming attention to detail, especially her insights to death. “ I’ve seen a dying eye “ is a poem about the nature of death, illustrating the sense of uncertainty and uncontrollability about death. The observer’s speech seems hesitant and unsure of what he or she is seeing, partly because of the dashes, but also because of the words used to describe the scene. As the eye is observed looking for something, then becoming cloudy and progressing through more obscurity until it finally comes to rest, the person observing the death cannot provide any definite proof that what the dying person saw was hopeful or disturbing. The dying person seems to have no control over the clouds covering