E. Dickinson (1830-1886)

• Why do critics say that E.Dickinson belongs to the 20th century but not to the century in which she lived?
• What can you say about her education?
• When did she begin to avoid other people?
• How did she communicate with the “outside world”?
• What did withdrawing from human relationships and from formal membership in the Church bring her?
• How did her friendship with several men, her “tutors”, influence her life and creative activity?
• How can you characterize her poetry?
• Did she use usual, conventional rhyme and regular rhythm in her poetry?
• What about the rules of grammar in her poems? (deviations in language, syntax and rhyme)

She rejected the rules of standard grammar completely; she paid special attention to punctuation and capitalization (especially dashes and commas). Emily Dickinson’s poetry reflects her individual view of life, death, God, and nature. Her richness of thought is expressed with the greatest economy of words.
• What about her thoughts and original ideas?
• What can you say about verse forms of her poetry?
• Why were only few poems of hers published during her lifetime? (8 in all)
• When did a complete collection of her poems appear?
• What were the themes of her poetry?

Task: write a poem of 6 or 8 lines in which you use similes or metaphors to express your thoughts about life, nature or any other subject important to you. Try to follow Dickinson’s innovations in rhyme, syntax (punctuation and capitalization), language.