Victory, it argues, can only be grasped by the losers. Omni-disciplinary writer Joyce Carol Oates called Dickinson, one of her literary idols, the “ poet of paradox.” This poem makes it clear how she earned that title. Can't get enough? Pick up a copy of her complete poems, and read on!
Keep in mind that this chronology is a matter of scholarly conjecture - this ever-mysterious poet didn’t date her verses. To help you get started reading this singular talent, we’ve assembled this guide to 15 of the best Emily Dickinson poems - arranged roughly in the order in which they were written. Scholar or child, Emily Dickinson is for us all. No wonder there are so many Emily Dickinson tattoos.ĭickinson’s work is at once enigmatic and accessible: you can keep tunneling through it for years, excavating more and more analytic insights, but it also delights at first glance. And their striking imagery and keen psychological insight can’t help but needle their way into your memory. But they also lend themselves beautifully to music, with their hymn-like rhythms.
Her poems are often forceful, fragmented, and dense, with words that seem to be missing - swallowed up by a dash, like a breath caught in the throat. Her style is inimitable, even though early editors tried their best to sand away its fascinating quirks - for instance, adding titles, undoing her capitalization, and swapping out her favored dashes for more conventional punctuation. You can clock an Emily Dickinson poem just two lines into it. Yet for all her familiarity with the canon, she is known above all for her originality. Transcendental themes, like death, immortality, faith, and doubt undergird her work, and her virtuosic touch with rhetorical figures reflects her deep knowledge of the Bible.ĭickinson read voraciously to hone her craft - not only scripture, but Shakespeare and the metaphysical poets. Her principal, the deeply religious educational reformer Mary Lyon, somberly wrote her off as “without hope” of salvation.ĭespite - or perhaps because of - her self-conscious rebellion in spiritual matters, Dickinson grappled gamely with religious questions in her poetry. Known for her fierce originality of thought, she distinguished herself among her pious classmates for her unwillingness to publicly profess faith in Christ. She spent a year studying at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, now a women’s college. Takes 30 seconds!īorn in 1830 as the middle child in a prosperous Massachusetts family, Dickinson dazzled her teachers early on with her brilliant mind and flowering imagination. Which 20-second poem should you recite while washing your hands?ĭiscover the perfect poem for you.
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