Carleigh’s CS for March 11th

In “Dickinson’s Letters,” Salska sets up what they call the “double perspective:” the subjective, Dickinson’s own perspective while writing the letters and “external, because she had to consider her addressee’s response” (172). This double perspective is especially evident in her letters with Sue as she sometimes retracts her intense love to dilute the letter: “Never mind the letter Susie, I wont be angry with you if you dont give me any at all — for I know how busy you are… Only want to write to me, only sometimes sigh that you are far from me, and that will do Susie!” (Letter 73). Dickinson negates her own statement to account for Sue’s reaction. There is a familiar tension of self expression and self protection in these letters; Dickinson states her true emotions, but then hides them to protect herself from disappointment. 

How, then, do we characterize the third perspective that is present in some of these letters to Sue? In addition to the intimacy Dickinson presents in these letters, there is a level of secrecy and fear. Now, not only is she managing her own perspective and Sue’s reaction, but is concerned with a third party, an audience that may find her out. In Letter 85, she writes “Heart, keep very still — or someone will find you out!” and “And perhaps the dear little grasses were growing all the while — and perhaps they heard what we said, but they cant tell!” And once more in Letter 94: “I add a kiss, shyly, lest there is somebody there! Dont let them see, will you Susie?” 

What does this addition of secrecy mean for their relationship? What does it mean for the genre of the letter-poem? If we consider ourselves as the ‘them’ in “dont let them see,” how does our third perspective change the letters?

Also, we can compare Dickinson’s need for secrecy to Whitman’s in Calamus. We even talked briefly in class today about the implied reader of Whtiman’s works and the intimacy/secrecy with that reader. For Dickinson, though, the reader is literally addressed. How do Dickinson’s claims to secrecy differ from our readings of Whitman’s? Is intimacy different from secrecy?