I’m going to be honest. When I was first introduced to Dickinson in a literature class (not this one), I loved her poetry, but I had a very different understanding of her life. I was under the impression that she had been abused by her father (even just by restricted movements). I thought a good portion of her withdrawal from society was caused by her father.
However, now that I’ve had a chance to read through the Dickinson archive biography, I have a very different understanding. Her withdrawal was entirely her choice. Her father was strict but not necessarily abusive.
My question is two-fold. First of all, what was your original impression of Dickinson? Has that changed? If so, how has it changed? If not, did you learn anything new about Dickinson?
Second, I wrote a paper on poem 445 under the previous understanding of Dickinson. My analysis through close reading determined that Dickinson was being forced into one particular style of writing by those around her (presumably her father). With your current understanding of Dickinson and her biography, how would you interpret this poem?
They shut me up in Prose –
As when a little Girl
They put me in the Closet
Because they liked me “still” –
Still! Could themselves have peeped –
And seen my Brain – go round –
They might as wise have lodged a Bird
For Treason – in the Pound –
Himself has but to will
And easy as a Star
Look down opon Captivity
And laugh – No more have I –
Particularly, I would be interested in your interpretation of the line “no more have I” and who the “they” is. Even with my previous interpretation, I struggled to come up with an understanding of that line. What do you think?
Lisa, I think these are great questions to pose about Dickinson, and I felt compelled to answer this CS because I did come to her with a very different impression as well. My dad loves Whitman but has never been a huge fan of Dickinson – he called her poems very ‘sweet’ and ‘simple,’ so I had this idea in my head of Dickinson writing nice, palatable poems about nature and religion and love. My view on her poetry has completely changed after getting to read and listen to discussion in class – now, it’s obvious how innovative her work is and how expansive her topics are, just like Whitman’s work, if not even more so. It’s also become more clear in class why people do hold such opinions about Dickinson’s work – that so much of it comes down to the editing and revision other people did of her work.
Poem 445 is so interesting. I’m sure there are multiple ways to read it, but I first read the ‘they’ in the poem more as a general ‘they,’ perhaps the society in which Dickinson has grown up in. It seemed like she felt constrained by her existence as female in general, a lot of the time, and I think that reading could apply here – where maybe, no one actually forced her into a closet when she was younger, but she was made to feel like her mind was was too wild, and so ‘they’ (those close to her and her family in general) tried to make her ‘still’. The ‘no more have I,’ definitely seems harder to interpret. For me, it brings up a picture of Dickinson laughing, finally free from the constraints others put on her mind (which she herself internalized). Now older, her mind has grown to be truly free, perhaps after periods of doubt in her younger days.
Lisa, I feel I have also had a similar experience with Dickinson in the past, where this class has really expanded my understanding of her. Before this class, I thought Dickinson was a recluse both physically and mentally. Not only did she physically stay away from others by staying cooped up in her father’s house, but she also was mentally unengaged with the world outside the house’s walls. But I’ve learned, along with everyone else in class, that Dickinson was genius, a real thinker, who read often and constantly considered all aspects of the surrounding world, attempting to make sense of everything she could possibly imagine. Mentally, she was extraordinarily engaged. And perhaps this experience I have had, as well as the similar one you share here, re-evokes in me my fascination of the way we as readers perceive authors. (I did a little thinking about this with Whitman.) In terms of Dickinson, for instance, I really like the imagery of her in that white dress, and how the color white symbolizes peace and purity. Considering Dickinson terms of white color imagery certainly paints a very different picture of her than the one I had previously known (of Dickinson being shut away, almost as someone angry at the world). I don’t think we will ever be able to “know” an author or understand them simply from what they have written, but Dickinson’s poetry certainly gives us a glimpse into her mind and her life. Therefore, I think it’s really important that we don’t overstep the boundary and draw conclusions about an author that may not be true simply because of our strong desire to understand who they were.
Great post, Lisa!
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