Unlike Dr. Williams’ grave, Emily Dickinson‘s is well visited. On top of her stone are some pennies as well as a mug full of pens and pencils. At its base I found rain-soaked poetry books and papers as well as a little snow-globe half buried among the plantings. There’s even a mural featuring her adjacent to the cemetery.
But of the poets I’ll be visiting this trip, I’m least enthused by Miss Dickinson’s poetry. I appreciate that she anticipated the modern free-verse style in which I write and in my workshops I regularly advocate for the use of the Dickinson Dash and she’s got some great lines like: “Because I could not stop for Death– He kindly stopped for me–” and “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul –“.
While reading more of her work in preparation for visiting her grave, I found two poems that I really enjoyed. She didn’t title her poetry (another way she was ahead of her time) so I’ll refer to them by their first lines. Tell all the truth but tell it slant is beautiful little description of how poetry does a better job expressing the Truth than prose. And Wild Nights— Wild Nights! frankly surprised me as being very un-Dickinsonian by being very sexy!
But what’s most impressive about Miss Dickinson is that she produced her poetry in near isolation. This is something I do NOT recommend. While writing poetry is a solitary activity, every poet needs a community, a group to share their poetry with and get honest feedback from. That is the best way to improve your art. There’s only one Emily Dickinson per generation, a poet who can produce masterpieces alone. The rest of us have to work together.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 
Still Waters do Run Deep. You have stated many excellent reasons for us to bend and kiss the hem of Ms Dickenson’s garment, though I would hope that her female idyll did not give BB any grand notions. Solitary is one thing. Agoraphobic is another. It takes at least one of every kind so that we all know there is no type, all types have found the Muse. All types have thus mended their wounded souls. Look at you for example, and me for another.
I’m enjoying your adventure without leaving my seat.
Thank You Senor, Maria Sopapilla
LikeLiked by 2 people
De nada, Maria Dolce. I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I edit out the boring stuff for the blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tell the truth but tell it slant is the one I think of when she comes up in conversation. I would say you did her justice. But you left out the most charming part. You can sing her poems to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island theme song! (Yes, yes, meter blah blah. You poet your way, I poet mine.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yet another way she was ahead of her time! I wonder if Sherwood Schwartz based any of those scripts on her poems.
LikeLike
Sherwood Schwarz. U can’t make that stuff up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your post about Emily Dickinson … I have her “collection” beside me on my bookshelf … 1,775 poems … wow … I’ve written 1,300 poems, haha … quantity but quality
LikeLiked by 1 person
It doesn’t matter how many you’ve written. You just need one masterpiece.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha .. best I keep writing then 🤗🌏
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, we’ve both still got work to do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Emily Dickinson is one of my favorites.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Do you have a favorite poem of hers?
LikeLike
I love the ones about nature, but there was one about a rose, and it may have just been called The Rose; I can’t remember for sure. I felt she had a connection with nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Apparently while she was alive she was more known for her garden in Amherst than her poetry. I have no doubt she had a keen connection to nature.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That makes sense. Thanks for the info. 👍
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well you see
We disagree
Mr Bartholomew
And me.
‘Beats’ and ‘Angries’
Leave me cold
With Emily
Some truths are told
A shame to honour her with doggerel
But it’s the best I can do
(free-form)
BB
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very nice work off the top of your head. Which of Miss Dickinson’s poems is your favorite?
LikeLike
Does my little rhyme count as ‘work’? I was just messing – I do that a lot – messing.
Favourite Emily Dickinson poem? It’s always hard to say…..’Hope is the thing with feathers….’ is a strong contender. How often do I go on about how there is always Hope – there at the bottom of Pandora’s box when all the evils had flown out. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/01/05/the-last-time/
And, as Emily Dickinson says – it gives but doesn’t ask for return. It just is – somewhere – there for us – to find.
V.v. hard to name a favourite – I can’t really do that with anything – except that husband Mike is my favourite person in all the world.
A song my Mum sang to me was “You me and us, we are our favourite people’ – that now applies to Mike.
And now, I sleep.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aaaaand…. http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?msg=Entry%20Updated
I’m now wondering which dead poet you intend to visit next?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Stay tuned…
LikeLike
Pingback: The Grave of Robert Frost | Bartholomew Barker, Poet