In yesterday's class we talked about Emily Dickinson and her strange but beautiful poems. As a "virgin recluse," she selected her society prudently, and avoided strangers, especially during the later years of her life. Only seven poems were published in her lifetime, all edited by other hands. More than a thousand poems were hidden away in her bedroom chest, to be discovered after her death.
Unlike another great American woman poet Sylvia Plath whose persona and poems are conventionally known to be corporeal and inflamed, Emily Dickinson is more ethereal and gossamer. However,recent critics, inflected by feminism, have pointed out that underneath the elfish, deceptively ingenue-like surface of this "virgin recluse," a volcano keeps seething, which could, had it chosen, have submerged an entire city, not only a city, but the whole universe. Dikinson's biographer and editor Thomas Johnson has said that she often felt herslef possessed by a demonic force. And many of her poems can surely be read as poems of possession. Adrienne Rich in her famous essay "Vesuvius at Home:The Power of Emily Dickinson" has emphasized Dikinson's dilemma as a woman poet in the nineteenth century, her schizo status as being torn between society's expectation of a proper femininity and her unwomanly, aggressive, demonic, and volcanic creativity. Can you discern her dilemma in any of her poems we read? Or how does her account of her creativity "Vesuvian" and unfeminine from your point of view?
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I think in the poem "My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun" we could see it clearly that under her appearancce of a woman, there is a masculine soul in her inmost heart. Through the poem, she uncovers the true self of herself, that is a soul longs for poem-writing. As the teacher said in class, the "master" could be anything; from my point of view, I think it might indicate the poems. Living in such a repressed or you can say patriarchal society in the 19th century, there must full of unfairness, limitations,etc throughout a woman's lifetime; by using the poems as her mighty weapon or an outlet for her emotions, perhaps it would make her feel better. As for the possession in some of her poems, I consider that maybe the focus on the love of God help her less painful.
From the poem “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun –,“ there are many places can fully reveal the masculine side in her mind. For example, and every time “I speak for Him”; I “guard” My Master's Head -. She uses some words to claim that she has the same ability as male; she is not as tender and weak as female. The title is also a good example. She doesn’t compare herself to a lovely flower or a little cat, which seem very docile and tender. However, she compares herself to a military tool, which has relation to male. Living in a patriarchal era, her sex makes her have to hide her true personality and only can vent it on her poems.
In the poem” After great pain, a formal feeling comes”, Emily Dickinson made cold, indifferent sense on pain so that I feel frozen and solemn about her attitude toward life. “The Feet, mechanical, go around- Of Ground, or Air, or Ought- A Wooden way Regardless grown, A Quartz contentment, like a stone-“In these sentences, although they’re mentioned about the reaction after suffering great pain, I feel that there is a conflict between Emily and other people. In that age, women were restrained and repressed by the social standards. Emily couldn’t change other people’s concepts, she still had duties that the community set for her to fulfill, but she is numb and self-contented with the stupor. Perhaps she had ever confused about her status or ideas, whatever, she didn’t care about what she needed and why she needed, just be herself finally. “This is the Hour of Lead-” Did she want to change? Of course, however, how can a woman to withstand the tendency in the historical mighty torrent? The time is too heavy to throw away, so she chose to unmew herself from the square all criterions in. Let it go and in her own nirvana. Possibility is always possible for her to achieve. In the poem” I dwell in Possibility”, she’s eager to approach some outside worlds. What’s that? Maybe it’s virgin soil of her desire. There was a frame trapped her, the only way for her to evade is the creation of poetry. No impossibility in poetry, so she can turn into any shapes of reversal in her paradise. In her poem” My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun-”, I can apparently sense the ambivalent emotion in her soul or body. Emily’s life had stood in the condition of a woman artist, as well as a loaded gun which represents masculine inside her mind. These were the potency not only to bond two sides of her characteristic together, but also lacerate the spirit of her. Notwithstanding full of power, she lacked for a master to possess her. That’s the craving she even dreamed about it, the belonging, the contradictory. I’m really amazed after reading Emily’s poem and knowing she’s a recluse virgin for a long time. The miraculous feelings some poems gave me rushed straight into my interior mind, and that are implemented by a woman who led a sequestered and obscure life. Such shining!
In the poem “We do not play on Graves,” I think it presents the dilemma as a woman poet in the nineteenth century. I think the graves represent the social stereotype that confines how women should act. “Because there isn’t room-besides it isn’t event- it slants.” From these sentences, we can see Dickinson’s attitude toward “proper femininity.” The so called proper femininity limits females, and makes those who don’t follow the proper femininity be isolated, become the minority in the society. Should they “move as far as Enemies- away?” That is the big question that female like Dickinson has to cope with during that time.
In the poem ’’After great pain, a formal feeling comes’’, Emily Dickinson used many ways to describe her pain. ‘’The Feet, mechanical, go round—Of Ground, or Air, or Ought--’’, in these lines, we can see that she was still aware of her obligations and duties that the society expected her to do. However, she chose to be a recluse. ‘’A Quartz contentment, like a stone’’, Dickinson described her pain as a stone which had suffered enormously, and was satisfied with it. I am surprised that she used the word ’’contentment’’, and I guess it is because she didn’t care about anything in the world anymore so that she was numb with all the things around her. From my point of view, I think Emily Dickinson, unlike many other women in that century, showed her indifference in a very strong way, and she didn’t care how the world see her as a woman, she just wanted to be herself.
Emily Dickinson is a "virgin recluse" who devoted herself entirely to poetry, and rarely stepped out of her own house. I was surprised by the vivid description of her poetry to express the different parts of her -femininity and masculine. You may observe the contradiction from her poems; for instance, “The loaded gun” can be equated to a strong woman, whom was often depicted in Dickinson’s borderline feministic writings. The Owner can be juxtaposed with an even stronger man. The man would have to be strong to be able to direct this woman as if directing a weapon.
However, when you read the poem “After great pain, a formal feeling comes’’, Emily describe her pain (perhaps the society's expectation) by the lines “The Feet, mechanical, go round—Of Ground, or Air, or Ought…’’. Your life must move on even when you suffer pain and there are still many daily routine remain.
In the poem "My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun," we can know her feeling toward the society. In the man-superior society, being a female poem is not easy. With her appearance as a woman, she has a masculine soul, strong and persistant, just like the gun, powerful and can be fatal. Being in such a era, many things are unfair to woman, but she can't complain or blame anyone because that's how things work. There is no use to fight against this situation. In my opinion, I think maybe this is why she doesn't want to meet the others and live alone. She knows this phenomenon can't be changed, at least in her life.
" Impregnable of Eye-", I think this sentence shows that she is not so vulnerable as other women was. She is strong enough to defeat. It is a little bit feeling of some male spirit in her mind. " Of visitors-the fairest-For Occupation-", it shows that only the fairest who understand her could go inside. I think she is a unique person and she thought she only wanted to meet people who realize her. She didn't want to like normal people go out side and stay with a lot of people. Although she could be what she want, I think she still feel some pressure or influence by outside world.
In the poem "I stepped from plank to plank", I think that she tried to carefully tickle the problem between society's expectation of a proper femininity and her unwomanly. "precarious Gait" makes me think that she was stuck in this dilemma, and the unstable steps made her easily fall down immediately. In other poem "I Dwell in Possibilty", it's a hint that if you realize my mind, them you can visit me. In that time, many streotypes and rules on women, and Emily Dickinson was not in that way. It's hard to find a person who truely realize her dilemma and pain. She thirstied that someone can understand her mind.
In the poem "My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun", the loaded gun represent her musculine soul inside her woman appearance. As a woman living in a patriarchal society, Emily Dickinson faced many discrimination from men. Living in such a unfairness society, it is hard for women to speak for themselves and change this situation. I think it is why she chose to convey her voice of protest through her poems.
I think that Emily Dickson is a poet who wrote the poem which is like milder than Sylvia Plath but as strong and painful as her. She actually presents a lot of dilemma in her poems, like “I stepped from plank to plank” or “My life had stood - a loaded gun” These are the interesting poems; first poem I mentioned looks like normal, and it seems that just wants to say how dangerous the way is; however, it also portrays that women’s struggle is dangerous. If women do not do it carefully, they may lose or be defeated. And “My life had stood – a loaded gun” portrays that the internal and external are different. The internal has the male characteristic, but it can not reveal to others; so it has a female surface. She also presents the dilemma between men and women. So, Emily Dickson is truly a good poet to present her poems.
“I dwell in Possibility—” In this poem, Emily did not want anybody to pry into her personal chamber. She showed that the chamber was as the cedars, and cedars are too strong to destroy. Nobody can pry into her life and her mind. I guess that since she published work to show readers her thought; however, she did not anyone close to her and know to her mind. This is an ambiguous life for Emily Dickson who told to her readers, and at the same time she did not her readers close to her. I think this kind of life is usual in our life. Some of us wanted our friends or parents to know what we want to do, but we sometimes wanted to be mysterious. We wanted to have a personal space to choose and take a deep thinking of what we want to do. Some of my teachers of classmates told me that they could not understand my mind although I got along with them for many years. Actually, I thought that was nobody’s fault, and please do not try to pry into my mind. I could give my hand for you when you need my help; I need your assistance when I ask you; we can have date to take a talk to know each other’s recent conditions. In recent, one of my teachers—Shu complained with the other teacher—Sun, she said that Grace was a strange girl since she could not really understand me. Sun told me this comment from Shu. I told to Sun that probably Shu thought that I always met her only for assignment but not other issues. Shu possibly thought that I was a practical student. Sun told to her that actually I was not used to get along with anyone for a short time, and please gave me much more time to accompany with her.
Emily Dickinson is my favorite one of all the poets we’ve studied in this semester. Compared to Sylvia Plath’s poems, in which have such apparent and direct intense emotions, Emily Dickinson’ poems seem softer and gentler, but behind her ethereal and gossamer words, from my point of view, actually hide some strong and intense feelings and emotions, which appeals to me a lot.
In the poem “I stepped from Plank to Plank,” she describes her life to be very dangerous. She had to be very cautious and careful in case of falling down into a horrifying abyss. At the end of this poem, she indicates that the danger came from the experience. From this poem, you can see the ambivalence between being an expected proper female and her unwomanly, aggressive, demonic, and volcanic creativity. The experience mentioned in the end of this poem is the experience of being a recluse poet. It was dangerous because it was not what people expect a female to do at that time.
The poem “My Life had stood－a Loaded Gun－” also shows the same ambivalence of her. In this poem, she describes herself as a loaded gun. The gun has very strong power but is mastered by someone else. The strong power is the metaphor of her volcanic creativity, and the state of being mastered refers to her repression and constraint. It is the contradiction of her femineity and masculinity; she is full of creativity but has no freedom.
In the poem “I dwell in Possibility,” Emily Dickinson says that she lives in a house of possibility. The possibility in this poem means the limitlessness and immensity of her creativity, and she is fearless toward the prying eyes. From this poem, she refers to her unwomanly, aggressive, demonic, and volcanic creativity directly. I think this poem can be seen as her assertion of her ability of creating poems.
I think the patriarchy was the source of Emily Dickinson’s pain and pressure in the period of her lifetime, but interestingly, it was also the stimulation of the motivity of her creation, which made her a genius.
From the poem-“My life has stood- a Loaded Gun”, Emily Dickinson identifies herself with a loaded gun, and she needs a master to control her. In this poem, it is clear to see that although she is as a muscular weapon; however, deep in her mind, she still is a female. Besides, it could figure out the background of this poetry is an era which women struggles with herself and their status are inferior to the men. Furthermore, in “ I dwell in Possibility”, she mentions that” she dwells in Possibility, a fair house than prose”, possibility here refers to the poetry , as her thought, the poetry is better than the prose due to the fact that poetry is filled imagination. In my opinion, being a woman who has to submissive to the men in that century, poetry is an outlet for her to express her thinking and emotion.
It’s never easy for a female poet like Emily Dickinson to show her talent in the nineteenth century. From her poem “After great pain, a formal feeling comes-”, I can find that her innermost feeling is full of pain and oppression. The atmosphere in that poem is cold and calm, shows females’ feelings are oppressed by the society during nineteenth century. Her poems are not as undisguised cynical as Sylvia Plath’s, but she also shows her desire and erotic desire in her poems. In “Wild Nights- Wild Nights!” She shows her strong feelings of lust. I believe women at that period of time are not likely to represent their feelings in such ways.
"My life had stood a loaded gun" is impressive. I mean, I've never thought a woman would depict herself as a gun that gives a violent image. It's like there's something or someone else underneath her. Maybe in the 19th century, women were still discriminated and she wanted to armed herself as a violent and strong thing so that she wouldn't be bully to, such as a gun. Perhaps to eqipped with arms can make her feel safer in that kind of unstable period and that might be caused by oppressed for too long. However, i have a feeling that if a person who hides him or herself behind something. he or she is usually unhappy.
In the poem” My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun-,” Emily Dickinson described her life was like the loaded gun. She, the loaded gun, had enough power to kill person, like the great power of her creativity. She described herself as the military tool because she thought her work can compared to the man’s. However, she still needed a master to control her, to use her so that her power could be revealed. Just like that only hunter can use gun, and gun would be useless if no one use it. Even though she had a great talent in literature, she still was tied down by the social code of feminine. At the end of this poem, Dickinson said” For I have but the power to kill, without- the power to die-.” If she lose her master, she would be nothing, even couldn’t commit suicide because she couldn’t do that by herself. These sentences, from my point of view, showing the deep sadness of the reality that tie down her creativity so much.
From the poem "my life had stooded-a loaded gun" shows her ambivalence. On the one side, she describes herself as a dreadful gun, which i also consider her as having great power of creativity, but on the other side, she is still overruled by other people.From this kind of dilemma, we can conclude: she got great creativity, but she still lost her freedom
Emily Dickinson’s poems are full of a emotion somewhat close to anger, but not really anger. The poem “We do not play on Graves,” “After great pain, a formal feeling comes”, “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun –,“ are all full of a strong tone showing no mercy on words by hard-taste and sharp words. The atmosphere is full of tension, and like a volcano, is ready to explode once trigger. It is rare to see a female writer use such violent words to picture an even more violent idea loosely. Dickinson is also obsess with dash, which can be either interpret as a uncertainty of her will because it can be any kind of the tone; or a long pronunciation to stress out the emotion.
From the poem "I dwell in Possibility",the poet clearly said that she enjoys living in the house of poetry,because only in the domain of poetry can she break free from the shackles of the social norms toward femininity.Under the protection of poetry,she doesn't need to worry about the judgements and pressure of the society.Therefore,we can understand why the poet chose to live as a recluse,a state of solitary confinement,to seek serenity and freedom.Perhaps we can say,poetry sustains her,it is full of potential and limitlessness.
I can see unfeminie in her poem "I dwell in Possibility" since it is hard for even being a seemingly independent woman in the nine-teenth centry. According to her background, we can infer that she selected her society prudently. She is bold enough to "dwell in possibility" which can be explained as referring to her difference in being kind of musculine in her mind.
In my opinion, in the poem “My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun” totally revealed her dilemma in that time’s society. In this poem, author described herself as a loaded gun and she needed somebody to help her to release the power. The image of a gun is definitely an unfeminine image in the poem and author wanted to show us that she had the same ability as men. Maybe we can’t recognize her true personality, but we can analyze author through her poems to know her more.
I’m the reporter of Emily Dickinson’s poem “ Wild night－ Wild nights ” . I feel awful about my presentation . For it is the first time I can understand every single word but I just can’t tell the meaning clearly by my own words . It really confuse and frustrate me . When I read this article , the professor use the words “ethereal” and “gossamer” to describe the style of Dickinson’ s creation . I totally agree with it . Just look through “Wild night－ Wild nights” you can catch the implication about luxurious and religious love . But the statement is full of riddles . Another poem “ I dwell in possibility ” talks about her thoughts about creativity . Both of this two poems reveal her outstanding skills of the unpredictable world . As a virgin , the wild and unusual range just comes up out of the blue .
In the poem “My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun,” I think it presents the dilemma as a woman poet in the nineteenth century. This poem is talking about the masculine soul inside her. The word “Loaded Gun” means the gun ready to shot, representing her masculine soul is ready to do something to show her man power, just waiting for the timing or fuse. But in the patriarchal society, she not allowed to do that and supposed to be a traditional woman. Therefore, she vents it in this poem. The first stanza “In corners- till a day / the owner passed- identified / and carried me away-” is saying that she was waiting the fuse, and one day the fuse is come, so she can be carried out to “roam in sovereign woods” and “hunt the Doe”.
Maybe it was the life style of withdrawing herself from the society, made her poem so creatively. As a female poet, she was more sensitiv than others. “ My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun-“ is a work which reflect the condition of the woman artist in 19C. At that time, people deemed women needed a owner to take possesion for themselves, Emliy Dickinson was fed up with this situation, so she shoed her cruel, hard, forceful side, and rage in the poem. She imagined there was a enemy in front of her, and he must live longer than her. Because she only possess the power to kill, but the power to die.
They were both possessed by demons. The Bell Jar describes it so well. Dickenson seems to have had an "alien" lover. I think I might have temporal lobe epilepsy too so I see Dickenson's poems as spells where she is absorbing information and dreaming/connecting with the ethereal realm. Well, I had an exorcism and it totally got rid of my "imaginary friend". It was a friggin' nightmare and anyone who goes through it should get a medal instead of a diagnosis from someone who couldn't fathom such pain,torture and bliss.
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