Dickinson

Question 1

Where is Dickinson from?

Answer 1

Amherst, Massachusetts

Question 2

What are some features of Dickinson’s poetry?

Answer 2

• enjambment
• off-rhyme/slant rhyme
• captalization
• “occasional poetry” –> often wrote poems in response to particular events or specific occasions
• Main Subjects: Life, Love, Nature, Time and Eternity
• improvisational feeling

Question 3

In what ways might have Dickinson’s poems appealed to the modernists who rediscovered her?

Answer 3

• Unlike many poets of the 19th century, Dickinson was not generally concerned with adhereing to poetic forms. Her use of dissonance, unusual rhythmic patterns, and broken meter might have seemed sloppy to 19th century poets, but was appealing to modernists interested in experimentation and fragmentation.
• (Secondary) Interest in the mechanical/technological (cameras, guns, etc)

Question 4

Who is “The Master”?

Answer 4

The identity of “The Master” is unknown, but there are many (potentially unsent) letters from Dickinson to them. Dickinson also assumes a persona in these letters, Daisy. The letters are pretty racy.

Question 5

Who are some of the writers Dickinson admired?

Answer 5

• Shakespeare
• Milton
• Longfellow
• Tennyson
• Dickens
• George Eliot and the Bronte Sisters (perhaps her favorites

Question 6

Common themes?

Answer 6

• Pain and its effects upon the mind and soul (Narcotics can not still the tooth/that nibbles at the soul)
• death and legacy (What kind of end is death? What will her legacy be?)
• theology (praying at home rather than going to church, questioning organized religion)

Question 7

What English author is Poem 146 about? What does she say?

Answer 7

“Currer Bell” or Charlotte Bronte. She seems to suggest that Bronte somehow transcended the natural landscape of her Yorkshire home with her work, somehow managing to hit on much broader themes.