The Emily Dickinson Fan Club

[Beren3000]

I have checked and there are no threads on that remarkable poet. So I thought I'd start this one.
Basically, it's meant to be a discussion thread where fans of Miss Dickinson can discuss a particularly difficult or ambiguous poem or just share their thoughts about an interesting one. I have been reading a collection of her poems recently and I found a lot of interesting stuff and I'll (soon) start the discussion off with one of her poems. Meanwhile, anyone is welcome to participate.
Any Emily Dickinson readers out there?

[Rían]

Where would you recommend I start? I've never read anything of hers, and I like your taste in poetry! (we both loved Paradise Lost)

[Beren3000]

You wouldn't necessarily like Emily D. if you liked PL. They fall under different categories. If you want to start with some Dickinson poetry, however, I'd recommend The Wordsworth Poetry Library book (the one I'm reading right now) called The Works of Emily Dickinson It has a biography and an intro. Even though it doesn't have all of her poems, it's still a good read.
As an appetizer, here's one of her famous poems:

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense, the starkest madness.
'Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent and you're sane.
Demur and you're straightaway dangerous
And handled with a chain.

The punctuation is probably wrong. Emily Dickinson was known for her idiosyncratic punctuation and her wild paradoxes.

[Fat middle]

I like very much Dickinson's poetry. It is often very sad and she deals frequently with the topic of death, but I find it somehow heart-strengthening :)

[Fat middle]

BTW, the second poem in your sig is the one quoted in Seabiscuit, doesn't it? :)

[Beren3000]

BTW, the second poem in your sig is the one quoted in Seabiscuit, doesn't it?
I wouldn't know. I've neither read the book nor watched the movie.
I like very much Dickinson's poetry.
So how about sharing one or two of your faves with us? :)

[Beren3000]

To anyone who's interseted, one of my favorite poems by Dickinson is:

To learn the transport by the pain
As blind men learn the sun.
To die of thirst, suspecting
That brooks in meadows run.

To stay the homesick, homesick feet
Upon a foreign shore
Haunted by native lands, the while,
And blue beloved air.

This is the sovereign anguish,
This, the signal woe!
These are the patient laureates,
Whose voices trained below,

Ascend in ceaseless carol,
Inaudible, indeed
To us, the duller scholars
Of the mysterious bard.

[Fat middle]

Very beatiful :)

I have not my Dickinson's book at hand, but one I like very much is that begins:

"Through what transports of patience
I reached the stolid bliss
to breathe my blank without thee
atest me this and this.

By that bleak exultation
I won as near as this
thy privilege of dying
Abreviate me this..."

Hey, that was out of memory. I'll check it later :)

[Lady Ravyn]

i love emily dickinson; she's the author who got me really into poetry and she's still in my top three fav poets :)
right now i have this one as my desktop on my comp:

Troubled About Many Things

How Many times these low feet staggered,
Only the soldered mouth can tell;
Try! Can you stir the awful rivet?
Try! Can you lift the hasps of steel?

Stroke the cool forehead, hot so often,
Lift, if you can, the listless hair;
Handle the adamantine fingers
Never a thimble more shall wear.

Buzz the dull flies on the chamber window;
Brave shines the sun through the freckled pane;
Fearless the cobweb swings from the ceiling-
Indolent housewife, in daisics lain!

[Beren3000]

Here's one of the poems I find hard to understand:

Saturday Afternoon

From all the jails the boys and girls
Ecstatically leap,-
Beloved, only afternoon
That prison doesn't keep.

They storm the earth and stun the air,
A mob of solid bliss.
Alas! That frowns could lie in wait
For such a foe as this!

Would somebody like to try their hands at interpreting it?

[Nurvingiel]

I love Emily Dickinson! I can't believe I haven't posted here yet. My favourite poem is "Because I Could Not Stop for Death".

I'll try a hand at interpreting the poem. I think it's about how kids have to go to school all the weekday afternoons, and church on Sunday. Saturday is the only time they have for themselves. I understand the second stanza a bit less though. This line: "Alas! That frowns could lie in wait" stumps me.

[Beren3000]

I love Emily Dickinson! I can't believe I haven't posted here yet. My favourite poem is "Because I Could Not Stop for Death".
That's a great poem, too! We studied it in English last year.

I'll try a hand at interpreting the poem. I think it's about how kids have to go to school all the weekday afternoons, and church on Sunday. Saturday is the only time they have for themselves. I understand the second stanza a bit less though. This line: "Alas! That frowns could lie in wait" stumps me.
I think the poem is too loaded with symbolism for such a straightforward interpretation. My own thought is that it's about how Death is a liberation of "all the jails" of life. In this case the line "that frowns could lie in wait for such a foe as this" would make sense. She's regretting that people can look at death in a negative way while it's actually freeing them. Also, "only afternoon that prison doesn't keep" would make sense because the prison of life could not keep the afternoon because the afternoon is the "death" of the day, if you will. Too farfetched? :rolleyes:

[sun-star]

According to my English teacher, every Dickinson poem is about Death, so I'm sure you're close :D I don't have any better ideas I'm afraid.

I'm applying to join the fan club. I love Dickinson's poetry, especially this one:

Safe in their alabaster chambers,
Untouched by morning and untouched by noon,
Sleep the meek members of the resurrection,
Rafter of satin, and roof of stone.

Light laughs the breeze in her castle of sunshine;
Babbles the bee in a stolid ear;
Pipe the sweet birds in ignorant cadence,—
Ah, what sagacity perished here!

Grand go the years in the crescent above them;
Worlds scoop their arcs, and firmaments row,
Diadems drop and Doges surrender,
Soundless as dots on a disk of snow.

[Beren3000]

Great poem!

[Nurvingiel]

About symbolism in general, I think there are many layers to a poem. The "top" one is the most literal, and the bottom ones make the people who think of them wonder if they are too farfetched. ;) Perhaps they are not too farfetched. The bottom layers are down so deep, they could have many meanings.

[katya]

Oh! I want to join! I saw the title and would've shouted "yay!" in joy, but then there would've been soy milk everywhere.
When I'm not in such a rush, I'd like to continue the discussion about "Because I could not stop for death" because I don't know how well I understood it.

[Beren3000]

When I'm not in such a rush, I'd like to continue the discussion about "Because I could not stop for death" because I don't know how well I understood it.
I think we should let Nurv start this discussion, since this poem is her favorite.

[Nurvingiel]

Eek! I'm not very good at interpreting poetry. In fact, I don't even like most poetry. I mainly only like four poets: Emily Dickinson, Robert Burns, Robert Frost, and Robert Service. (I only like poets named Emily or Robert. j/k! :D) Of course there are exceptions. I'd really rather read someone else's discussion on it. It was very kind to ask me though, tack så mycket! (Thank you very much in Swedish.)
:)

[Beren3000]

tack så mycket! (Thank you very much in Swedish.)
Afouan (you're welcome in Arabic) :):D
I'd really rather read someone else's discussion on it
I'll post my own thoughts about the poem later, then.

[Beren3000]

Ok, here's "Because I could not stop for death" in full, it's called "The Chariot":

The Chariot
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Here's my interpretation:
The "carriage" or "chariot" is probably the passage of time. She could not "stop" her life to think about Death, so Death stopped and waited for her. What she means is that no matter how much you try to dodge it, you end up thinking about your mortality and eventual death. Death's "civility" in this context would be ironic because in fact Death is being "rude" if you will by sticking to her. Immortality was in the carriage because it's the thought that accompanies death: immortality of the soul. It's the thought that could keep her moving through life. In fact, in another of her poems called "Immortality", Dickinson says that it's "an honorable thought". She gave away her labor and leisure because her life centered around this obsession with Death. The scenes of children in the school and the fields are probably scenes from her own life. Then she passed the sunset; IOW she died. Death took her to a house in the ground: her grave. It seems to her that she had spent centuries there since her death because she's floating out of time after her death. YET longer than these "centuries" is the moment when she first discovered that the chariot is taking her towards eternity; i.e. whe she first learned of the immortality of the soul.
Thoughts?

[Nurvingiel]

I think your interpretation is excellent Beren. :)

I think the school and the fields could also symbolize something important in her life (not just be a scene). I agree with you that this poem is about her own death. That's why I don't think she needed to explain the symbolism of the school or the gain, because it was almost like a tribute to death, from her.

Any ideas what the symbolism might be, if that's in fact what it is?

[Beren3000]

Right now, I could only think that kids symbolise innocence: the simplicity with which one must consider thoughts of life and death and immortality.
As to the symbolism of the fields, I don't know. They could possibly symbolise nature, for which she had a great passion. Or (an idea that I had earlier), fields recall sowing and reaping ==> "you reap what you sow" ==> Judgment Day :rolleyes: Now I know this one's farfetched :)

[PippinTook]

Ahhh, I adore Emily Dickinson. I read her everytime I can. Here's a website I go to alot, its got all her poems on it. http://www.bartleby.com/113/ very helpful.

These are my favorites,
SUCCESS is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple host 5
Who took the flag to-day
Can tell the definition,
So clear, of victory,

As he, defeated, dying,
On whose forbidden ear 10
The distant strains of triumph
Break, agonized and clear.

and,

Life is but life, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!
And if, indeed, I fail,
At least to know the worst is sweet. 10
Defeat means nothing but defeat,
No drearier can prevail!

the one Nurv mentioned was great too.

[Beren3000]

Hyia Pippin. Welcome to the club :)

About your first poem, I never understood line 10. Why would she call the defeated's ear "forbidden"? Any thoughts?

[Fat middle]

Hyia Pippin. Welcome to the club :)

About your first poem, I never understood line 10. Why would she call the defeated's ear "forbidden"? Any thoughts?
Perhaps because the ear is the only organ of his that is getting into the "territory" of victory, forbidden for the defeated... :confused:

[Beren3000]

Perhaps because the ear is the only organ of his that is getting into the "territory" of victory, forbidden for the defeated...
Hmmm...could be! :)

[PippinTook]

Yeah I agree with Fat Middle. That's a good explanation. :)

[Beren3000]

Here's another tough poem I never understood:

I know that he exists
Somewhere, in silence.
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.

'Tis an instant's play,
'Tis a fond ambush,
Just to make bliss
Earn her own surprise!

But should the play
Prove piercing earnest,
Should the glee glaze
In death's stiff stare,

Would not the fun
Look too expensive?
Would not the jest
Have crawled too far?

Ideas, anyone?

[katya]

OK, I'm still on The Chariot. When we discussed the poem briefly in English 11 class, my teacher explained it like this: the speaker is talking about what happened when she died. In the first couple stanzas, death is presented as a gentleman, really. I suppose that kind of affects the mood of the poem. So she gets in the carriage with death, and immortality. It's pretty obvious that she believed in an imortal soul, because that really shapes her views on death throughout the poem.
"And I had put away my labour and my leisure too, for his civility." When death comes, as it eventually does, she accepts it gracefully, giving up whatever she was occupied with in life. ('cause Death is just such a sweetie. or something.)
As she rides into the afterlife with death, she sees the familiar things from her life. The setting sun seems to suggest to me the closing of her life, as of the day.
My teacher explained for the house worked, and how graves used to come out of the ground as described. I'm having trouble picturing it though. >.<
Then in the last stanza, we finally make it to eternity. And in the scope of eternity, hundreds of years feel like a day. More specifically, the day she realized about eternity.
Maybe that's a little simpistic and literal, but at the same time it makes sense to me.

I'm wondering whether or not there's a meaning that I'm missing and that my teacher didn't point out. I like Beren's interpretation though.^^

[Beren3000]

Katya, I think your teacher's explanation is more well-structured and clearer but I'm still sticking by mine. :)
So what other ED poems did you discuss in class?

[katya]

The soul selects her own society, This is my letter to the world. (sorry if I got the titles wrong.) That's all, but we focused more on The Chariot. I missed class yesterday, so I don't know if we'll talk about her much more than that. There was this one poem I liked from freshman English but I can't remember what it was called. I think it was about a little birdy.^^
EDIT: in class today, I was thinking about the things she sees in The Chariot, and I thought...children playing, fields, and the setting sun to represent stages of life. Childhood, work (adulthood) death. Ok gotta go to class or I'm gonna get killed.

[Beren3000]

This is my letter to the world.
We did that last year. I don't quite get it. How did your teacher interpret it?

[katya]

She didn't, really. She just pointed it out in the book. I'll tell you what I thought though: (and here's the poem: )

This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.

Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!

The "letter to the world", maybe to represent her poetry? Since a lot of it is about nature, she is in a way spreading the messages she recieved in her soul from nature, and writing about it- telling it to the world.
I'm not sure about the "hands I cannot see", but maybe something along the lines of "I'm not sure who's going to read this 'letter' [since she didn't let people read her poems], but I commit it to your hands, whoever you are."
She tells us to judge her tenderly, because people love nature, and she is spreading the words of nature, so in loving her they are loving nature. Something like that- it's a little hard to paraphrase.
What do you think?
EDIT: Hey, weird timing there, but it's nice to see you're around!^^ I haven't really talked to you before, so I guess it's nice to meet you. I'm Katya, of course.

[Beren3000]

What do you think?
I was just going to say that I had my own interpretation when I saw your post. I completely agree, that's exactly how I thought it out.
However, the "hands I cannot see" part is where I disagree with you. Nature's message to Dickinson was sent TO DICKINSON (not to us) by hands she couldn't see, she's simply wondering at how one can understand Nature instinctively, see what I'm saying?

EDIT: EDIT: Hey, weird timing there,
I know, lol! :D
but it's nice to see you're around!^^ I haven't really talked to you before, so I guess it's nice to meet you. I'm Katya, of course.
Nice to meet you too :) I'm Joseph

[katya]

Oooh....your explanation makes just as much sense as mine. You know what that means: we'll have to hold a seance and ask the poet herself!
What I'm thinking is, she says "TO hands I cannot see," and since the message was to her, it would be her hands, rather than nature's.

[Beren3000]

we'll have to hold a seance and ask the poet herself!

This is a message from beyond the grave, Beren's interpretation is correct!!
How about that ? :D

Seriously, though, I think that the "to" part can easily fit into my explanation. Nature's message to Dickinson is entrusted by nature TO HANDS DICKINSON CAN'T SEE so that these hands may deliver the message TO DICKINSON.

Another question. Ever noticed how the "bee" occurs in many of ED's poems? Why do you think that is?

[katya]

Oh, I get it now. Very funny by the way. I didn't know miss ED was a mooter. :)

I haven't noticed the "bee". Do you have some examples? I borrowed a book of selected poems from school, so they'll probably be in there somewhere. Maybe she saw a lot of bees in the garden (where she spent a lot of time) and thought they were important for some reason.

[Beren3000]

I haven't noticed the "bee". Do you have some examples?
Sorry this reply is late, but here are some (I'll refer you to the first line only, otherwise this post would be too long!):

"The pedigree of the honey"
"I taste a liquor never brewed," (line 9)
"Did the harebell loose her girdle"
"My friend must be a bird"
"It's all I have to bring today,"

And there are a lot more, I just gave you these as an example.

While you're at it, btw, may I recommend you read these 2 poems:

"I should have been too glad, I see,"
and "Before I got my eye put out,"
They have nothing to do with bees, but they're great. Enjoy your reading!

EDIT: Maybe she saw a lot of bees in the garden (where she spent a lot of time) and thought they were important for some reason. Could be...

[Beren3000]

Dickinson fans, where are you?

[sun-star]

Dickinson was a recluse, so isn't it right that her fans should be a little reticent? ;)

[Beren3000]

Dickinson was a recluse, so isn't it right that her fans should be a little reticent?
:mad: how dare you! :mad:
;)

Anyway, BUMP!
How about trying to interpret this poem (I can't make any sense out of it):
I know that he exists
Somewhere, in silence.
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.

'Tis an instant's play,
'Tis a fond ambush,
Just to make bliss
Earn her own surprise!

But should the play
Prove piercing earnest,
Should the glee glaze
In death's stiff stare,

Would not the fun
Look too expensive?
Would not the jest
Have crawled too far?

[sun-star]

I'll have a go (as penance :D)

I think "he" refers to God and therefore it's about the fear that the apparent absence of God, which could be seen as a way of increasing the joy at his presence, may actually turn out to be a real absence. She's afraid of finding only "death's stiff stare" where she expected to find a loving God.

[Beren3000]

:eek: Great explanation! I think you're right. But why would she call it a "jest"?
I'll have a go (as penance )
You're forgiven! ;)

[sun-star]

:eek: Great explanation! I think you're right. But why would she call it a "jest"?

Perhaps because she thinks it's a fun game God's playing with us? I don't quite understand it. I think she's suggesting the situation that God is playing peek-a-boo with us like parent would with a baby to make it laugh, and then the game turns into a nightmare if the parent really disappears.

You're forgiven! ;)

Well thank you :)

[Beren3000]

Perhaps because she thinks it's a fun game God's playing with us? I don't quite understand it. I think she's suggesting the situation that God is playing peek-a-boo with us like parent would with a baby to make it laugh, and then the game turns into a nightmare if the parent really disappears.
This all makes sense, but it breaks apart at one point: if she had meant God, wouldn't she have written it as "I know that He exists"?

[sun-star]

You mean she would have used a capital letter? Yes, you're probably right... hmm...

Well, she didn't really have hard and fast rules on capitalisation, I suppose. It usually depends on the editor of the poems. This (http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/10290) version has lots of capitals in it.

[Minielin]

But why would she call it a "jest"?

Would not the fun
Look too expensive?
Would not the jest
Have crawled too far?

Maybe this is simply a follow-up to the previous stanza, which according to the direction this is taking is interpreted to be about her fear that instead of God she would simply find death. In that case, my thought is this is maybe actually a questioning of the validity of her faith- if her devotion etc. proved simply to be a farce...?

[Beren3000]

Welcome to the club, Minielin! :)

In that case, my thought is this is maybe actually a questioning of the validity of her faith- if her devotion etc. proved simply to be a farce...?
Possible...

[Minielin]

Welcome to the club, Minielin! :)
Thanks- considering I was named after Emily Dickinson, I certainly should be in it. ;)

[Bombadillo]

The poem reminds me very much of religion classes last year, where we were told that as much as we want to see God, we wouldn't be able to handle the pure embodiment of happiness. Our souls would leap from our bodies to Heaven in joy, and so we have to wait for death. In her first stanza, she touches upon God's holding back in that sense; in the second she relates to him as that instant happiness, which I think implies also immeasuarbility; and the third sort of says "if we were on the edge of life, and he revealed himself," the fourth completes "we'd die--he's too good for us." I think by "jest" she's refering to how we kid our own selves, wishing to see God.


I really enjoy art. Even watching movies or reading simple little books, I'm thrilled by the depth and the moral, never the mindless action sequences. But I've never actively researched poetry, really art at its highest in my opinion. Still, this one is the one poem I most relate to, by any author:

We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies—

The Heroism we recite
Would be a normal thing
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King—

[Beren3000]

This poem is one of my favorites, too, Bombadillo. It's amazing how much meaning she can put into a few lines!

[Minielin]

This poem is one of my favorites, too, Bombadillo. It's amazing how much meaning she can put into a few lines! It is. And it goes without saying how many of her poems are probably some of the best example of analogies and symbolism (particularly in nature) out there...

[Beren3000]

Read to this ED poem about love:


Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,
Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!
Oh the Earth was made for lovers, for damsel, and hopeless swain,
For sighing, and gentle whispering, and unity made of twain.
All things do go a courting, in earth, or sea, or air,
God hath made nothing single but thee in His world so fair!
The bride, and then the bridegroom, the two, and then the one,
Adam, and Eve, his consort, the moon, and then the sun;
The life doth prove the precept, who obey shall happy be,
Who will not serve the sovereign, be hanged on fatal tree.
The high do seek the lowly, the great do seek the small,
None cannot find who seeketh, on this terrestrial ball;
The bee doth court the flower, the flower his suit receives,
And they make merry wedding, whose guests are hundred leaves;
The wind doth woo the branches, the branches they are won,
And the father fond demandeth the maiden for his son.
The storm doth walk the seashore humming a mournful tune,
The wave with eye so pensive, looketh to see the moon,
Their spirits meet together, they make their solemn vows,
No more he singeth mournful, her sadness she doth lose.
The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride,
Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide;
Earth is a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true,
And Earth is quite coquettish, and beseemeth in vain to sue.
Now to the application, to the reading of the roll,
To bringing thee to justice, and marshalling thy soul:
Thou art a human solo, a being cold, and lone,
Wilt have no kind companion, thou reap'st what thou hast sown.
Hast never silent hours, and minutes all too long,
And a deal of sad reflection, and wailing instead of song?
There's Sarah, and Eliza, and Emeline so fair,
And Harriet, and Susan, and she with curling hair!
Thine eyes are sadly blinded, but yet thou mayest see
Six true, and comely maidens sitting upon the tree;
Approach that tree with caution, then up it boldly climb,
And seize the one thou lovest, nor care for space, or time!
Then bear her to the greenwood, and build for her a bower,
And give her what she asketh, jewel, or bird, or flower --
And bring the fife, and trumpet, and beat upon the drum --
And bid the world Goodmorrow, and go to glory home!

What do you think of that?

[inked]

Humanity is the pinnacle of the created order and thus recapitulates in proper order the animal and spiritual aspects of love from the insensate material through the nonsentient plant kingdom and sentient animal kingdom to the conscious, gloriously material consummation of them all in human love between man and woman! " 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!" :D

[Beren3000]

Humanity is the pinnacle of the created order and thus recapitulates in proper order the animal and spiritual aspects of love from the insensate material through the nonsentient plant kingdom and sentient animal kingdom to the conscious, gloriously material consummation of them all in human love between man and woman! " 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!"
Great insight, inked! Are you an ED fan?

[inked]

Beren3000,

I've always enjoyed ED. This thread has re-ignited the enjoyment. I shall have to read her more and not only anthologized!

[Beren3000]

Here's a new question:
ED said that she chose exile by herself, but I always felt that this was her reaction to her being unpopular in her community. Do you think it was self chosen exile and that she thought (like Thoreau) "to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life" or was it merely a defensive attitude towards people who rejected her?

[Minielin]

From ED:

"This is my letter to the world
that never wrote to me."

"The soul selects her own society
and then shuts the door."

"I guess it's best to abandon paths
when you find they lead nowhere."

[Beren3000]

But ED also wrote:
My story has a moral --
I have a missing friend --
"Pleiad" its name, and Robin,
And guinea in the sand.
And when this mournful ditty
Accompanied with tear --
Shall meet the eye of traitor
In country far from here --
Grant that repentance solemn
May seize upon his mind --
And he no consolation
Beneath the sun may find.
and:
It might be lonelier
Without the Loneliness --

[Minielin]

I have heard speculation that she was agoraphobic (complete with panic attacks) as well as that she felt too deeply to take part in a superficial society life. Not sure how much validity there are in those theories.

[Beren3000]

I have heard speculation that she was agoraphobic (complete with panic attacks) as well as that she felt too deeply to take part in a superficial society life. Not sure how much validity there are in those theories.
That's new! I've never heard these theories before, thanks for sharing! (Btw, does agoraphobia mean "fear of crowds"?)

[Minielin]

(Btw, does agoraphobia mean "fear of crowds"?) Fear of crowds or open spaces, I'm pretty sure. As a side note, I believe the word comes from the Agora (marketplace) in ancient Greece.

[inked]

I found this site while researching Owen Barfield! And I immediately thought of you lovers of Emily Dickinson! Enjoy.

http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/dickinson.shamanism.html

:D

[Beruthiel's cat]

I recently got a collection of Emily Dickinson's poetry and I am slowly reading through them -- savoring each poem. Each word is chosen with care. Each poem crafted like fine jewelry.

Need I say I'm enjoying myself??