Emily Dickinson

1830-1886

• Born the second of three children in Amherst, Massachusetts

• Father was a lawyer and one of the wealthiest and most respected citizens in the town, as well as a conservative leader of the church

• Dickinson grew up regularly attending services at the Congregational First Church of Christ (Congregational churches essentially followed the New England Puritan tradition)

• She attended Amherst Academy, where she studied a modern curriculum of English and the sciences, as well as Latin, botany and mathematics

• Except for one year at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (1847-48) and a visit to Washington, D.C., to visit her father, she spent her entire life in Amherst

• In her family library, she had access to many religious works as well as books by Emerson, other transcendentalists and current magazines

• Around 1850, she begins to write verse, which she circulates among a circle of friends

• Her poem “Sic transit gloria mundi” was published in the Springfield Daily Republican in 1852

• She spent sociable evenings with guests such as Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Daily Republican

• She also enjoyed dancing, buggy rides, parlor games, and other forms of entertainment until she began to seclude herself

• Around 1860, she stopped visiting with other people and became a recluse

• In 1862, her poem “Safe in their alabaster chambers” appeared in the Springfield Daily Republican

• Around that time, she began her correspondence with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a local intellectual, journalist, and anti-slavery activist

• She asked Higginson for advice with her poetry– Higginson had published an article entitled “Letter to a

Young Contributor,“ in the Atlantic Monthly, in which he advised budding young writers

– Dickinson sent him four poems, along with a letter asking “"Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive?"

• Higginson responded with much praise and gentle criticism (“surgery”), but he advised her against publishing her poetry because of its raw form and subject matter

• Higginson became Dickinson’s intellectual mentor, even though he admitted feeling out of her league in poetical talent

• After Dickinson’s death, Higginson collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd in publishing volumes of her poetry

• His edition was heavily edited for conventional punctuation and form, as well as content

• But, his edition helped Dickinson’s poetry gain quick national prominence

• While becoming more reclusive, Dickinson intensified correspondence with friends and output of poetry

• She suffered from eye-trouble in 1864 and 1865

• The last 12 years she spent in self-imposed isolation in her parents’ home

• Allegedly, Dickinson dressed entirely in white and communicated only indirectly with visitors and friends, from behind a folding screen or via notes and gifts in a basket she let down from her window into the garden

• She spent most of these years reading and writing poetry

• Her most productive period coincided with the civil war, during which she wrote about 800 poems

• She called writing poetry her business, “My Business is Circumference” (after Emerson’s term for poetry)

• She copied many of her poems into hand-sewn small booklets or “fascicles” and sent them as poetic gifts to family and friends

• Dickinson never married, although several men played an important role in her life

• Lively correspondence with Benjamin Franklin Newton on literary topics of the day

• Long correspondence with Higginson, although he ultimately did not recognize the worth of her poetry

• Close emotional bond to Charles Wadsworth, whom she had met on her journey home from Washington

• Strained relationship to her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert, who was apparently the object of her desire in such homoerotic poems as “Her face was in a bed of hair”

• When Dickinson died in 1886 of Bright’s disease, her family and friends were surprised at the amount of work she left behind

• Her sister Lavinia found 40 notebooks and loose poems in a locked box in her bedroom

• The poems were not arranged and only 24 were titled

Emily Dickinson February-April 1848.

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts

(garden)

The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts

(bedroom)

The Dickinson Homestead in

Amherst, Massachusetts

(Dress)

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Rhyme SchemeRhyme Scheme

Rhyme scheme is the pattern in which the last words in lines of poetry rhyme.

We record rhyming lines with letters. The first two lines that rhyme would be A; the next two would be B…and so on. The rhyming lines do NOT have to come right after another.

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Rhyme Scheme ExamplesRhyme Scheme ExamplesWhat lines in Mother Goose’s “Humpty Dumpty” end in rhyming words?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

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Rhyme Scheme ExamplesRhyme Scheme ExamplesWhat lines in Mother Goose’s “Humpty Dumpty” end in rhyming words?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men

Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

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Rhyme Scheme ExamplesRhyme Scheme ExamplesOnce you have identified words that rhyme at the end, label the lines in alphabetical order.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. A

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. A

All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men B

Couldn’t put Humpty together again! B

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““Runaway” by Robert FrostRunaway” by Robert FrostBelow are the first few lines from “Runaway.” What lines end in rhyming words?

Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, "Whose colt?"A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,The other curled at his breast. He dipped his headAnd snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,

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““Runaway” by Robert FrostRunaway” by Robert FrostBelow are the first few lines from “Runaway.” What lines end in rhyming words?

Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, "Whose colt?"A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,The other curled at his breast. He dipped his headAnd snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,

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““Runaway” by Robert FrostRunaway” by Robert FrostWhat is the rhyme scheme? (What letters would you use to label these lines?)

Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall,We stopped by a mountain pasture to say, "Whose colt?"A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,The other curled at his breast. He dipped his headAnd snorted to us. And then we saw him bolt.We heard the miniature thunder where he fled,

A

A

BC

C

Therefore, the rhyme scheme for these lines is

ABACBC.

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Rhythm Rhythm is the flow of the

beat in a poem. Gives poetry a musical

feel. Can be fast or slow,

depending on mood and subject of poem.

You can measure rhythm in meter, by counting the beats in each line.

(See next two slides for examples.)

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Rhythm Example

The pickety fenceThe pickety fenceGive it a lick it'sThe pickety fenceGive it a lick it'sA clickety fenceGive it a lick it's a lickety fenceGive it a lickGive it a lickGive it a lickWith a rickety stickpicketypicketypicketypick.

The Pickety Fence by David McCord

The rhythm in this poem is fast – to match the speed of the stick striking the fence.

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Rhythm Example

When the night begins to fall

And the sky begins to glow

You look up and see the tall

City of lights begin to grow –

In rows and little golden squares

The lights come out. First here, then there

Behind the windowpanes as though

A million billion bees had built

Their golden hives and honeycombs

Above you in the air.

By Mary Britton Miller

Where Are You Now?

The rhythm in this poem is slow – to match the night gently falling and the lights slowly coming on.

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ALLITERATION

• Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?

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CONSONANCE

• Similar to alliteration EXCEPT . . .

• The repeated consonant sounds can be anywhere in the words

“silken, sad, uncertain, rustling . . “

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Consonance

• Close repetition of the same consonant sounds, preceded by different vowel sounds

• Note: At the end of lines of poetry, this produces half-rhyme.

• Example: Flash and flesh. Breed and bread.

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Consonance

• Find the Consonance in Our Homemade Limerick.

“Sometimes, I wish I could wash, My reds with my whites, Josh. In a flash they’d be done, If I washed them as one, But a pink they would be make as they

swish swash, swish swash.

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Consonance

“Sometimes, I wish I could wash, My reds with my whites, Josh. In a flash they’d be done, If I washed them as one, But a pink they would be make as they swish swash, swish swash.

Red – Consonance

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ASSONANCE• Repeated VOWEL sounds in a

line or lines of poetry.

(Often creates near rhyme.)

Lake Fate BaseFade

(All share the long “a” sound.)

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ASSONANCE cont.

Examples of ASSONANCE:“Slow the low gradual moan

came in the snowing.”- John Masefield

“Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.”- William Shakespeare

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Why are these important?

• Alliteration, Assonance, and Consonance are all useful in literature because they create a general flow.

• They all add a sense of lyricism to a poem, or a song.

• Also, used in tongue twisters. Example: Sally sells sea shells by

the sea shore.