the complete poems of emily dickinson thomas h johnson

Her presumed reading in the natural sciences, also reconstructed from a study of her family library, allowed her to bring precision and individuality to natural subjects she observed nature for itself rather than as a testament to the glory of creation, and touched upon the less beautiful aspects of nature, such as weeds and clover. Influenced most by the Bible, Shakespeare, and the seventeenth century metaphysicals (noted for their extravagant metaphors in linking disparate objects), she wrote poems on grief, love, death, loss, affection, and longing. Among the 100 or so classic works found in her family library (some of which may not have been in the library during her lifetime) and a few hundred more mundane works and popular novels that she discussed in letters, it is unlikely that she had read more than a handful of philosophers, poets, and novelists. It is unclear to biographers and critics exactly what books Dickinson had access to, beyond the books that she makes mention of, often cryptically, in her letters. Even though he failed her as a critic and colleague-telling her not to publish, never offering any real encouragement-she was pleased that he read her poems, and credited her audience of one with 'saving her life.'ĭickinson’s subject matter is best understood in how it reflects but also departs from her background and education. Most likely, Higginson felt that she was unclassifiable within the poetic establishment of the day departing from traditional forms as well as conventions of language and meter, her poems would have seemed odd, even unacceptable, to her contemporary audience. In their first correspondence, she asked him if her poems were 'alive' and if they 'breathed.' He called her a 'wholly new and original poetic genius.' He then immediately advised her against publication. He ultimately became her only critic and literary mentor. After he wrote a piece encouraging new writers in the Atlantic Monthly, Dickinson sent him a small selection of poems, knowing from his past writings that he was particularly sympathetic to the cause of female writers. Download the entire Emily Dickinson Reading Guide as an Adobe Acrobat pdf file.Įmily Dickinson had only one literary critic during her lifetime: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an American minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier.

The complete poems of emily dickinson thomas h johnson