My Emily Dickenson
A critical essay by Susan Howe that explores Emily Dickinson’s language and interpretive possibilities across the boundary between poetry and criticism. It loosens inherited reading habits and opens Dickinson’s work to a wider field of thought.
Work Information
A cross-genre rereading of Dickinson’s voice.
Susan Howe's My Emily Dickinson does not treat Emily Dickinson as a sealed-off genius; it places her within a web of language, citation, and interpretation. Keeping the intensity of poetry intact, it asks readers to rethink how modern poetry is read.
Book Information
- Publisher
- North Atlantic Books
- Published
- 1995-01-03
- Pages
- 144 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 15.24 x 1.27 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780938190523
- ISBN-10
- 0938190520
- Category
- 洋書/Biographies & Memoirs/Specific Groups/Women
My Emily Dickinson does more than just explore Dickinson's life and poetics, although it does that expertly. It falls in line with a tradition of books of poets writing about poets who have intensely figured into their conception of poetry. This is more personal than a biography in that it is a writer's concern with Dickinson's place in history and what she was trying to do with her poetry. Howe does a wonderful job of trying to get into the poems through playing with language. It's a place to meet Dickinson as a lover of games and words.
Susan Howe is the author of numerous books of poetry, including The Western Borders , Pythagorean Silence , and Defenestration of Prague . She was the recipient of the American Books Award for Poetry from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1981. Born in Boston, Howe now lives with her husband and son in Guilford, Connecticut; she has a grown daughter who is a painter in New York City.
Reviews
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Very academic and difficult, I thought.
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L'idée développée est intéressante. Mais le ton de l'ouvrage est trop "universitaire français". De la part d'un auteur anglo-saxon on attend plus de vie, et un moindre étalage d'érudition !
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Susan Howe, „My Emily Dickinson“ (2007, New Directions — Kindle Edition) Of many books on Emily Dickinson, one of the world‘s truly great poets, Ms. Howe‘s work best transmits Ms. Dickinson‘s inner spirit. Ms. Howe — a major poet — meets her intellect and heart with our own Emily Dickinson through deep, deep immersion in “My Life had stood— a Loaded Gun —“ (# 764 in “The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition“ [Editor: R. W. Franklin, 1999, ISBN: 0-674-1824-9, Harvard University Press (Belknap Press)]. Poem #764 anchors Ms. Howe’s transmission of insights into Ms. Dickinson’s high spirituality through the poem’s immersion in King Lear, Childe Harold (Robert Browning), neo-Platonism, the Bronte sisters, James Fenimore Cooper, radical abolitionism, the Indian captivity of the Puritan — Mary Rowlandson, Paradise Lost, Charles Dickens, and the theology-philosophy of Jonathan Edwards (who unexpectedly influenced heavily Ms. Dickinson’s view of predestination— albeit with a neo-Platonic twist, that it would be only the one who intellectually developed her spiritual potential who would attain to the mystery). And mystery, full of life and spirituality in Death itself, shall remain unknown, perhaps even in one’s ultimate attainment. Ms. Howe’s concentration on Poem #764 is ideal for a truly deep spiritual union with Ms. Dickinson through the Great Poet’s own condensation of sources from her own spiritual and poetic forebears. Ms. Howe shows convincingly how much our Great Poet packed in Poem #764. From my reading of Our Poet’s work, I am convinced that one could build a commentary like that of Ms. Howe based upon any single poem among scores within Ms. Dickinson’s work. Ms. Howe, in concentrating on Poem #764, shows us the road to immersion in any of Ms. Dickinson’s great work. It would be like learning how to view the work of Picasso through a very able guide through “Guernica.” Ms. Howe’s work has my high recommendation.
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Susan Howe gives stellar study of Emily Dickinson. Though it's been out for many years, this is my first reading. As poet and nonfiction writer, I shall read this book many times. Emily is one of my heroes, and Susan Howe's research more than information -- it brings Emily Dickinson to life in this millenium.
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Really engaging. At times a bit difficult to keep up with Howe and the turns she takes, but not only is her discussion interesting, but Howe's prose itself is really beautiful.
Related Literary Awards
- American Book Awards Edition 7 (1986) ・Winner