LLI Spring 2024
Presenter: Judith Saunders / Marist College
Friday 9:30-10:45
A major poet by world standards, and a towering presence in the American literary tradition, Emily Dickinson addresses a wide range of topics in her poetry: nature, art, and—above all—the individual self confronting social conventions, intimate relationships, metaphysical questions, emotional quandaries, and the “finite infinity” of the world within. As we explore her treatment of these issues, we’ll examine her innovative handling of rhyme, syntax, and punctuation, considering her formal influence on twentieth-century English-language poetry.
NOTE: We’ll be using Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson’s Poems, selected by Thomas H. Johnson (available in paperback from Back Bay Books / Little, Brown): participants will need to acquire a copy.
Readings:
3/8 #217, p. 133 “The Heart asks Pleasure—first—”
#303, p. 185 “Remorse—is Memory—awake—”
#143, p. 86 “Rehearsal to Ourselves”
#111, p. 65 “As if I asked a common Alms”’
3/15 #262, p. 161 “The Brain—is wiser than the Sky—”
#558, p. 312 “There is a solitude of space”
#45, p. 260 “Its Hour with Itself”
#554, p. 311 “On my volcano grows the Grass”
#347, p. 209 #To own the Art within the Soul”
3/22 #11, p. 7 “Success is counted sweetest”
#20, p. 11 “For each ecstatic instant”
#388, p. 228 “The Missing All-prevented me”
#257, p. 158 “I asked no other thing—”
##40, p. 147 “I had been hungry, all the Years”
3/29 NO CLASS
4/5 #198, p. 120 “Civilization—spurns the Leopard!”
#95, p. 55 “The Soul selects her own Society—”
#398, p. 233 “the Dying need but little, Dear”
#58, p. 32 “Wild Nights! Wild Nights!”
#331, p. 202 “The Luxury to apprehend”
#271, p. 167 “Of all the Souls that stand create”
4/12 “466, p. 267 “there is no Frigate like a book”
#270, p. 166 “I dwell in Possibility—”
#176, p. 106 “This was a Poet—It is That”
#278, p. 171 “Essential Oils—are wrung—”
#270, p. 166 “I dwell in Possibility—”
#465, p. 267 “A Word dropped careless on a page”
4/19 #37, p. 21 “I shall know why—when Time is over—”
#93, p. 54 “I reason, Earth is short—”
#34, p. 20 “’Faith’ is a fine invention”
##525, p. 297 “The Bible is an antique Volume—”
#297, p. 182 “It’s easy to invent a life”
4/26 #49, p. 27 “She sweeps with many-colored Brooms”
#102, p. 59 “It sifts from Leaden Sieves—”
#496, p. 83 “It sounded as if the Streets were running”
#489, p. 279The Rat is the concisest Tenant”
#The Bat is dun, with wrinkled Wings—”
#331, p. 201 “A Light exists in Spring”
#491, p. 280 “How fits his Umber Coat”
5/3 #392, p. 230 “Crumbling is not an instant’s Act”
#44, p. 24 “Come slowly—Eden!”
#122, p. 73 “After great pain, a formal feeling comes—”
#114, p. 67 “I cannot dance upon my Toes—”
#304, p. 186 “Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—”
#282, p. 174 “The Soul unto itself”