1、Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) 艾米莉狄金森 “the Belle of Amherst”,Her life,Her works,Her poems themes,Her writing style,Appreciation about some her poems,Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, a small town in the state of Massachusetts. on December 10, 1830. She was born into a Calvinist family. Her

2、 father was a very wealthy, successful and prominent lawyer and politician. But she was very passive about any social and political activities. Dickinson was educated at Amherst Academy and Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, Massachusetts,Emily Dickinson: Life Facts,Went to D.C. with her

3、 father, a congressman, because she had fallen in love with a married lawyer, who soon died of TB. There fell in love with another married man, a minister.,Unrequited Love,because of the failure of her love affairs, she began to isolate herself from others and lived a solitary life. The only contact

4、 she had with family was in whimsical, epigrammatic letters. She often lowered snacks and treats in baskets to neighborhood children from her window, careful never to let them see her face. She almost always wore white. Dickinson seldom left her house and visitors were scarce. All through her life,

5、she did not get married and lived a very quiet, lonely life in a village.,A Withdrawn Life,In her family library, she had access to many religious works as well as books by Emerson, other transcendentalists and current magazines about 20, began to write poems The first person to notice Dickinsons ta

6、lent was Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Higginson became a life long correspondent and a mentor. Dickinson had contact with few people, but one was Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Dickinson also befriended novelist Helen Jackson.,Mentors and Fellow Poets,Higginson advised Dickinson not to get her poetry pu

7、blished because of her violation of contemporary literary convention. Helen Jackson tried to convince her to get her work published but her requests were unsuccessful. She never approved of publishing her poems and requested her sister Lavinia to destroy all of her pomes Before her death, only seven

8、 poems were published. But after her death, her sister found that she left a large number of poems, altogether, it was about 1800 poems. After Dickinsons death, her sister, Lavina, had Emilys poetry published and then burnt the original copies, because that was her sisters wish.,To Publish or Not to

9、 Publish,Emily Dickinson,The Homestead 1813,The Homestead,Repainted Homestead,The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts(bedroom),Dickinsons Room,Dickinsons Room,The Dickinson Homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts(Dress),Newly Discovered Photo,Her Grave,Dickensons Major Works,(1) My Life Closed

10、 Twice before Its Close 我的生命結(jié)束之前已經(jīng)結(jié)束了兩次 (2) Because I Couldnt Stop for Death 因?yàn)槲也荒艿却劳?3) I Heard a Fly Buzz When I died 我死時(shí)聽到蒼蠅的嗡嗡聲 (4) Mine by the Right of the White Election 我的根據(jù)白色選舉的權(quán)利(5) Wild Nights Wild Nights 狂風(fēng)夜狂風(fēng)夜 (6) Death is a Dialogue between 死是一場對話 (7) The Soul selects her own Society 心

11、靈選擇了自己的友伴 (8) I died for Beauty but was scarce 我為美而死,Her poems themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows and imagination.,(1) religion doubt and belief about religious subjects (2) death and immortality (3) love suffering and frustration caused by love (4) physical aspect of desire (5) natur

12、e benevolent (kind) and cruel (6) free will and human responsibility,Dickinsons religious poems,She wrote about her doubt and belief about religious subjects. While she desired salvation and immortality, she denied the orthodox(正統(tǒng)的) view of paradise. Although she believed in God, she sometimes doubt

13、ed His benevolence.,248,Whydo they shut Me out of Heaven? Did I singtoo loud? ButI can say a little Minor Timid as a Bird! Wouldnt the Angels try me Justoncemore Justseeif I troubled them But dontshut the door! Oh, if Iwere the Gentleman In the White Robe And theywere the little Handthat knocked Cou

14、ldIforbid?,Her poems concerningdeath and immortality,These poems are closely related to her religious poetry, ranging over the physical as well as the psychological and emotional aspects of death. She showed her ambiguous attitude towards death and immortality. She looked at death from the point of

15、view of both the living and the dying. She even imagined her own death, the loss of her own body, and the journey of her soul to the unknown.,Her love poems,Love is another subject Dickinson dwelt on. One group of her love poems treats the suffering and frustration love can cause. These poems are cl

16、early the reflection of her own unhappy experience, closely related to her deepest and most private feelings. Many of them are striking and original depictions of the longing for shared moments, the pain of separation, and the futility of finding happiness.,Her Love Poems,The other group of love poe

17、ms focuses on the physical aspect of desire, in which Dickinson dealt with, allegorically, the influence of the male authorities over the female, emphasizing the power of physical attraction and expressing a mixture of fear and fascination for the mysterious magnetism between sexes. However, it is t

18、hose poems dealing with marriage that have aroused critical attention first and showed Dickinsons confusion and doubt about the role of women in the 19th century America.,I HIDE myself within my flower,I HIDE myself within my flower, That wearing on your breast, You, unsuspecting, wear me too And an

19、gels know the rest. I hide myself within my flower, That, fading from your vase, You, unsuspecting, feel for me Almost a loneliness,A love poem,249,Wild NightsWild Nights! Were I with thee Wild Nights should be Our luxury! Futilethe Winds To a Heart in port Done with the Compass Done with the Chart!

20、 Rowing in Eden Ah, the Sea! Might I but moorTonight In Thee!,Her nature poems,More than 500 of her poems are about nature, in which her general skepticism about the relationship between man and nature is well-expressed. On the one hand, she shared with her romantic and transcendental predecessors w

21、ho believed that a mythical bond between man and nature existed, that nature revealed to man things about mankind and universe. On the other hand, she felt strongly about natures inscrutability(神秘莫測) and indifference to the life and interests of human beings.,Her nature poems,Dickinson managed to wr

22、ite about nature in the affirmation of the sheer joy and the appreciation, unaffected by philosophical speculations. Her acute observations, her concern for precise details and her interest in nature are pervasive, from sketches of flowers, insects, birds, to the sunset, the fully detailed summer st

23、orms, the change of seasons; from keen perception to witty analysis.,TWO butterflies went out at noon And waltzed above a stream, Then stepped straight through the firmament And rested on a beam; And then together bore away Upon a shining sea, Though never yet, in any port, Their coming mentioned be

24、. If spoken by the distant bird, If met in ether sea By frigate or by merchantman, Report was not to me.,A Bird came down the Walk He did not know I saw He bit an Angleworm in halves And ate the fellow, raw. And then he drank a Dew From a convenient Grass And then hopped sidewise to the Wall To let

25、a Beetle pass He glanced with rapid eyes That hurried all around ,They looked like frightened Beads, I thought He stirred his Velvet Head Like one in danger, Cautious, I offered him a Crumb And he unrolled his feathers And rowed him softer home Than Oars divide the Ocean, Too silver for a seam Or Bu

26、tterflies, off Banks of Noon Leap, plashless as they swim.,Themes,Dickinsons poems are usually based on her own experiences, her sorrows and joys. But within her little lyrics Dickinson addresses those issues that concern the whole human beings, which include religion, death, immortality, love, and

27、nature.,Her style,(1) poems without titles (2) capital letters emphasis (3) severe economy of expression (4) directness, brevity (5) musical device to create cadence (rhythm) (6) short poems, mainly two stanzas (7) rhetoric techniques: personification make some of abstract ideas vivid (8) use a lot

28、of dashes.,Artistic features,Her poetry is unique and unconventional in its own way. Her poems have no titles, hence are always quoted by their first lines. In her poetry there is a particular stress pattern, in which dashes are used as a musical device to create cadence(韻律) and capital letters as a

29、 means of emphasis. Most of her poems borrow the repeated four-line, rhymed stanzas of traditional Christian hymns（圣歌）, with two lines of four-beat meter alternating with two lines of three-beat meter. A master of imagery that makes the spiritual materialize in surprising ways.,Artistic features,Sim

30、ple form: She used imperfect rhymes, subtle breaks of rhythm, and idiosyncratic（特殊癖好的） syntax and punctuation to create fascinating word puzzles, which have produced greatly divergent interpretations over the years. Dickinsons irregular or sometimes inverted sentence structure confuses readers. Her

31、poetic idiom is noted for its laconic（用字簡潔的） brevity, directness and plainness. Her poems are usually short, rarely more than twenty lines, and many of them are centered on a single image or symbol and focused on one subject matter. Remarkable for its variety, subtlety and richness.,Because I Could

32、Not Stop for Death,Because I could not stop for DeathHe kindly stopped for meThe Carriage held but just OurselvesAnd Immortality. 因?yàn)槲也荒芡Ｏ聛淼却郎?他和善地停下來等我 那輛車只能容我們兩個(gè) 還有不朽。 Stanza 1: The angel of death, in the image of a kind person, comes in a carriage for the sake of Immortality and the poet.,We slow

33、ly droveHe knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility 我們慢慢驅(qū)車，他不慌不忙 我也把我的勞與閑 統(tǒng)統(tǒng)丟掉一邊， 為了他的禮讓 Stanza 2: To show my politeness to god of death, I gave up my work and my enjoyment of life as well; I give up my life.,We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recessin t

34、he RingWe passed the Fields of Gazing Grain We passed the Setting Sun 我們走過校園，孩子們你推我搡， 在休息時(shí)間，在圓形廣場 我們走過在田間凝眸的麥桿 我們走過落日旁 Stanza 3: The journey of our carriage implied the experience of human life; school implies time of childhood; the fields of gazing grain, for youth and adulthood; while the setting

35、sun, for old age.,Or ratherHe passed UsThe Dews drew quivering and chillFor only Gossamer, my GownMy Tippetonly Tulle 或毋寧說，他走過我們身旁 寒露降，身子凍得打顫 因?yàn)槲业拈L衫落紗般 我的披肩如絲網(wǎng) Stanza 4: Probably we may say the sun sets before we reach the destination-the night falls, death arrives. I felt a fear and chilly after de

36、ath, for my shroud is thin and my scarf too light. Despite the description of “death”, the usual gloomy and horrifying atmosphere is lightened by the poetess with the elegantly fluttering clothing she describes.,We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the GroundThe Roof was scarcely visibl

37、eThe Cornicein the Ground 我們停步在一所房子前， 那似乎是隆起的土地一片 屋頂幾乎看不見 屋檐在地里面,Since thentis Centuriesand yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses HeadsWere toward Eternity 離那時(shí)已是幾個(gè)世紀(jì)，但好像 過了還不到一天， 我首次猜測到，馬頭 在朝向永恒奔竄。 Stanza 5 he has taste and sensibility.,The death we see in this poem is not a thing

38、 to be feared. Because of Dickinsons religious belief in immortal life, the significance of Death itself is diminished: it is as powerless in this situation as the person who is being carried away and as trapped by manners as the dying are by biology.,Themes-Cycle of Life,The images that describe what is seen in the carriage ride, all suggest that life is a cycle, that the cradle-to-grave motion brings us back to where we started from. The most obvious example of this is the children playing “in a ring”: not only is the ring symbolic of an endless circle, but the fact tha