The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson, poet of the interior life, imagined words/swords, hurling barbed syllables/piercing. Nothing about her adult appearance or habitation revealed such a militant soul. Only poems, written quietly in a room of her own, often hand-stitched in small volumes, then hidden in a drawer, revealed her true self. She did not live in time but in universals--an acute, sensitive nature reaching out boldly from self-referral to a wider, imagined world.
Dickinson died without fame; only a few poems were published in her lifetime. Her legacy was later rescued from her desk--an astonishing body of work, much of which has since appeared in piecemeal editions, sometimes with words altered by editors or publishers according to the fashion of the day. Now Ralph Franklin, the foremost scholar of Dickinson's manuscripts, has prepared an authoritative one-volume edition of all extant poems by Emily Dickinson--1,789 poems in all, the largest number ever assembled. This reading edition derives from his three-volume work, The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition (1998), which contains approximately 2,500 sources for the poems. In this one-volume edition, Franklin offers a single reading of each poem--usually the latest version of the entire poem--rendered with Dickinson's spelling, punctuation, and capitalization intact. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition is a milestone in American literary scholarship and an indispensable addition to the personal library of poetry lovers everywhere.BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
WARNING: This review is by someone who does not study or analyze poetry. This review is by someone who reads poetry rather quickly and hopes for something to strike her like a bolt of lightning. There will be no scholarly technical terms. You've been warned.
Natalie in Fantasy vs Reality:
Fantasy
I am just going to adore these lovely poems. I may sit on a blanket under a large oak tree while reading about life and love and nature and death (er...time and eternity). I will be transported to another time and place through the melodious verse.
Reality
Holy crap. This is really tedious. *Checks the number of pages left for the 100th time*
So it turns out I don't love Emily Dickinson as much as I had hoped I would.
:'( <----Crying sad face, which means I'm really sad about this.
Life poems were pretty good. Love poems left much to be desired. Nature poems were an absolute bore. Time and eternity were probably my favorite of the bunch. These are just my personal opinions. I'm sure there are folks out there that live for reading about bees and butterflies and flowers for hours upon hours.
These are great poems to read out loud, but it was hard to read more than a few pages at a time because it became so darn repetitive.
Honestly, I couldn't wait to get done with it and was proud of myself just for finishing. I could only take so many poems about these mundane things. I know these are all terrible things to say because Emily Dickinson is so beloved, but I think I just needed to take her in a much smaller dose.
2 Stars
(sorry)
Natalie in Fantasy vs Reality:
Fantasy
I am just going to adore these lovely poems. I may sit on a blanket under a large oak tree while reading about life and love and nature and death (er...time and eternity). I will be transported to another time and place through the melodious verse.
Reality
Holy crap. This is really tedious. *Checks the number of pages left for the 100th time*
So it turns out I don't love Emily Dickinson as much as I had hoped I would.
:'( <----Crying sad face, which means I'm really sad about this.
Life poems were pretty good. Love poems left much to be desired. Nature poems were an absolute bore. Time and eternity were probably my favorite of the bunch. These are just my personal opinions. I'm sure there are folks out there that live for reading about bees and butterflies and flowers for hours upon hours.
These are great poems to read out loud, but it was hard to read more than a few pages at a time because it became so darn repetitive.
Honestly, I couldn't wait to get done with it and was proud of myself just for finishing. I could only take so many poems about these mundane things. I know these are all terrible things to say because Emily Dickinson is so beloved, but I think I just needed to take her in a much smaller dose.
2 Stars
(sorry)
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