Belonging Notes/ Emily Dickinson
There are varying perceptions of belonging. Belonging refers to an acceptance, an
affiliation, a loyalty and friendship which involves being connected in a relationship. It can
be social, familiar, cultural, religious and political stemming from common beliefs, activities
and experiences.
"To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognised need of the human soul"
Simon Weil
From man's most primal and fundamental needs is to belong in order to survive a forbidding
world, mankind's existence depends on being tribal.
A primal and universal function of mankind is to seek a unified vision of the cosmic
(spiritual/ universal) and social order as man will attempt to make meaning of his life both
for society as well as the individual, a story-generating function is necessary and
irreplaceable in that the individual finds meaning in his .
Possible Thesis
1. Perceptions of belonging are subjectively and objectively determined
2. Choosing not to belong can be viewed as an act of emancipation and individualism
3. Retribution for not belonging- feelings of alienation, exclusion, being the outsider
is experienced
4. Traditional social categories of belonging like class, race, religion, nationality and the
boundaries these distinctions actually describe are becoming increasingly blurred
5. Belonging is a search for social bonding, loyalty, security and acceptance
6. The relative decline of traditional forms of belonging and the emergence of new
global social networks requires multiple ideas of belonging
7. Our lives become meaningful through our associations with others
8. One’s social identity is instrumental in constructing a sense of individual identity.
Emily Dickinson
An Overview
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Her Subject Matter:
Constructs of self
The power and limit of language
The paradox of belonging
Omitted or absent centre
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Her Context:
Time of contradiction, idealism clashed with reality
Reclusive intellectual and poet
Subverted the constraints of domesticity
Period of prolific creative output
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Her Meaning:
Indeterminacy privileged
Ambiguous and symbolic
Investigative and novel
Described and defined effects rather than causes
Pre-eminence of feelings
Engaged with paradox
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Her Style:
Compressed and elliptic
Presented multiple and contradictory perspectives on major themes
Eccentric use of syntax and grammar
Rendered literal experience symbolic and abstract
Seemed fractured and cryptic
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Her Approach:
Scientific
Highly observant
Experimental
Intense
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Her Legacy:
Valued as an original and provocative thinker
Disrupted conventional views on language
Inventive with use of language
Very perceptive and evocative poet- demonstrated expansive vision
Key Points
Idea/Argument
Dickinson refused to be constrained by the
patriarchal dogma that determined
appropriate subject matter for women poets
and elliptically explored the inner intensity
and double voice of the female perspective
She scrutinized the inextricable links
between orthodoxy, the formation of an
individual’s identity and the agonizing
paradox of belonging
Dickinson’s poetry seems to celebrate the
value of subjectivity whilst investigating the
degrees to which personal autonomy can
actually be realized
The indeterminacy of her poems (their
vagueness and poorly defined quality) seem
Poems
This is my letter to the world
I died for beauty but was scarce
I gave myself to him
I have been hungry all the years
I gave myself to him
This is my letter to the world
Saddest noise, the sweetest noise
I died for beauty but was scarce
A word dropped careless on a page
A narrow fellow in the grass
What mystery pervades a well!
A word dropped careless on a page
I died for beauty but was scarce
consciously to be designed to draw out a
variety of interpretations
The tensions between gender, identity and
writing were unique only to women. She
commonly explored the process by which
culture urges conformity
Dickinson’s poetry reflects a mind interested
more in exploring and examining questions
rather than seeking their absolute answers
The articulation of poetic vision, in fact the
expression of any idea reflects the limits and
possibilities of language
The I in her poems is not always the poet
herself. Dickinson achieved authority of selfcreation by enacting many literary selves and
lives. Her collection of poems could be
referred to as ‘a set of dramatic
monologues’ in which multiple and
contradictory views are heard
Reading Dickinson’s poetry draws the
reader’s attention to the fact that out of
apparent contradictions and discords, the
subtlest harmonies are fashioned. Paradox,
in Dickinson’s poetry functions to encompass
the tensions of error and truth
simultaneously, not necessarily by startling
juxtaposition but by subtle and continuous
qualifications of the ordinary meaning of
words. Dickinson may use a paradox directly
or may explore an idea in paradoxical terms.
This is my letter to the world
A narrow fellow in the grass
I gave myself to him
This is my letter to the world
A word dropped careless on a page
I died for a beauty and was scarce
What mystery pervades a well!
A word dropped careless on a page
I died for beauty and was scarce
Saddest noise, the sweetest noise
A narrow fellow in the grass
I have been hungry all the years
I gave myself to him
I died for beauty but was scarce
Saddest noise, the sweetest noise
What mystery pervades a well!
I have been hungry all the years
‘Vice for voices’- Dickinson’s poems point to the process by which culture urges conformity.
Described and defined effects rather than causes. Through language we resist and are
confined by social and cultural constructions of self. An element of self is forfeited by
membership to various social institutions. Belonging may be a negotiation of solitude and
participation. Belonging influences sense of identity- how we interact with nature, our
relationships with others and ourselves, our expression and articulation of our sense of
belonging. Dickinson’s unconventional use of syntax and grammar and apparently fractured
style make many of her poems cryptic and elliptical. She invites us to deal with ambiguity
and resist the impulse to unify her meanings to simple formulas. The value of complexity
and variety in poetry and interpretation has been argued is Dickinson’s.
Paradoxical Relationship with Belonging
Reading Dickinson’s poetry draws the reader’s attention to the fact that out of apparent
contradictions and discords, the subtlest harmonies are fashioned. Life seems to be a series
of muddied experiences where meaning stems from its contrast. Resonating with various
degrees of poignancy, loss and glory the connection between joy and sorrow, hope and
despair, alienation and integration, is naturally inexorable. Joy is understood because
sorrow has been experienced; hope is valued because at some time the self has given into
despair and the need to belong is the emotional rejection of its antithetical feelings of
exclusion and alienation. In other words, emotions function, as it were, as both patient and
physician. Dickinson seems to be suggesting that it is in the constant striving, the constant
navigation through an assortment of feelings and experiences that gives meaning to life.
For this reason understanding paradox is crucial to understanding Emily Dickinson.
The contradictory part of a paradox is designed to arrest attention and provoke fresh
thought. What may seem as an apparently self-contradictory statement actually carries an
underlying meaning revealed only by careful scrutiny. For instance, the paradox ‘They have
ears but hear not’ or ‘deep down he’s really very shallow’ is respectively, a reference to
ignorance and lack of integrity. In poetry in particular, paradox functions to encompass the
tensions of error and truth simultaneously, not necessarily by startling juxtaposition but by
subtle and continuous qualifications of the ordinary meaning of words. Dickinson may use a
paradox directly or may explore an idea in paradoxical terms.
As suggested by Dickinson’s poetry, our relationship with language, gender, nature,
institutions and the self is a paradoxical one. It is a relationship that is at various times
either empowered or circumscribed by these factors. In some instances, it may be both.
One way of approaching her poems is by grouping them in relation to how people belong to
their time and place.
Belonging through
Language (is socially
conditioned)
Gender- how society
prescribes roles men
and women are to
follow
Theme
Power & ImpotenceDickinson explores
how discourse
intersects with
perception,
observation and
understanding
Subject Matter
Indeterminacy of
language
Multiple voices
speaking
simultaneously
foregrounds reader’s
choice of meaning
Dickinson’s poetry
gives voice to
knowing subjectively
Defiance and
Binary opposition,
Deference- We all at how it determines
various times yield to belonging
social constraints
The tension between
and at other times
gender and identity
rebel against them.
and the dilemma
Poem
This is my letter to
the world
A word dropped
carelessly on the
page
I gave myself to him
This is my letter to
the world
A narrow fellow in
the grass
All the poems reflect
Dickinson’s poem
textualises the
profound doubleness
of the female voice
Nature- the word
sublime was used to
describe the effect
beauty and grandeur
had upon the
individual
Society/ InstitutionDickinson’s poem
point to the process
by which culture
urges conformity
Self- the romantics
believed the self and
nature were one and
that harmony and
unity with the
universe, primarily
through selfawareness was
achievable
over the
incompatibility of
gender with writing
about and living in
the world was
unique only to
women
Literary voice was
about being
theatrical
Freedom & Captivity- Death (natural cycle
the gulf between
of life)
humankind and
Understanding of the
nature, an absence
self was a mode of
of affinity with
knowledge that had
nature. Paradox- we the potential to
live in the natural
reveal the mysteries
world but we do not and wonders of the
truly belong to it.
universe to the
individual
Abjuration & Desire- Marriage- does it
an element of self is merely socially
forfeited by
sanction inferiority?
membership to
Is the self lost to the
various social
union? Is it an
institutions.
empowering
Belonging may be a
expression of love?
negotiation of
Longing- is it a
solitude and
socialised way of
participation
being?
Can be explored
Personal autonomy,
from any of the four compound words
thematic
like self-realization ,
perspectives
self-expression, selfreliance emerged to
describe the process
by which a
heightened state of
awareness could be
obtained. But the
self as the romantics
understood it was
still in practical
terms, male.
the masculine voice
of the poet. Her
writing style is a
visual indicator of
subverting language.
I died for beauty but
was scarce
Saddest noise, the
sweetest noise
A narrow fellow in
the grass
What mystery
pervades a well!
I gave myself to him
I have been hungry
all the years
This is my letter to
the world
All the poems deal
with aspects of the
self especially I have
been hungry all
these years
The articulation of poetic vision, in fact the expression of any idea reflects the limits and
possibilities of language. Dickinson’s economic style is so extraordinary because her
inventiveness with words positions the reader to approach her work with a sense of novelty
and curiosity, temporarily collapsing the tension between purpose and linguistic restriction.
Words and ideas appear fresh and new as if experienced and engaged with for the first time.
Below is a list of the main language devices employed by Dickinson in all of the prescribed
poems.
Language
The dash & punctuation
Omissions/ inclusions
Ellipsis
Syntax
Paradox
Metaphor
Function
Dickinson’s use of the dash imitates the stops and starts of
speech. Its importance seems to lie in the manner it guides
intonation and inflection. ‘In the middle of a sentence the
dash may isolate words for emphasis or mark of sentence
fragments, giving the effect of impulsiveness or strong
emotion; at other times the dash creates an effect of
breathlessness or hesitation. A dash may usher in abrupt
changes of subject or metaphor or when used at the end of a
sentence or poem may leave a statement without definite
closure’ (C Miller)
Dashes also ‘serve as structural, punctuating and interrupting
devices, slowing down and breaking up the text, or conveying
a sense of the human voice speaking in deliberate, hesitant,
ecstatic, oratory, calming or ironic tones’ (P Crumbley)
‘Omitting the suffix of an adjective or adverb disrupts
assumptions that the world can be described and known.
Similarly adding suffixes to adjectives, adberbs or just adding
an article undermines a reader’s sense of certainty in the
word’ (C Miller). Her omissions and inclusions both expand
and restrict the poem’s meaning.
Functions to compress her poetry, ‘By deleting the words or
phrases and devising elliptically compacted metaphors,
Dickinson omits all that is not essential to her meaning’ (C
Miller). It is usually denoted by asterisks, dashes or dots to
show the deletion of a word or phrase.
Syntax refers to sentence or phrase formation Dickinson
disregards many of the rules of grammar and sentence
structure. She changes the function or part o speech of a
word, adjectives and verbs may be used as nouns; she
frequently uses be instead of is or are and seemingly
capitalizes nouns for no apparent reason.
In poetry paradox functions to encompass the tensions of
error and truth simultaneously, not necessarily by startling
juxtaposition but by subtle and continuous qualifications of
the ordinary meaning of words. Dickinson may use a paradox
directly or may explore an idea in paradoxical terms.
Dickinson seems to be more concentrated on effects rather
than causes in her poems. The primary metaphors in
Dickinson’s poems are comparisons not of objects but of her
feelings with some object- or with some objectification of her
feeling. The result is that literal experience is rendered
abstract and universal, hidden beneath layers of metaphor.
Other Random Bits
Margaret Freeman suggests that one has to look at Emily Dickinson's poetry from an
intellectual point of view, since it is so convoluted and paradoxical. One has to not only
consider what is there, but the silences.
Emily Dickinson's poems suggest she was very lateral and divergent in her thinking. She saw
relationships in contrary things, seemed fascinated with paradox and toyed with ambiguity
and incongruence.
'All pity for Miss Dickinson's starved life is misdirected. Her life was one of the richest and
deepest ever lived on this continent. When she went upstairs and closed the door, she
mastered life by rejecting it'. Allen Tate
She chose life on her own terms and accepted it. It can be described as intellectualizing
loneliness, by justifying her position.
"It might be lonelier
Without the loneliness" A common, recurring theme in Emily Dickinson's poetry, she sees
society as forced.
Her isolation was a calculated choice, there was more to gain than to lose. Dickinson found
solace in the relationships she cultivated (with correspondents), found to be true and
sincere. In the context of the form of the letter which is Dickinson's established comfortable
way to relate to the outside world yet it sill paradoxically allows intimacy and distance. The
whole of nature is fixed in human perspective, personifies nature as her friend. The paradox
between her love of nature and her preoccupation with death and the natural cycle of life.
Dickinson did not want to imitate the language of men.
Margaret Freeman- Dickinson embraces the idiosyncrasies, cadences of informal colloquial
speech with the deviances and irregularities of diction and grammar. When reading
Dickinson's poems the responder must respect a space, an absence, a quality of what is not
there. In doing so the reader must be participatory and intellectualise the 'semantics of
silence' thus creating a sense of intimacy and forming an intimate conversation between the
participants in a discourse. "In essence it is to turn the reader into an active participant who
must provide that which is left unsaid". Pursuing and understanding of what is unstated.
The title 'This is my letter to the world' acts a frame for the rest of the poem.