Emily Dickinson
(1830—1886)
Teaching Plan
 1.
Introduction to Dickinson
2. A Bird Came down the
Walk3. I died for beauty—but was
scarce
4. Because I Could Not Stop
for Death
Introduction to Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is the greatest American woman
poet as well as one of the world’s greatest women
poets.

More and more readers have recognized that she
is a fine poet, a playful humorist and a passionate
rebel who is daring in her feeling, thinking and
expression.

Since the 1920s, many critics have praised her,
along with Whitman, for pioneering modern
poetry.

Her view of poetry as an intensely
personal vision of the world
– All her poetry provides candid insight into her own
state of consciousness.
– She said, “This is my letter to the world.”
 She saw the world as dubious and treacherous,
and she thought that only art could construct
meaning and sustain her troubled mind.
– She said in one of her poems, “Much madness is
divinest sense.”
 In other words, conventional standards and
values are often stupid, and apparent madness
and aberration may be the highest wisdom.
Characteristics of Dickinson’s Poetry
1)
She transfigures common things into special meanings.
2) She suffuses her poetry with a lambent wit.
3) She experiments upon the traditional poetic form.
4) Her syntax and diction are aimed for compactness and
concision.
5) Her imagery is daring and precise.
“[Dickinson] was known more widely as a
gardener, perhaps, than as a poet".
---- Judith Farr
Dickinson began to study botany at the age of
nine and to tend the garden at Homestead at
the age of twelve. Dickinson’s garden was the
place where she spent much of her time and
where she found much of her inspiration.
In her lifetime, Dickinson was obsessed
with two things: gardening and writing
poetry. The garden of flowers helped to
generate the garden of her poetry. By
using the images of flowers and birds
as metaphors, she expressed her
meditations on love, nature, death and
immortality and life.
328: “A Bird Came down the
Walk—”
1. What did the bird do in stanza 1? What is the
implied meaning of the second line?
 2. In stanza 2, the bird hopped sidewise to let a
beetle pass. Why? Was he afraid of the beetle?
 3. Why was the bird frightened in stanza 3?
What did the speaker do in stanza 4? Interpret
the implied meaning of her action.
 4. What does the speaker compare the
movement of the bird to in stanza 5? What
effect does the comparison impose on the poem?
 5. What is Dickinson’s attitude towards nature?
Do you think that Dickinson has a romantic view
of nature?

What’s Dickinson’s
attitude towards
nature?
By: 邝国基 0607
Emily Dickinson’s poetry has
much to do with nature. There
are frequent references, direct
and indirect, to various
phenomena of nature. She wrote
on flowers, bees, birds and
spiders, on caterpillars and
butterflies, on lightening and
volcanoes, and many other things
f o u n d i n n a t u r e .

1. The poem presents a contrasts between
the civilized world and the natural world.
And it indicates that man is gradually
alienated from nature. Although man still
appreciates the beauty of nature, it is
disappearing from us.

2. It mocks man’s ignorance of nature and
his hierarchal views of nature. As a human
approaches nature with the stereotypical
superiority , it is nature itself (represented
by the bird) who chooses to escape from
the tainted touch of mankind.

3. Although the speaker attempts to
maintain the distinction between
mankind and nature, the poem
takes an ironic twist when the bird
takes a flight of frantic escape away
from the domesticating attempts of
the speaker. Humanity maintains
that all creatures are inferior to
mankind, yet it is nature itself who
struggles to avoid the
contamination brought by men.

4. Dickinson portrays humanity, in a
less flattering light, as full of
pomposity, and suggests that
freedom is innate in all creatures.
449: “I died for Beauty—but was
scarce”
 1. Why does the first speaker say
that he was scarcely adjusted in the
tomb?
 2. Why does the second speaker ask
“Why I failed”?
 3. What happens to the two
speakers toward the end of the
poem?And what does it imply?
 4. What is the theme of the poem?

449: I Died for Beauty-but
Was Scarce

The poem presents us with a dramatic
scene of two persons who entered into a
dialogue after they died. The first speaker
died for beauty, and the second, for truth.
Neither of them realized their failure in life.
Through their dialogue they came to see
that beauty and truth are always together,
and should not be separated. So it is not
right to die just for beauty or just for truth.
After the dialogue, they regarded
themselves as kinsmen, and they talked
for a long, long time after their death.
Dickinson’s Poetic Principle

A poet should write about truth and
express true feelings. Without truth
and true feelings, there would be no
beauty in poetry. Truth and beauty
can not be separated, instead they
should be united in art and literature.
With the unity of truth and beauty,
poetry can achieve its eternity.
712: “Because I could not stop for
Death—”





1. What did the speaker compare Death to
in stanza 1? How did she feel when Death
came to pick her up?
2. What are the three things that the
speaker and Death passed in stanza 3?
What do they symbolize?
3. What does the way the speaker was
dressed imply in stanza 4?
4. Is the house that seemed a swelling of
the ground in stanza 5 her final destination?
5. The second stanza indicates the
peacefulness and pleasantness surrounding
an appointment. It seems to have nothing
to do with “death”. Then what, do you think,
is Dickinson’s attitude towards death and
immotality?
Question
 What
is Dickinson’s idea
about death and immortality?
Because I could not stop for
Death-He kindly stopped for me-The Carriage held but just
OurselvesAnd Immortality.
We slowly drove--He knew no
haste
And I had put away
My labor and my Leisure too,
For His Civility-We passed the School, where
Children strove
At Recess--in the Ring-We passed the Fields of Gazing
Grain-We passed the Setting Sun--
personified as a
gentleman caller
death described as
civil, rather courteous
and polite
a religious context
childhood
maturity
the descent into death
Or rather--He passed Us-The Dews drew quivering and
chill-For only Gossamer, my Gown-My Tippet--only Tulle—
the thin lacy fabric worn
at weddings as a veil, or
the black lacy mourning
veil
We paused before a House that
seemed
A Swelling of the Ground-The Roof was scarcely visible-he Coraice--in the Ground—
tombstone, the house
barley above the ground
Since then--’tis Centuries--and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses’Heads
Were toward Eternity--
Given the unimaginable
concept of the soul's
immortality, units of time are
rendered meaningless.
Dickinson’s Views on
death
This
poem reveals her calm
acceptance of death.
Death is not to be feared
since it is a natural part of the
endless cycle of nature.
 The
poem expresses not only
the poet’s wish for
immortality, but also her
doubt about the Christian
idea that when a person dies,
he will go up to heaven.

Allen Tate (1899-1979)–a
distinguished American poet, teacher,
and says, “If the word great means
anything in poetry, this poem is one
of the greatest in the English
language; it is flawless to the last
detail.”
Poem 1463: A Route of
Evanescence
1.
2.
3.
4.
What do “A Resonance of Emerald” and “A
Rush of Cochineal” refer to?
What is the object presented in the poem?
What do “The mail from Tunis” and “An easy
Morning’s Ride” mean?
What do the last two lines imply?
What is the object presented in
the poem?
A humming bird
 With a ruby throat and emerald
feathers across his back and wings
 Flying fast away

A Route of Evanescence
A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel —
A Resonance of Emerald —
A Rush of Cochineal —
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head —
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning's Ride —
 The
poem paints a vivid picture of a
hummingbird moving rapidly, and
once the bird has collected nectar
from the flowers, it is quickly gone.
 The hummingbird is presented as a
mystical creature that is flying
gracefully. Its body has lavish colors
so that it appears as if it were a
painted image.
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/3042.html
Resonance of Emerald”-- Resonance: 共鸣, 回响 Emerald: 绿宝石
 “A
A
Rush of Cochineal -- Cochineal: 洋红, 雌胭脂虫干骸制成的鲜
红染料
What do “The mail from Tunis” and
“An easy Morning’s Ride” mean?

The bird is something strange, exotic
and mysterious, like a mail from a
distant land. It moves away from us
gracefully, effortlessly and quickly.
But it can also be something familiar
to the New Englanders, like an easy
morning’s ride.
Stylistic Features of Dickinson’s Poetry

1. Telling images which are striking, suggestive and
connotative sometimes incomprehensible

2. A severe economy of expression

3. Direct and plain words, simple syntax

4. Apparently faulty grammar

5. No regular rhyme, at most off or slant rhyme

6. Unusual capitalization

7. Unusual use of punctuation marks
Reading Assignment
 1.
American Realism and
Naturalism ( P183-P193)
2. Mark Twain:
The Notorious Jumping Frog
of the Calaveras County
(P194-P207)
Presentation Questions
 1.
What are the differences in
character and in cultural
background between the two
narrators, “I’ and Simon
Wheeler?
2. What does the story imply?