The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
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Book Reviews of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Book Review: Blasphemous! Erotic! Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
I can't think of "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson" as simply a volume of poetry. Rather, it seems to me to be the uninhibited testament of a latter-day prophetess; it reads like the visions of a rare mind who pierced through the prisons of convention, and who dared to record what she perceived. Forget any preconceptions you may have had about Dickinson, and start reading the book. As a whole, this collection is a stunning exploration of many themes and images: the world of nature, metaphysics, human emotion, and more. And throughout, these short verses radiate with psychological insight.
And if you read with the attentiveness that these poems deserve, you will discover many treasures. I have been a particular fan of Dickinson's "blasphemous" verses, in which she deconstructs the conventions of mainstream religiosity, and of her erotic poems, which celebrate the sensuous delights of the human and nonhuman worlds. Check out such gems as #324 ("Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-- / I keep it, staying at Home") or #339 ("My Cactus--splits her Beard / To show her throat"). Dickinson is full of surprises, all written in a style that is stunning and subtly seductive.
Dickinson writes, "Exhilaration--is within-- / There can no Outer Wine / So royally intoxicate / As that diviner Brand" (#383). But if you must rely on an "Outer Wine," dip into the "Complete Poems" and get high on Emily. It's an addiction that's good for you.
Book Review: One of the few poets who ever perfected a method.
Summary: 5 Stars
I have 1000 words to tell what Dickinson means to me, an impossible task I gladly take up. I'd like to respond to others on this page. I once called Dickinson the "patron saint of lonely people everywhere," so I can identify with what one person said about teenage shut-ins. And I don't blame the person who snubbed her for not leaving a name--I'd be embarrassed to as well. Emily egotistical? The poet who wrote, "I'm nobody"? Wow. I love Dickinson's work so much because her vision of life is so fully her own, so at odds with the views of those around her. Can you imagine knowing you are the most brilliant lyric poet of your time (Whitman was more an epic or narrative poet), and knowing no one understood you? It's like trying to communicate in a foreign language that only you know. In fact, that is exactly what she did--she explodes the syntax, vocabulary, and syllabication of English and transforms it into her own private means of communication. She demands that we meet her on her ground. True, reading her work is not "fun"--there's too much pain and burning beauty in it to be an easy ride. She is not for everyone--only for those who see that life's disappointments both destroy and liberate us at the same time: comparing human hurts to trees destroyed by nature's forces, she says (in poem 314), "We--who have the Souls-- / Die oftener--Not so vitally--." Those may be the finest lines any poet ever wrote in English.Book Review: She's just the best
Summary: 5 Stars
I often thought I "knew" Emily in a personal way, though I knew that couldn't really be possible, her being dead and all. Still, I felt there was a connection and later, when I was working as a tarot card reader on Church Street in San Francisco I often met people in the course of a day who were sympathetic to this viewpoint. Of course, I wasn't doing much of a good job as a tarot card reader if I was telling people _my_ fantasies, so I quit and got my PhD studying--you got it--Emily Dickinson herself. Well, this is one heck of a book. From the familiar to the obscure, from the ridiculous to the sublime, this book hits a home run and doesn't miss a base as it jogs around the old sandlot diamond. The familiar ones are like old friends, of course, but every now and then there's a rare gem. I'd like to share this: I'd Like to Get Out of this G-d D-mned F-cking Room
It'd be a big help
if I could get out of here for
just a minute.
What a bore this town can be.
They say, "Hey, it's grist for the
old artistic mill,
Emily."
I say--"What total b-llsh-t."
So let me out of here.
I always wanted to give copywriting
a try.
Let me be known as the Belle of
Madison Avenue for a change, already.
Screw this.
How I miss that woman.
Book Review: One of the greatest of all writers of poetry in English
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the standard and authoritative collected edition of Emily Dickinson's poems. It is a book that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I can think of no finer writer of poetry in English who manages to invest so short and simple a construction - no more than a couple of lines in some cases - with such emotional force. I say 'simple', but her poems are simple only in a deceptive sense. An unfinished poem like "A letter is a joy of earth/ It is denied the gods -" (that's the whole poem) says more about the joy of constructing prose than any number of effusive efforts from the Romantics.Miss Dickinson has suffered from having been appropriated by the rather dreary crowd of 'cultural critics' who cannot grasp that a work of art tells us primarily not about the social mores of the time it was written in but about the human spirit. She is especially vulnerable to this sort of irrelevant sophistry, having lived as a recluse for much of her life and thus being ripe for 'interpretation' that is nothing more than a recitation of modern political sensibilities. That's a shame, and it certainly shouldn't put you off reading her. So far as I'm concerned, there is no one - not even Shakespeare, not even Jane Austen or Dickens - whom I read more frequently, and with greater pleasure and benefit.
Book Review: One of the best poetry collections around
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorite poets since being assigned "I'll Tell You How the Sun Rose" in eighth grade, Dickinson has always struck a chord within me. Despite having lived over a century prior, the feelings and ideas expressed within her work are just as relevant today as ever.
The sparse beauty of Dickinson's words can both evoke loneliness and the certainty that the poet shares your pain. Her topics encompass everything from death to literature to the soul; and her mood is often somber, but also very often playful.
This particular collection is a volume I had to purchase for a graduate course on Dickinson I once took -- and it is one of the very few texts I never wanted to sell back! Margins are wide, allowing for ample underlinings and notations as readers peruse and mull the verses. At the rear is an index of first lines, in alphabetical order, to allow for easier location of particular works. This volume also preserves Dickinson's tendency to use dashes, which was often "corrected" in past versions -- also contributing greatly to the readers' ability to fully appreciate Dickinson's legacy.