Poetry Friday: Emily Dickinson

A friend of mine likes the work of Emily Dickinson so much that she always travels with a book of Dickinson's poems in her purse. I'm going to be sure to tell her about a brand-new work of nonfiction, White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, by Brenda Wineapple. Reviewing the book for the New Yorker, Judith Thurman writes,

"Dickinson’s experience, or what we know of it, has been so thoroughly archived, interpreted, and reimagined in every genre [...] that a contemporary scholar needs a good excuse to exhume the picked-over bones. In rehabilitating Higginson—dispatching the caricature of a tin-eared pedant—Wineapple finds one, and, through him, brings Dickinson into focus for a new generation."

Doesn't that sound good?

Link: "Her Own Society: A new reading of Emily Dickinson," by Judith Thurman. The New Yorker, issue of August 4th, 2008.

The Poetry Friday roundup takes place at Becky's Book Reviews today. You'll find links to poetry posts on a bunch of the children's book blogs.

Comments

[cloudscome]

I have only recently (in the past couple years) discovered that I like Emily D.'s poems. They are growing on me. I keep a couple volumes of her work at home and on my desk at school. She does have a way with it.

[Mary Lee]

First of all, someday I want to be the kind of person who carries a volume of poetry in her purse at all times.

Second of all, someday I want to be the kind of person who reads The New Yorker.

:-)

[Susan T.]

Cloudscome, her work is growing on me, too. I like it that my friend L. enjoys the poems so much--makes me want to read more. I think I got turned off to ED's poetry in high school.

Mary Lee, one of these days I want to see ED's home in Amherst, Mass. Then I can see the Eric Carle museum too. Road trip! It's only a couple of hours from here.

[Kelly Fineman]

Thanks for the heads-up on the book. Sounds interesting!

[Susan T.]

Any time, Kelly!

I was intrigued enough by the review to put the book on my request list at the library.