and the Bronte's and whole pile of other stuff in high school- while stuff that spoke to me and the world we or at least I live in I had to find on my own or read in college. Catch-22, I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, One Flew Over the CoCo's Nest, Native Son and such. I had to read to much Emmerson and no Langston H.I don't mean to come in hear hating on Dickinson. I just feel the establishment has been too focused on too narrow a range of writers to the harm of those of us who do not see ourselves in them. Dickson and Whitman have merit. I am just tired of their occupying the highest places in the acedamy -as I experienced it anyway

Valid. and 'Native Son' is no 'Invisible Man' either...

I have been recently chastised in the poetry fray for daring to say I don't care for Emily Dickinson's poems. I've read through alot of her work - first in college and later on my own - just to be sure I wasn't being too quick to judgement. I did again after reading this article.

I will repeat it here - Ke-ripes I find her poems self indulgent and boring!

I can understand her appeal, lots of people like that sort of take on life, but I agree with you - why she has risen to the mythical heights she now inhabits completely escapes me.

So sue me.

Dickinson and Whitman are the "founders" of American poetry as we know it (Inward-looking poets such as Frost and Plath follow in Dickinson's tradition.) That's why they're important.

I don't know how long ago you were in school, but I graduated college in 2005 and my English program offered many chances to read "non-canonical" authors, including women and people of color. I am sorry this wasn't your experience.

Not that the evidence on the page doesn't merit their place, imo, in literary history but to judge works of art strictly looking back on them and in comparison of works which were subsequent to that in question is to completely miss the significance of their influence. When Dickinson and Whitman were writing, they were literally defining what had been previously undefined if not nonexistent.

Surely over a short time, a writer's life even, hype can keep some works in the public eye. But 100+ years later and still drawing nods of recognition from new readers as they put eyes to the page... This isn't because some teacher is standing over the reader and pulling strings. It's because Whitman and Dickinson both tapped into unbroken truths that were apparent to their respective mindsets.

I have been recently chastised in the poetry fray for daring to say I don't care for Emily Dickinson's poems. I've read through alot of her work - first in college and later on my own - just to be sure I wasn't being too quick to judgement. I did again after reading this article.

I will repeat it here - Ke-ripes I find her poems self indulgent and boring!

I can understand her appeal, lots of people like that sort of take on life, but I agree with you - why she has risen to the mythical heights she now inhabits completely escapes me.

So sue me.

Hi schizoidman_21,

What I should have added on the PoemsFray is that I also disliked her poetry when I was in HS. I thought her poems were simpering -- "I'm nobody. Who are you?" I didn't have her in any college courses and didn't teach her when I was a HS teacher.

I only re-read her poetry last year, after a bunch of the retired adults I teach now said they wanted a course on her. She wrote 1,775 poems, and I certainly didn't come close to reading all of them, but I read lots more than the tired ones that had been foisted on me (and perhaps you) in HS.

I discovered poems that showed her questioning her religion,sometimes despairing of life, and trying desperately to find some sort of meaning in her present life rather than waiting for the afterlife. I (now) think she's somewhat similar to a modern-day existentialist in her take on life.

lots of people like that sort of take on life

Is that what you referring to, or were you referring to something else?

MA

I agree! And I like Emily Dickenson's stuff. I had one teacher in H.S.. who didn't enjoy her that much, and another in college who delighted in her work and her mysterious unmentioneds. At that point I got an anthology as a requested gift, which I still enjoy. But I read a lot of poetry from many poets, curious for any country, any culture.

If I had to hang forever in that world of hers and to hold it up forever as the only good use of English in poetry, I'd be off poetry. That doesn't even reflect the world I live in, let alone the complexity that has built the English I use and what I hear out and about in person and via media. I find myself reopening that anthology and enjoying that one poet and her work more richly and deeply when I am treated in my life also to learning and reading more poets writing with their own language-, life-, and societal- experience. I graduated HS in 1977. I have very little idea what is happening in English and Literature education these days.

I hope it is continuing to progess beyond the days when we as children ate up "It's a small world after all..."--which was progressive then, but tended to introduce the various countries as if they were a unified culture and almost a separate species. I think American Lit should cover American lit--and that is going to include every culture that contributed to building both (works in progress): American English and our country--infrastructures, etc.

I'm ready to see the discipline of Linguistics speaking in every subject we teach children (and ourselves--when do we catch up?!). So often I read of or hear features on new understandings of relationships between languages and within languages. It really is a small world out there. And even more interesting than ever! How these play into and from History, and Trade. ETC. What exciting revelations from a Linguistics class, and that was over 20 years ago!

Individuals who fear that their own cultures will become lost as other cultures and dialects are added into our education systems, would you take heart in the ever deepening richness in discoveries about their backgrounds? We might really enjoy acquiring Space as we explore more and more deeply who are families really are and where we all came from. There is so much discovery ongoing!

The enjoyment is ecsacerbated by learning about the poets lives. WITH THIS ARTICLE--I am awfully glad to hear that there was love and endearment for one of the few women poets who is commonly taught and had long been rumoured to have lived only for poetry, and then, that she probably enjoyed the social life of her father's busy household. (Too many people who I knew growing up thought it significant that she had no relationship, or apparantly, desire).

Mary Ann: “I have been recently chastised in the poetry fray for daring to say I don't care for Emily Dickinson's poems. I've read through alot of her work - first in college and later on my own - just to be sure I wasn't being too quick to judgement. I did again after reading this article.

I will repeat it here - Crepes I find her poems self indulgent and boring!

I can understand her appeal, lots of people like that sort of take on life, but I agree with you - why she has risen to the mythical heights she now inhabits completely escapes me.

So sue me”

All of the posts are excellent on this thread. I am inclined to agree with Mary Ann. I would rather read Rod McKuen than Emily Dickenson. I had been afraid to admit that to anyone before. One small thing: Ke-ripes? When I Google it I get: Did you mean: ke-recipes…and my spell check went crazy on your post, I don’t trust spell check either… (But I still fixed it for you as best I could). But don’t feel bad, it didn’t like Rod’s spelling either and his was a cut and paste also. But since this was a poem, I left it exactly as I copied it: Seriously . Emily Dickinson, sistah puh-lease

Exhibit A:

SONG WITHOUT WORDS

By Rod McKuen

I wanted to write you some words you'd remember
words so alert they's leap from the paper
and crawl up your shoulder and lie by your ears
and be there to comfort you down through the years.
But it was cloudy that day and I was lazy
and so I stayed in bed just thinking about it.

I wanted to write you and tell you that maybe
love songs from lovers are unnecessary.
We are what we feel and writing it down
seems foolish sometimes without vocal sound.
But I spent the day drinking coffe, smoking cigarettes
and looking in the mirror practicing my smile.

I wanted to write you one last, long love song
that said what I felt one final time.
Not comparing your eyes and mouth to the stars
but telling you only how like yourself you are.
But by the time I thought of it, found a pen,
put the pen to ink, the ink to paper,
you were gone.

And so, this song has no words.

HAP, it was schizoidman_21 who said he didn't like Emily Dickinson's poetry, not me. I quoted his remarks in italics in order to respond to them.

Well I do like Dickinson… a lot. But then I never read her stuff in HS.