The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson (Volume 6) (Classic Thoughts and Thinkers, 6) - Hardcover

Dickinson, Emily

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0785834516 ISBN 13: 9780785834519

Publisher: Chartwell Books, 2016

Synopsis

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on December 10,1830, to a prominent family of academics, lawyers, and statesmen. Following her education at Amherst Academy and Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, Dickinson embarked on her impassioned journey as a poet. Composing first in a fairly conventional style, the poetess soon began to experiment with her writing; her frequent use of dashes, sporadic capitalization of nouns, broken meter, and idiosyncratic metaphors made her work unparalleled for its time.

Dickinson's poetry dealt not only with issues of death, faith, and immortality, but with nature, domesticity, and the power of language to transfer emotions into written text. An obsessively private writer, only ten of her some 1,700 poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson withdrew from social contact at the age of 23 and devoted herself to writing in secret. It wasn't until her death in 1866 that the scope of Dickinson's work was realized, when her sister Lavinia found her prolific collection in a dresser drawer.

Since this time, Emily Dickinson's writing has had significant influences on modern American poetry; her complex use of language and form has contributed to her reputation as one of the most innovative poets of the 19th century. This collection of some of her finest works illustrates not only Dickinson's talent as a writer but her profound love of language, nature, and life.

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Review

The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish has noted the "curious energy" which pervades Emily Dickinson's work. She, along with Walt Whitman, helps make up the very foundation of American poetry. This Modern Library edition from Random House is an excellent overview of Dickinson's work, divided by theme, including "Life," "Nature," "Love," and so forth. This volume of selected poems is a must for any serious reader of American poetry.

From the Inside Flap

Emily Dickinson lived as a recluse in Amherst, Massachusetts, dedicating herself to writing a "letter to the world"--the 1,775 poems left unpublished at her death in 1886. Today, Dickinson stands in the front rank of American poets. This enthralling collection includes more than four hundred poems that were published between Dickinson's death and 1900. They express her concepts of life and death, of love and nature, and of what Henry James called "the landscape of the soul." And as Billy Collins suggests in his Introduction, "In the age of the workshop, the reading, the poetry conference and festival, Dickinson reminds us of the deeply private nature of literary art."

"From the Trade Paperback edition.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chartwell Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0785834516
• ISBN 13: 9780785834519
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 208