Emily+Dickinson

Learning Objectives:

Students will be able to:
 * Identify the characteristics of Emily Dickinson's poetry.
 * Analyze a poem by Emily Dickinson.
 * Apply a set of critical questions to a poem in order to interpret poem and find literary elements used by author. ( http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/dickpoems.html )
 * Determine meaning and theme in poetry by identifying the literary and poetic elements being used.
 * Understand the importance of when something is written versus when something is published.
 * Understand the placement and significance of Emily Dickinson within the context of American thought.
 * Compare and contrast Dickinson’s poetry with other American poets.
 * Understand Emily Dickinson’s participation and impact upon the American voice.

Texts:

"I never lost as much but twice -" "Success is counted sweetest" "These are the days when Birds come back -" "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -" "'Faith' is a fine invention" "I taste a liquor never brewed -" "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church -" "A Clock stopped -" "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" "Wild Nights - Wild Nights!" "There's a certain Slant of light" "I like a look of Agony" "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain" "I dreaded that first Robin, so" "I would not paint -a picture-" "It was not Death, for I stood up" "A Bird came down the Walk -" "I know that He exists" "After great pain, a formal feeling comes -" "This World is not conclusion" "The Soul selects her own Society -" "Mine - by the Right of the White Election!" "This was a Poet -" "I died for Beauty - but was scarce" "Because I could not stop for Death -" "This is my letter to the World" "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -" "The Brain - is wider than the Sky -" "Much Madness is divinest Sense -" "I think I was enchanted" "I started Early - Took my Dog -" "Pain - has an Element of Blank -" "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -" "Publication - is the Auction" "A narrow Fellow in the Grass" "The Bustle in a House" "Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -" "Apparently with no surprise" "The Bible is an antique Volume -" "My life closed twice before it's close" "Letter Exchange with Susan Gilbert Dickinson on Poem 124/216"

Dickinson Themes:

(a) poems of loss and defeat: 49, 67, 305. (b) poems about ecstasy or vision: 185, 214, 249, 322, 465, 501, 632. (c) poems about solitude: 280, 303, 441, 664. (d) poems about death: 49, 67, 88, 98, 153, 182, 241, 258, 280, 301, 341, 360, 369, 389, 411, 449, 510 529, 547, 712, 784, 856, 976, 1078, 1100, 1624, 1716, 1732. (e) poems about madness and suffering: 315, 348, 435, 536. (f) poems about entrapment: 187, 528, 754, 1099. (g) poems about craft: 441, 448, 505, 1129. (h) poems about images of birds: 130, 328, 348, 824. (i) poems about a bee or bees: 130, 214, 216, 348, 1405. (j) poems about a fly or flies: 187 and 465. (k) poems about butterflies: 214, 341, 1099. (l) poems about church imagery or biblical references: 130, 216, 258, 322, 1545. (m) poems about love: 47, 293, 299, 303, 453, 463, 478, 494, 511, 549, 568, 640, 664, 907. (n) poems about nature: 12, 130, 140, 214, 285, 318, 321, 322, 328, 33, 441, 526, 630, 783, 861, 986, 1084, 1356, 1463, 1575. (o) poems about doubt and faith: 49, 59, 61, 185, 217, 254, 324, 338, 357, 376, 437, 564, 1052, 1207, 1545. (p) poems about pain and anguish: 165, 193, 241, 252, 258, 280, 305, 315, 341, 348, 365, 410, 510, 512, 536, 650, 675, 772, 1005. <span style="font-family: verdana,geneva">(q) poems about after death or afterlife: 301, 401, 409, 413, 615, 712, 829, 964. http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap4/dickinson.html