IF I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Many know the story of Emily Dickinson already. How surprising her poetry from one supposedly so shy and reclusive. Personally, I believe Emily Dickinson had an extraordinary scope of vision and spirit--perhaps even a prophetess--that she was touched by the divine. She certainly had a special gift. Her poetry is the stuff of hopes and dreams, taking us to the inner reaches of the soul--all of life are in her words.
It is sad to consider the fact that during her lifetime, Emily Dickinson's poetry went unpublished. And that for many, many years even after her death, in 1886, her poetry "suffered" at the hands of editors. The first real, unaltered collection of her poems did not appear until 1955. This volume I feature, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, is THE collection of Emily Dickinson's poems--and include her unique style of writing and punctuation, even those wonderful dashes! This book is a must for every poetry lover's bookshelf. I also highly recommend reading this edition of collected poems along with The Life of Emily Dickinson by Richard B. Sewall. Reading the poems and biography of her life parallel, brings a very complete portrait of the artist.
But the poems... the poems! I have not enough words to express the joy of reading them. They must be read, and read slowly, savoring each verse. Evening is a great time to read them. Emily Dickinson's poetry is at once profound, wise, mystical, spiritual, ethereal, erotic, bold, reverent...nothing short of brilliant. Emily Dickinson and her poetry has been an enormous influence on my own art and writing, very much a part of my own inner landscape for as long as I can recall, when my first love affair with poetry began in my early teens. She has long been a kind of muse and mentor for me. And her verse at the top is like a motto I live by. It is a dream to one day see her home in Amherst, Massachusetts--a literary pilgrimage place. Until then, I am content to bring this volume down from the shelf again, and again, and again...
Poetry reading for August and September for my Year of Classics series already made a bit of a departure from the reading of classic novels which has dominated most of my reading this year. For October, I again will be taking a slightly different route with the classics. I am now reading My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. John Adams was the second President of the United States. He and his wife Abigail had an extraordinary partnership, and their correspondence reveals a portrait of a marriage that still inspires to this day. At the moment Dear Husband is reading John Adams by David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize winning biography. I read this biography myself last year, after we had seen the excellent HBO miniseries of 2008 based on the book. I re-read passages from it when Dear Husband is not engaged with the book. Such history! Such lives! But more on John and Abigail Adams at the end of October.
For our classical listening in October Dear Husband and I will be listening to Johannes Brahms!
A little extra Emily Dickinson to close... What are you reading now? Happy Days! :o)
Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port,
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.
Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!
