Dickinson\'s ars poetica

Toma Violeta Cristina
English Major, Group 1
Instructor: Dr. Diana Benea, Assist. Lecturer

Emil Dickinson's Ars Poetica
"Dickinson's poems are made of rich silence" (Thackeray)
Emily Dickinson, one of the most controversial writers in American literature, continues to intrigue and challenge the readers with her equivocal verses. Her works have remained open to interpretations up until today and there are contrasting opinions among the critics. While some accuse her poetry of abounding in ellipses, others regard her as creative and innovative for actually using absence as a method of expressing herself.
In this essay I intend to scrutinize 3 poems of Emily Dickinson dealing with the theme of poetical writing. The main aim of this paper is to fathom out her ideas and conceptions about the role of the poet and what a poem should be or do from her point of view. In addition to this, critics' opinions on her works will also be taken into consideration since there are powerful voices claiming that she actually did not write any ars poetica.
Firstly, the notion of "ars poetica" must be introduced. This is Latin for "the art of poetry" and it provides a subjective view of the poet on his/ her role and the function of poetry itself. Approaching the theme of ars poetica will enable us to have a clearer understanding of Emily Dickinson's peculiar poetic technique and her intentions.
Secondly, I selected poems which, to my mind, are quite eloquent of Dickinson's perspective on her role as a poet and out of which one can get a slight idea about the reasons behind her curios poetic style. However, some critics found other meanings in her verses annihilating the impression of an ars poetica.
The first poem I will analyze contains Dickinson's fondness of poetry which she metaphorically defines as follows:
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise – (466)
Her choice is made clear, she prefers the lyrical form of literary art over prose because it is more flexible and offers her a wider range of possibilities to express herself. She compares poetry to a house, a metaphor that may suggest that poetry encloses a meaning and the poet invites the readers to look at it through windows and decipher it. On the other hand, "windows" also symbolize different perspectives, meaning that each reader is allowed to interpret her ambiguous verses and give new meaning to the poem. The doors of cedar suggest that poetry is her safe place where she can be sincere and true and everything that is exterior cannot harm her- the poem becomes her fortress. The space becomes even more secure for there is an "everlasting Roof" emphasizing the impossibility to penetrate it and the power to persist over time, the poetess continuing to live through her poetry.
If we were to draw a parallel between her poem and her life, it would not be difficult to understand why she associated poetry with a house. She was famous for being a recluse, keeping herself aloof and she would rarely accept visits. This very visual image of her solitariness seems to be the exact metaphorical image in this poem. The poet is the permanent dweller of poetry and the reader is allowed to visit the artistic realm. But not anyone is given such a privilege, only the "fairest" of the readers can peer into the poet's inner world, this implying a certain ability and sensibility that one must possess in order to understand and bond with the writer. The doors are made of hard cedar implying that full access is not possible. With regard to this idea, Megan Evans writes in her dissertation: "Readers of Dickinson's poems often feel they have been denied entrance to this inner circle and that her poems are, ultimately, not fully interpretable by those on the outside." (Evans, 70).
The last lines of the poem sketch a very suggestive visual image of the poet becoming a liaison between the divine and the reader. To Dickinson's mind, poetry is the best means to present the spiritual aspects of the world to the reader, because this literary art allows her to play with language, to create, to stir imagination, to innovate. The multitude of dashes which bestrew the poem are indicators of pauses as if the poetic I wanted to give time to the reader to put the words into mental pictures and have a clear understanding of the poem. From a technical point of view, she avoids the verbs and consequently- sentences, for fear of falling into the narrative style.
On the other hand, there is another interpretation of this poem as treating the theme of the woman in a patriarchal world. "Prose" is the actual metaphor in the poem, representing the real world. Prose is rigid and has its own rules just as the society has and one must abide by them. Dickinson does not want this, she wants to have possibilities and not feel constrained. Critics read her irony between the final lines: a woman shut in her room with a sole occupation: to pray. In her house she does not have typical female occupations, but she writes poetry- something that was not expected from women. The poem has been frequently regarded as one about solitude and a sarcastic approach to the common belief of that period that women are inferior to men and they should not have a voice of their own and interfere in the public sphere.
Her apprehension of the role of the poet is further clarified in another poem:
This was the poet-It is That The Poet - it is He -
Distills amazing sense Arrested it - before –
From Ordinary Meanings - Entitles Us - by Contrast -
And Attar so immense To ceaseless Poverty -
From the familiar species Of Portion - so unconscious -
That perished by the Door - The Robbing - could not harm -
We wonder it was not Ourselves Himself - to Him - a Fortune -
Of Pictures, the Discloser Exterior - to Time - (457)
Here she emphasizes further the power of the poet to understand the world, to elucidate its mysteries and offer the key to the others. The "Attar" is the quintessential meaning of life hiding behind the "Ordinary'. "Her authority as a poet depends on the assumption that language, in her hands, can be revelatory"(Evans,67). In this poem she adopts the position of a common reader and not that of the poet. Although she tries to define the poet regardless of gender, a hint of irony becomes evident by using the masculine pronominal form to refer to the poet. She is a writer in a patriarchal society who expects of women to be silent and incapable to maneuver the technique of writing poetry. While the poet is superior of understanding transcendental meanings of life, the others are incapable of such a great achievement and hence they are entitled to "ceaseless poverty" of the spirit. On the other hand, the poet is rich and readers taking from this richness do not cause any harm. The poetic skill represents the true fortune and no one can steal it away from the poet. The last line in the poem points out the immortality of the poet who exceeds time.
Once again irony can be identified in this poem: the poet is referred to by using the masculine pronoun, as if only men were able to produce poetry and express themselves. He "entitles us/ by contrast to ceaseless poverty"- "us", in opposition to "he" stands for the women, incapable or not permitted to know and produce art and achieve such richness. In the lines "a Fortune-/ Exterior to Time" Leiter discovered a narcissistic Emily Dickinson "as one who needs no external riches or support, but possesses an irreducible inner wealth"(208). Another critic, Miller, "sees the portrait of a Poet who seems to create effortlessly, without sacrifice, as Dickinson's image of male privilege" (Leiter, 208). The dominating man is at the centre of this poem as well.
The last poem that I chose is a very short one apparently describing the creative process of writing a poem:
Ashes denote that Fire was – Fire exists the first in light
Revere the Grayest Pile And then consolidates
For the Departed Creature's sake Only the chemist can disclose
That hovered there awhile – Into what Carbonates –
(113)
In this poem she states that the process of creating requires hard working. The fire metaphorically stands for the initial work written in a moment of intense creativity, but after being subject to technical alterations all that remains is the ash. The capitalized "Departed Creature" is the original moment of revelation and illumination, so rich in meaning that it seems as brought to life by personification. But the poet does not want to give himself so easily to the readers, so he becomes "the chemist" capable to extract only the quintessence and encode it in a poetic language. The language is the ultimate touch, it nobly "consolidates" the work of art.
However, there are other critics who interpreted this poem as one about the process of dying. At first death appears as light and then becomes fire separating soul from body. Two opposed perspectives are present in the poem. On the one hand there is the religious belief that after death the soul ("departed creature") continues to "hover" above its past body. On the other hand the scientist is the one able to find meaning in the "carbonated" relics.
Finally, with respect to her style one cannot possibly disregard the dashes in her poems. As Thackeray put it "Dickinson's poems are full of rich silences" and this is the main reason for her to be regarded as innovative. Considering absence a means of actually emphasizing the unmentioned, she skillfully and paradoxically used silence as a means of expressing herself. While New Critics praise her daring perspicacity, others tend to deny her ability to write. Hartman, for example, labels her style as "elliptical" (qtd. in Love, 153). It is due to this peculiar style of hers that the opinions differ so much among critics. The enormous ambiguity in her poetry entitles the readers to find many interpretations and one cannot decide on one and only one.
Despite all controversies that her poetry provoked, nowadays there is a common acknowledgement among critics that Emily Dickinson is a poet of great significance for the American literature. She is generally associated with words such as "innovative", "modernist" or "pioneer".














Bibliography
Dickinson, Emily, 1082 Poems, Classic Poetry Series, www.poemhunter.com- The World's Poetry Archive, 2012, Web November 28th
< http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/emily_dickinson_2012_5.pdf >
Evans, Megan L., Sounding Silence: American Women's Experimental Poetics, Oregon, UP. Web November 28th
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/12946/Evans_oregon_0171A_10564.pdf?sequence=1
Leiter, Sharon, Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work, New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007, Web December 12th
Love, Donald Craig, Life of the Woods A Study of Emily Dickinson, Ontario, Canada, Web November 28th
https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/8008/Love_DonaldCraig.pdf?sequence=1
Melani, Lilia, Lecture "Emily Dickinson's Poems". Brooklin College. Web November 28th
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/dickinson.html
Orzeck, Martin, Robert Weisbuch, Dickinson and Audience, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1996. Web December 12th
Vendler, Helen, Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2010, Web December 12th



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