Emily Dickinson has often been praised as a poet who is “unflinchingly honest.” For me when reading her poetry her honesty often intrigued me as well as made me question the underlying beliefs in her poems. . To be honest there were a few times while reading the selected poems of Emily Dickinson that her worldview hit me in the face (quite literally once when I dropped the book), and her view seemed tragic, hopeless. Dickinson is honest about her feelings, events and humanity when many are not. From a Christian worldview, this honesty can often seem tragic, tragic to live in such a world where there is not a sovereign, loving God. It is necessary to move past the initial reaction of ‘tragic’ to a better analysis of what Dickinson is trying to communicate and to a point where there is not such a large divide between my own thoughts and Emily’s, rather the pure humanity of the view is seen.
Was God so economical? (34)
Dickinson here as well as other places throughout her poetry portrays God as powerful, but not kind to humans. In this particular poem, after the speaker sees many people not receive what they so desperately needed the speaker wonders about whether God cares at all. Instead of viewing grace as something that cannot be earned or deserved and thus does not need to be given, ever. The speaker of this poem sees God as hostile toward humanity, and unwillingly to care for them. The view of God that is very clearly portrayed is not one of love, grace, or kindness, but rather a god out to hurt humankind as if they are a plaything or experiment. This view of God and to live in a world without a loving God would be a tragic and hopeless place, without possibility of redemption.
This view of God seems completely contrary to Christianity and how many people have viewed and continue to view God. Yet, it is honest and if we are all honest with ourselves, I would imagine everyone at some point has blamed God for His lack of grace. Many people, especially in the Christian realm, do not readily admit that they expect God to be gracious and when He is not accuse Him of not having any grace. Dickinson’s honesty often causes me to re-evaluate my own thinking, especially when I initially disagree with her. Sometimes I have found that what tends to stand out to me the most as a hopeless, tragic view is actually something I have thought when life is not going well.
We out grow love like other things
And put it in the drawer,
Till it an antique fashion shows
Like costumes grandsires wore.
And put it in the drawer,
Till it an antique fashion shows
Like costumes grandsires wore.
Dickinson openly states that love is outgrown. Love, which people for generation have held as one of the highest values and emotions, is something we outgrow, like the childhood jumpers or rag dolls. Upon initially reading this, my immediate reaction was tragic: how tragic would it be to live in a world, or with a worldview, that outgrows love.
Beyond the simple face value of the poem as something, especially as a Christian I could never conceive of – out growing love, this poem seems to resonate deeper and be intended for more. As children, we tend to love easier without hesitation or condition. It is only as we begin to grow-up and become worldly wise that we are much more hesitant and often unwilling to love unless we know that we will not get hurt. In some senses, it is at that point when we put love in the drawer. Love is then only brought out for special occasions such as an antique fashion show, or someone we are sure will not hurt us. Love then becomes a thing of marvel and wonder; because it is no longer commonly given to every stranger we meet.
Maybe Emily Dickinson’s view of love in this poem at least is not as tragic as I originally thought it was. Maybe it is just realistic. Often love is not outgrown completely, but the love we had and give as children definitely changes and in many senses is outgrown. Dickinson’s poems are short, but they pack a lot of depth that simply cannot be fully gotten in a first simplistic reading.
Also, p. 46 where she says, "...putting love away we shall not want to use again until eternity." That line really grabbed me for many of the same reasons - it's hard to fathom a love being so deep yet without hope such that when the beloved is gone those feelings are literally too painful to keep.
ReplyDeleteFirst comments also make me think of the Modest Mouse song, 'Bukowski':
"If God controls the land and disease,
Keeps a watchful eye on me,
If he's really so damn mighty,
My problem is that I can't see
who would want to be such a control freak?"
That last poem you mention is one that I found myself rereading multiple times today. I think you make a good point by suggesting that there is an element of time, or growth as it were, in Dickinson's works. There definitely seems to be a common theme of reevaluating certain ideas, which makes we wonder when specific poems were written (too bad we can't know for certain).
ReplyDeleteI don't know about you, but I sometimes I found myself thinking that Dickinson occasionally had a rather sarcastic or satirical voice in some poems. That last one you quoted, for instance:
We out grow love like other things
And put it in the drawer,
Till it an antique fashion shows
Like costumes grandsires wore.
Part of me wonders if we should accept these claims at face-value, or if she was writing them as a satire of something someone mentioned to her. I don't know if that is reading too much into it, but there you go.
In answer to the title question, I think Emily's poems are tragic. They are really depressing, dark, and show a side to her emotions that let the reader know she's not feeling good. For example, "I felt a funeral in my brain, And mourners, to and fro," was the first line of one of her poems and it ended like this, "And all the heavens were a bell, And Being but an ear, And I silence some strange race, Wrecked, solitary, here."
ReplyDeleteI can't read a poem like that and relate to her. A part of me wants to say, "get over it!" I know that may seem harsh and insensitive because she's writing her feelings out and expressing herself but most of what Emily writes is too depressing, for example, she says, "Heaven is what I cannot reach!" and she starts another poem saying, "I'm nobody! Who are you" Are you nobody, too?" She ends another poem saying, "And I became alone." She also talks about death, "the liberty to die." This is the exact opposite of Whitman's poems that celebrate himself and celebrate the ideas of self! Therefore, I relate with Whitman. I can't relate with Emily. She's way too depressing, way too dark. I don't understand where she is coming from because maybe she has a good reason for writing such dark lyrics, maybe she was neglected as a child or didnt have a friend. But I would never write about such dark things and as a person I relate with people who celebrate life not dwell upon the bad things of this world like death and feelings of depression. Emily is too depressed of a writer and too tragic of a person for me to relate to her writings. Im not saying her writings and poems are bad Im just saying I cant relate with the message that she portrays, from a literature stand point she is a great writer that expresses her feelings in a very unique and powerful way at times but the overall message of her poems need to be more uplifting for me to relate to them.
I'd say relatable, definitely. I appreciate Dickinson's boldness in expressing things people don't like to think about. It can be tempting to deny the pain and frustration of our lives, especially in relation to God. People outgrow love. People are alone. People feel farthest from God when they need Him most. I believe the tragedy is in the topics, not in the way she writes about them.
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ReplyDeleteI took interest in your last paragraph about Dickinson's view of love being realistic. I think you are absolutely right in that we go through different stages in our love for people. Some stages are going to result in feelings of a deep loss. Some, as in the poem 'In Vain' that we discussed in class, express love that is there but unattainable. It seems to me as though she is trying to relate to people who are experiencing specific situations involving love.
ReplyDeleteLove for everyone does not end on happy, smiley, they lived happily ever after, notes. I see the strong merit in her attempts to bring out into poetry the tragic sides of love. It may not be happy and exciting to read, but it expresses an unfortunate reality that many people experience on a daily basis.
I think that she approaches love cautiously and quite realistically. She also stayed inside and basically watched life from her window and this comes across in her poems dealing with love. Which gives the impression that she never had a deep relationship and so she experienced that by watching the way other people interacted. For example "The Letter" poem is quite flirtatious and shows a lighter side of her ideas of love but I still got the feeling that she had not experienced these emotions but that she had witnessed them.
ReplyDeleteAlso in regards to the title I think she writes descriptively about tragic events which makes them relatable to everyone. I may not have had someone die that was close to me but that does not mean it will never happen and so when she writes about graphic tragedies it still relates.