Reading Response Prompts
 

These prompts are meant to get you thinking about what you have read and to help focus your thoughts for your reading responses. You can respond to any of them, or, if you have another idea you would rather explore, you are free to write about that instead.  Even if you choose to pursue an idea of your own, however, or are not writing a response that day, you should still spend at least a few minutes thinking about each of the prompts in preparation for class.  In any case, I suggest doing the reading first, then checking the prompts.  For more information, review the listserv assignment.

Emily Dickinson, 109 [For each ecstatic instant], 181 [A wounded Deer – leaps highest] 236 [Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –], 320 [There’s a certain – Slant of light], 339 [I like a look of Agony], 340 [I felt a Funeral, in my Brain], 359 [A Bird came down the Walk –], 448 [I died for Beauty – but was scarce]; 550 [I measure every Grief I meet], 563 [The Brain, within it’s Groove], 588 [The Heart asks Pleasure – first –], 591 [I heard a fly buzz – when I died], 598 [The Brain – is wider than the sky –], 633 [I saw no way – the Heavens were stitched –]; Hart Crane, “To Emily Dickinson”

With a few exceptions, Dickinson’s poems were not published before her death. When she died, she left her manuscripts behind, and editors have been trying to deal with them ever since. Two particular problems are her capitalization and her dashes. Early editors had no clue what to make of them, so they generally regularized the capitalization (in other words, took the capital letter out of any word that wasn’t normally capitalized or didn’t start a line) and removed most of the dashes, turning the rest into commas or periods depending on where they occur. More recent editions of Dickinson’s poems, like the one you have, have restored the capitals and the dashes because editors have decided they are important. Do you think they are? If so, what do you think they mean, or what purpose do they serve?

Few other poets write about the brain as much as Dickinson does. Note that she usually prefers Brain to the word mind, which is traditonally when writing about these kinds of topics. Why? What advantages does Brain offer?

Dickinson is a great poet, but not a comforting one. The poems we are reading for today cover a range of topics, but the conclusions she reaches are unexpected, sometimes even shocking, and I would say it is fair to call her outlook on them dark. Examine any of these poems to support this idea, and consider the source of their appeal. What pleasure do they offer when their message is often so dismal?

Choose any one of these poems, and perform a line-by-line reading in which you explain what you think the key words, phrases, and images are, and what meaning they add up to.

 
 
Home
|
 Syllabus | Class Calendar and
Schedule of Assignments		 | Resources