Dickinson and Death | The Poetry of Emily Dickinson | Dr. Abigail Rawleigh

Dickinson's most productive period as a poet was during the American Civil War, from 1861-1865. In this lecture, we'll learn a bit about that Civil War context, considering how innovations in print and photography made the war something that Americans experienced at home in a way that had not previously experienced violent conflicts. We'll then consider how that context informs our reading of Dickinson's poetry through a close reading of two versions of a poem, one written in 1859 and one in 1861, around the time of the war's beginning and at the start of Dickinson's most productive years. Together with what we've learned about Dickinson's religious context last week, Dickinson's Civil War context sheds light on the themes of death and sacrifice that we see throughout her work.
Guiding question(s): In what ways does Dickinson’s poetry engage with death? How does she describe the relationship between life and death/the living and the dead in her poetry?
Today's readings:
115 "What Inn is this"
216 "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" (both versions)
280 "I felt a funeral in my brain"
341 "After great pain, a formal feeling comes-"
465 "I heard a fly buzz"
510 "It was not Death, for I stood up"
596 "When I was small, a Woman died -"
712 "Because I could not stop for death"
(Numbering from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, ed. Thomas H. Johnson)
Read ahead for next week: abigailrawleigh.wordpress.com...