Quest for Eternity in the Poetry of Dickinson Essay -- Biography Biogr

Quest for Eternity in the Poetry of Dickinson Over the past few decades, a considerable number of comments cod been made on the idea of timelessness in Emily Dickinsons poetry. The following are several examples Robert Weisbuchs Emily Dickinsons Poetry (1975), Jane Donahue Eberweins Dickinson Strategies of Limitation (1985), Dorothy Huff Oberhaus Emily Dickinsons Fascicles Method and Meaning (1995), and James McIntoshs fast Believing Dickinson and the Unknown (2000). However, opinions vary as to how Dickinson explored the question regarding eternity much ink has still been spent on the issue. This paper, therefore, provides another discussion of the idea of eternity depicted in Dickinsons poetry. I will discuss the issue by considering how her poems describe the process through which the poet finally reaches the belief in eternity-overcoming the feud betwixt Christianity and scientific knowledge and that between Romanticism and existentialism. As a beginning, let us look closely at one of the poems in which Dickinson gives a luxuriant account of a deathbed scene The last Night that She lived It was a Common Night Except the Dying-this to Us Made Nature different We noticed smallest things- Things miss before By this great light upon our Minds Italicized-as twere. As We went out and in Between Her final Room And Rooms where Those to be alive Tomorrow were, a Blame That Others could exist While She must finish quite A Jealousy for Her arose So nearly infinite-- (P-1100) It is presumed that Dickinson wrote this piece of verse in circa 1886. In whitethorn of that year, Laura Dickey, the wife of Frank W. of Michigan, ... ...Dickinson. 2 vols. 1974. Cambridge Harvard UP, 1994. Stocks, Kenneth. Emily Dickinson and the Modern Consciousness. Hong Kong Macmillan, 1988. Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. Emily Dickinson. 1986. Reading Addison, 1988. Works Consulted Kjaer, Niels Pastor. The Poet of Moment Emily Dickinson and Soren Kierkegaard. Dickin son Studies 59 (1986) 46-9. McIntosh, James. Nimble Believing Dickinson and the Unknown. Ann Arbor U of Michigan P, 2000. Oberhaus, Dorothy Huff. Emily Dickinsons Fascicles Method and Meaning. University park Pennsylvania State UP, 1995. Rosenbaum, S. P., ed. A Concordance to the Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ithaca Cornell UP, 1964. Scholnick, Robert J., ed. American Literature and Science. Lexington UP of Kentucky, 1992. Weisbuch, Robert. Emily Dickinsons Poetry. Chicago Chicago UP, 1975.