(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Matthew Redmond, Stanford University
(THE CONVERSATION) Since her death in 1886, Emily Dickinson has haunted us in many forms.
She has been the precocious little dead girl admired by distinguished men; the white-clad, solitary spinster languishing alone in her bedroom; and, in more recent interpretations, the rebellious teenager bent on smashing structures of power with her torrential genius.
As the world continues to endure the ravages of COVID-19, another ghost of Dickinson steps into view. This one, about 40 years old, seems by turns vulnerable and formidable, reclusive and forward. She carries the dead weight of crises beyond her control, but remains unbowed by it.
It was while drafting my dissertation, which explores the meaning of old age in America, that I first encountered this Dickinson. She has been with me ever since.
The depths of loss
Most admirers of Dickinsons poetry know that she spent a considerable part of her adult life in what we call self-imposed confinement, rarely venturing outside the family homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. Less known, perhaps, is that the final 12 years of her life were passed in a state of nearly perpetual mourning.
It began with the death of her father. For all his stern comportment, Edward Dickinson had enjoyed a special relationship with Emily, his middle child. When her surviving letters declare him the oldest and oddest sort of a foreigner, one hears the affectionate annoyance that comes with real devotion. He died in 1874, away from home.
Loss followed loss. Favorite correspondent Samuel Bowles died in 1878. With the passing of Mary Ann Evans, otherwise known as George Eliot, in 1880, Dickinson lost a kindred spirit a mortal who, in her words, had already put on immortality while living. A very different loss was that of Dickinsons mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, with whom she enjoyed little or no rapport for much of their life together, but who became at least somewhat precious to her daughter on her deathbed. That was in 1882, the same year that took from her literary idol Ralph Waldo Emerson and early mentor Charles Wadsworth.
The following year saw the death of her cherished eight-year-old nephew, Gilbert, from typhoid fever, his illness having spurred one of Dickinsons rare excursions beyond the homestead. The year after that, Judge Otis Phillips Lord, with whom she pursued the only confirmed romantic relationship of her life, finally succumbed to an illness of several years and was wearily dubbed by the poet our latest Lost.
[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]
Piling on
What impact did so much grief have on the mind of one of Americas greatest visionary artists? Her letters say little enough. Writing to Mrs. Samuel Mack in 1884, however, she frankly admits: The Dyings have been too deep for me, and before I could raise my heart from one, another has come.
The word deep is an arresting choice, making it sound as though Dickinson is drowning in a pile of dead loved ones. Each time she comes up for air, yet another body is added to the great mass.
This is characteristic of Dickinson. If her imagination shrinks from visualizing breadth, it thrives on depth. Some of the most captivating images in her poetry are piles of things that cannot be piled: thunder, mountains, wind. During the Civil War, she uses the same technique to represent soldiers heroic and terrible sacrifice:
In describing her more personal losses of the 1870s, Dickinson seems to imagine yet another pile of human corpses rising before her eyes. Or maybe it is the same pile, her loved ones added to the dead troops whose fate she kept contemplating to the end of her own life. Seen in this light, the Dyings appear not just too deep but unfathomably so.
Life after death
At the time of this writing, the pile of lives that overshadows our lives is 800,000 deep and getting deeper by the hour. Dickinsons imagery shows how keenly she would have understood what we might feel, dwarfed by a mountain of mortality that will not stop growing. The same anger, exhaustion and sense of futility were her constant companions in later life.
Fortunately, she had other companions. As recent studies have shown, Dickinson was the best kind of social networker, maintaining profoundly generative relationships by correspondence from the family homestead. Her poetic output, though greatly diminished toward the end of her life, never ceases, and its offerings include some of her richest meditations on mortality, suffering and redemption.
These words resonate in the current crisis, during which protecting the daily mind has become a full-time job. News reports, with their updated death tolls, erode our intellectual and spiritual foundations. All seems lost.
But if strain and sorrow are palpable in this poem, so is courage. Dickinsons lonely speaker chooses to express what she has felt, to measure and record the burden of loss that life has thrust upon her. Beliefs, once bandaged, may heal. And while no man has ever been bold enough to confront the deeper Consciousness that so many deaths expose within the human mind, the speaker will not rule out doing so herself. There is still room in this blighted world for the kind of visionary experience from which hope not only springs, but flourishes.
Living in the shadow of death, Dickinson remained enamored of life. This, as much as anything, makes her a hero of our time.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/emily-dickinson-is-the-unlikely-hero-of-our-time-144262.
Go here to see the original:
Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time - Huron Daily Tribune
- Dear World Travel Groups, Stop the Mind-Boggling Confusion Over Testing and Vaccines Now - Skift - January 25th, 2021
- 2021 technology trend review, part two: AI, knowledge graphs, and the COVID-19 effect - ZDNet - January 25th, 2021
- The Minneapolis Miracle was the best moment in Vikings playoff history - SB Nation - January 25th, 2021
- Poet brings deep sense of connection to virtual Unbound date - Columbia Daily Tribune - January 25th, 2021
- Johnson wants trade deal, but Biden has mind on other things - Chinadaily.com.cn - China Daily - January 25th, 2021
- The Big Bang Theory: 10 Times The Show Tackled Deep Issues - Screen Rant - January 25th, 2021
- Movie Review: A Performer, His Story And Mind-Bending Illusions Make 'In And Of Itself' Essential Viewing - Patch.com - January 25th, 2021
- Tackling tech's big diversity problem starts with education - Wired.co.uk - January 25th, 2021
- Mind Cure Announces Build-Out of Digital Therapeutics, iSTRYM: A Technology Platform for Mental Wellness Optimization & Psychedelic Research -... - January 6th, 2021
- Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market 2020-2025 (Impact of Covid-19) | Deep Relax, Smiling Mind, Inner Explorer, Inc., Committee for Children,... - January 6th, 2021
- Mind, Body and Soul: Shedding and growth - Ramona Sentinel - January 6th, 2021
- These Were Our Favorite Tech Stories From Around the Web in 2020 - Singularity Hub - January 6th, 2021
- The best products and tips for getting a better night's sleep - Fast Company - January 6th, 2021
- Dumb and dumber: The future of business AI depends on HI - ZDNet - January 6th, 2021
- AI Engineers Need to Think Beyond Engineering - Harvard Business Review - October 29th, 2020
- Alertness is an evergreen state of mind for the Jewish community - Security Magazine - October 29th, 2020
- M&A Plus Insurance - Please mind the gap: managing the timing considerations of warranty and indemnity insurance - Lexology - October 29th, 2020
- A deep recession should hurt Trump's reelection bid, but this isn't a usual downturn - CNN - October 29th, 2020
- Creators Of WBUR's 'Madness' Series Talk To Host Of CBC's 'Brainwashed' - WBUR - October 29th, 2020
- Latest Update 2020: Machine Learning Artificial intelligence Market by COVID19 Impact Analysis And Top Manufacturers: AIBrain, Amazon, Anki,... - October 29th, 2020
- Global Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market Expected To Reach Highest CAGR By 2026: Deep Relax, Smiling Mind, Inner Explorer, Inc., Committee for... - October 29th, 2020
- These Texas women arent flocking to Trump. They made up their minds weeks ago. - Houston Chronicle - October 29th, 2020
- Series on Mental Illness Present in Society - The Record Newspapers - TheRecordLive.com - October 29th, 2020
- How We Got Trump Voters to Change Their Mind - The Atlantic - October 27th, 2020
- Researchers Look To Animals To Give Reinforcement Learning Systems Common Sense - Unite.AI - October 27th, 2020
- The true dangers of AI are closer than we think - MIT Technology Review - October 27th, 2020
- An Old Dog's Tale: Wild visions fill the mind at election time - Chinook Observer - October 27th, 2020
- Mind the Gap - The Indian Express - October 27th, 2020
- Breaking News - HBO's "Crazy, Not Insane," A Provocative Look at the Minds of Serial Killers, Debuts November 18 - The Futon Critic - October 27th, 2020
- Family Hardship Helps Inspire Student's Sense of Wonder and Appreciation for the Mind and Body. - Bethel University News - October 27th, 2020
- Algorithmic bias - how do we tackle the underlying problem that inhibits the full potential of AI? - Diginomica - October 27th, 2020
- Enlightening New Book 'The New Prophet' Provides Deep Meditative Truths to Awaken the Heart - GlobeNewswire - October 27th, 2020
- The Deep Dark - The Indian Express - October 27th, 2020
- Technological innovations of AI in medical diagnostics - Health Europa - October 27th, 2020
- African Mental Health Summit to emphasize the importance of cultural understanding - MinnPost - October 27th, 2020
- The All-American Mind of a Militia Member - The New Republic - October 13th, 2020
- What Psychedelic Mushrooms Are Teaching Us About Human Consciousness - Discover Magazine - October 13th, 2020
- Words of wisdom: These books put the focus on the body and the mind - The Hindu - October 13th, 2020
- The state of AI in 2020: Biology and healthcare's AI moment, ethics, predictions, and graph neural networks - ZDNet - October 13th, 2020
- Not all self-help books workbut these 8 will actually rewire the way you think, live and do your job - CNBC - October 13th, 2020
- The Boys cast reflect on "mind-blowingly fun" season 2 finale - RadioTimes - October 13th, 2020
- How to Connect With the Co-Workers Youre Missing - The New York Times - October 13th, 2020
- I'm Thinking That I'm Too Stupid to Understand "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" - The Chicago Maroon - October 13th, 2020
- How AI And Blockchain Are Driving The Energy Transition - OilPrice.com - October 8th, 2020
- Things To Keep In Mind When Buying Dietary Supplements Online - Blog - The Island Now - October 8th, 2020
- Defining the Yellow mind The Manila Times - The Manila Times - October 8th, 2020
- Farewell Convolutions ML Community Applauds Anonymous ICLR 2021 Paper That Uses Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale - Synced - October 8th, 2020
- Grid AI, From the Makers of PyTorch Lightning, Emerges From Stealth With $18.6m Series A to Close the Gap Between AI Research and Production -... - October 8th, 2020
- Ask a Therapist: How Not to Drown in the Deluge of the Negativity That Is 2020 - southseattleemerald.com - October 8th, 2020
- Local organizations earn Oregon Arts Commission grant to deliver integral arts education - The Register-Guard - October 8th, 2020
- Do Your Employees Feel Safe Reporting Abuse and Discrimination? - Harvard Business Review - October 8th, 2020
- The State of AI in 2020 and Beyond - CDOTrends - October 8th, 2020
- Good Job, Whale - The Cut - September 24th, 2020
- What the strange case of horse mutilations in France reveals about our state of mind - The Guardian - September 24th, 2020
- Review: The Flaming Lips dig deep with American Head - The Rice Thresher - September 24th, 2020
- FREE Self Development Series: "Curbing Traffic Jam in the Mind" - Patch.com - September 24th, 2020
- Happy Gut, Happy Mind: how the state of your gut affects your mental health - Evening Standard - September 24th, 2020
- How DeepMind Algorithms Helped Improve the Accuracy of Google Maps? - Analytics Insight - September 15th, 2020
- Elon Musk's brain-computer startup is getting ready to blow your mind - ZDNet - September 15th, 2020
- Far from being anti-religious, faith and spirituality run deep in Black Lives Matter - The Conversation US - September 15th, 2020
- Nvidia's Arm takeover sparks concern in the UK, co-founder says it's 'a disaster' - CNBC - September 15th, 2020
- The Guardians GPT-3-written article misleads readers about AI. Heres why. - TechTalks - September 15th, 2020
- What Is Yoga Nidra? Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic - Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic - September 15th, 2020
- Deep Dive: What would it take to change UNCW's mind? [Free] - Port City Daily - September 14th, 2020
- Eternal Blizzard in the Tired Mind: Kaufman delves ever deeper into the human psyche - The Stanford Daily - September 14th, 2020
- SoftBanks Arm sale hits a snag as UK opposition party warns of risk to jobs and digital sovereignty - CNBC - September 14th, 2020
- Scientific Psi? Neuralink and the smarter brain - Covalence - September 14th, 2020
- How to regulate AI, according to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty - Quartz - September 14th, 2020
- Reporter's notebook/It's time to let the games begin - The Daily Times - September 14th, 2020
- DCPS students receive online instruction from teacher in Greece - The Owensboro Times - September 14th, 2020
- Expand your mind with access to over 1,000 lectures from Tim Ferriss, Malcolm Gladwell, and more - MarketWatch - August 28th, 2020
- Global Machine Learning Artificial intelligence Market 2025 To Expect Maximum Benefit and Growth Potential During this COVID 19 Outbreak: AIBrain,... - August 28th, 2020
- It plays with the mind - Bangalore Mirror - August 28th, 2020
- We criticize because we care - Observer Online - August 28th, 2020
- Exercising toward a healthy mind - Johns Hopkins News-Letter - August 28th, 2020
- 78 percent parents don't mind if children have to skip school year due to pandemic: Survey - EdexLive - August 28th, 2020
- TSMC and Graphcore Prepare for AI Acceleration on 3nm - AnandTech - August 28th, 2020
- Frank Njenga: Over 40 years of healing the mind - Business Daily - August 28th, 2020
- Emily Dickinson is the unlikely hero of our time - The Conversation US - August 28th, 2020
- Visiongain publishes Automation in Biopharma Industry 2020-2030 report - PR Newswire UK - August 26th, 2020
Recent Comments