Over the years we've collected and quoted her poetry, read obscure books about her life, watched documentaries & plays about her, & tacked photo postcards of Emily on our bulletin boards.
Of course we have both made the pilgrimage to the Dickinson homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts. My sister has made this sojourn twice.
The highlight of the trip for Jennifer was to procure a charcoal rubbing of Emily's gravestone. This morbid display hung on her bedroom wall for some years! (true love)
I enjoyed the tour of the homestead. As I walked about the creaky 19th century floorboards I thought: "Here I walk upon the same floor that Emily walked upon!"
Also memorable was to see a white dress of Emily's, encased in glass, in the foyer of her house. A small pocket was sewn into one side of the dress. The lore is that while baking or tending to household duties, if Emily thought of a snatch of poetry, she'd scribble it down for later editing.
Emily Dickinson--- the Belle of Amherst, an iconoclast, a dour recluse dressed like a schoolmarm, a diminutive woman, ----and undoubtedly one of our greatest American poets.
Below is a very few of her over 1700 poems:
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I reason, Earth is short --
And Anguish -- absolute --
And many hurt,
But, what of that?
I reason, we could die --
The best Vitality
Cannot excel Decay,
But, what of that?
I reason, that in Heaven --
Somehow, it will be even --
Some new Equation, given --
But, what of that?
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We play at Paste --
Till qualified, for Pearl --
Then, drop the Paste --
And deem ourself a fool --
The Shapes -- though -- were similar --
And our new Hands
Learned Gem-Tactics --
Practicing Sands --
If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.
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