Pay No Attention to the Woman Behind the Curtain

First things first...GO TARHEELS!! I won't have a voice in class tomorrow but it was worth telling McAuley how bad he was. Secondly, I am impressed, amazed, and confused by Dickinson's excellent use of imagery in her poetry all at the same time. I think it's interesting trying to decipher what she means in her poetry, and figuring out what each metaphor is supposed to be. It's astounding how Dickinson can describe complex things and turn them into beautiful, seemingly normal ones. For example, the first time I read Dickinson's poem about Autumn, it seemed to me that she was describing leaves blowing in the wind, and she does it in a way that I could never even thought of. In Dickinson's poem she writes, It sprinkles Bonnets – far below –It gathers ruddy Pools – Then – eddies like a Rose – away –Upon Vermilion Wheels –. In my mind I have this image of all these red leaves collecting into piles, then all of a sudden a breeze comes by and lifts them into the air, rolling them away. The last two lines are probably my favorite of the poem because I would never have thought of a pile of red leaves blowing in a circle looking like the inside of a rose. The imagery she creates, this comparison between the circular nature of a rose's petals and a swirling bundle of scarlet leaves is amazing. At a second glance though, the whole poem is simply a metaphor for something else. The underlying meaning of the poem that relates it to the civil war is incredible. I tend to take things for their face value, and I wonder how much of Dickinson's poetry was what it seemed to be and how much of it is what readers have speculated it to be over the years.


Another thing I wanted to comment on was Dickinson's correspondence with Sue about her poem "In their Alabaster Chambers." I think it's very interesting what a profound change I have in my view of Dickinson by seeing the dialogue that took place between her and Sue. In some ways, I feel that I look at her less as this highly skilled yet depressed, brooding poet and more as a regular person with exceptional talent. I was also wondering whether it is positive thing that we, as the reader, are able to see some of the processes behind Dickinson's writing. Is it a good thing to see the method behind the madness? Does it detract from a very unique and rare product when you see how it's made? It's like watching how the special effects of a movie are done, and does it add or detract from the film? Does Dickinson's dialogue between herself and Sue add or detract from her work?