Continuing along with my attempt to read and review all of Emily Dickinson’s poems, we’ve completed the second volume of her poetry in 2022. Only took us a year and a month… (yikes). Tackling the volume section by section, and choosing a favourite poem from each series still seems like a logical way to go, so here are some thoughts on a select few.

From Life: I: “I’m nobody! Who are you?”

Starting off the collection is an untitled poem that may be one of Dickinson’s strongest linguistically and stylistically. Taking an almost accusatory tone it declares “I”m nobody!” then asks of the reader: “Who are you?,” broaching us quickly into an unexpected existential dilemma and drama. She quickly draws the reader in with a joking tone that asks towards secrecy, keeping the pair of nobodys together, before culminating the poem in an argument for the freedom of anonymity. Little does Emily want to live her life on the stage of the public eye (questioning even Shakespeare’s adage that “all the world’s a stage”), and she’d much rather be content to sit silent in the life of her choosing. Her symbolic imagery from the outset is supplanted by a more physical metaphor from the natural world, which ends all too abruptly for my liking, even though it is technically effective. The frog has been silenced in his bog, and therefore the poem (re: conversation) is at an end, but I almost wonder if she could have refrained the first stanza for a balanced third to conclude in a more thematic location.

From Love: VII: “Wild nights! Wild nights!”

This is probably one of my favourite Emily Dickinson poems, and the main reason why this collection sits higher in my regard than it would otherwise. Dickinson may seem like a closeted Amherst housewife (less the husband) on the surface, but it’s poems like these that reveal the true fire in her soul. With this poem she deftly casts off the societal expectations to find adventure and romance in a new land to be explored with her lover. And yet, the tone of the poem remains a lament as the narrator carefully turns her language to “should be[s]” and asks permission in the final lines. Hesitating, the poem teeters on the brink of satisfaction, even as it inspires readers to take a leap and venture into uncharted lands. Afterall, what is a relationship (physical or otherwise) if not a journey of exploration and chance?

From Nature: IX: “April”

It was a bit of a challenge finding a poem that I liked from the Nature section, this time around… Not many of the poems spoke to me, with some falling into the trite category and others seeming quite arbitrary. “April” was the most interesting of the lacklustre lot, if only because I’m an April baby and there’s a certain place in my heart for the beginning of Spring. Dickinson must think likewise, as she captures in highly visual language the changing of the seasons at this crucial time of year. Painting the world from sky to earth, she layers colours throughout the poem before moving into the animal kingdom and describing the new life that the end of Winter brings. The poem itself may not be one of her best, since its language and symbolism are not really unique in the lexicon of poetry, but it does serve its purpose to describe April sufficiently through an expected set of tropes. Maybe more of a rote poem set to test her own skills (a “poem a month” type of challenge) than a true Emily-ism, but it was still generally enjoyable in its simplicity.

From Time and Eternity: XXIX: “Ghosts”

A final poem, from a final section, containing a universal truth. In this poem Dickinson asks the reader: what haunts you? She posits that we are all haunted by our pasts, our thoughts, and people, but the common theme throughout is of being haunted by the unwanted. Looking back (and being held by it) seems to be an easy enough pattern to fall into, and through the poem she utilises gothic imagery to describe the act of hiding from oneself and of running from one’s problems. Does Dickinson offer any solutions to the queries she poses? In theory, the final stanzas of the poem give a conclusion, but I am left unsatisfied. Are we still left with a haunted mind, or are we left behind the locked door (of fear)? ( )

I liked the first one a little bit more than this selection but the series two is still great and catchy. ( )