By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘She sights a Bird – she chuckles’: so begins an underappreciated little poem by Emily Dickinson (1830-86), and – for our money – one of the most evocative poems ever penned about a cat. The way Dickinson describes the predatory stalking and waiting of the feline subject is delicious. Here we’re going to stop and analyse how Dickinson uses language and imagery to evoke a cat’s movement and poise when on the hunt for prey.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘I died for Beauty – but was scarce’ – poem number 449 in Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Tell all the Truth but tell it slant’ is poem number 1129 in Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’ is poem number 280 in Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems. This intriguing poem presents a number of enigmas for the reader, like many of Emily Dickinson’s poems. In this post it is our intention to offer a short summary and analysis of ‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’ and to try to clear away some of the obscurities and ambiguities.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.’ This statement has become almost proverbial, and the sentiment is centuries old, but it was Emily Dickinson (1830-86) who gave the thought this particular wording. ‘That it will never come again’ is poem 1741 in Emily Dickinson’s wonderful (and very thick!) volume of Complete Poems
That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
Believing what we don’t believe
Does not exhilarate.
That if it be, it be at best
An ablative estate —
This instigates an appetite
Precisely opposite.