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Dickinson: Poems (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)

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Just as a prism breaks up light into a band of colors - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet - and their infinite gradations, so do Emily Dickinson's poems become, as it were, a prism which captures the white light of reality, a reality which as it flows through the prism of her poem explodes into a multiplicity of meanings.

It is the rich suggestiveness of her poems, a suggestiveness which generates an incredible range of meanings, that prevents us from ever being able to say (to continue the metaphor) that a given poem is 'about red' or 'about blue,' because her poems, as US critic Robert Weisbuch has observed, are in fact about everything. This is what makes her so unique, and this is why she appeals to every kind of reader, and even to children.

The present book, which has been edited by Brenda Hillman, gives us accurate texts of the poems in a 150-page selection taken from the authoritative variorum edition of Thomas H. Johnson, the well-known Dickinson scholar who worked many years to establish the correct texts.

The book is beautifully printed in two-colors on excellent paper, and in a tiny format which is perfect for the pocket. It would in fact make a very nice gift. You'd be making a gift of poetry which is one of the wonders of the world.

This could be one of the best editions ever to be found for Dickinson's verse, if the editors had not choosed to arrange the poems thematically, rather than chronologically, as the "Complete poems" editors did. The book is divided into three sections, each one of them related to a specific topic: the poet's art, the works of love, death and resurrection. But the numeration is different from other editions, which makes it difficult to use in class, or to discuss in a scholar environment. However, as a home book it is perfect.
Some really important poems are not included, such as "Wild nights" or "there's a certain slant of light", although the selection is quite good in general.

Admittedly, I am taking a rather narrow view of America's greatest poet here. But the nub of the matter is this: poets, who have been revered historically (since Biblical times) by Kings, Queens, and the people were truly 'the celebrities' of their day. Frankly, I'd rather be in the company with the master poets than our current celebs but that's just a personal preference. The death issue is what makes most poets scale heights few can only imagine. For the poet's essential goal in any age is to trancend the world. That leads them to a vista where wisdom, courage, truth, and justice reside. Emily Dickinson's poetry as presented in this book (& the many pricelss others Amazon.com has for sale) - does just that. So be it.

Emily Dickinson is one of the most strange and original poets of all. So many of her weird poems are about death (but I guess what poet doesn't write about death right?). So it was her themes and subject-matter as well as her poetic style and syntax that were very odd at times, especially for the Victorian age which had such strict set rules for poetry composition and whose poetry focused on "nice" themes. My favorite is "The Chariot", which happens to be one of her more conventional pieces. It begins: "Because I could not stop for Death, / he kindly stopped for me; / The carriage held but just ourselves / And Immortality." Wonderful. And certain poems are delightful, like the use of metaphor in her romantic poem "Wild Nights" or the simplicity of "I'm nobody, who are you?" Most of the poems however have no title, they're known by their first line.

This is a fine selection of the poems of Emily Dickinson.
Dickinson is a great and distinctive poet of the kind who wrote concise, memorable , nay unforgettable lines and stanzas.
Here are a few of her great beginnings.

"Success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed,
To Comprehend a Nectar requires Sorest Need."

"Exultation is the going of an Inland Soul to Sea,
Past the Headlands, Past the Houses into Deep Eternity."

"Are you Nobody? I am Nobody too.
Then there's two of us, you know. "

" I love to see it lap the hills
and likc the valleys up ...

" Parting is all we know of Heaven,
and all we need of Hell. "

To read Emily Dickinson is to know what True Poetry is. In its , metaphorical density, brilliance of perception and intensity of feeling.
After this one, get the Complete Poems and try to sense it all.