Visiting Emily: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Emily Dickinson [Hardcover]

Sheila Coghill (Editor), Thom Tammaro (Editor), Robert W. Bly (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

This unique anthology gathers work by eighty poets inspired by Emily Dickinson. Beginning with Hart Crane's 1927 poem “To Emily Dickinson” and moving forward through the century to such luminary figures as Archibald MacLeish, John Berryman, Yvor Winters, Adrienne Rich, Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Amy Clampitt, William Stafford, and Galway Kinnell, Visiting Emily offers both a celebration of and an homage to one of the world's great poets.

If there was ever any doubt about Dickinson's influence on modern and contemporary poets, this remarkable collection surely puts it to rest. Gathered here are poems reflecting a wide range of voices, styles, and forms—poems written in traditional and experimental forms; poems whose tones are meditative, reflective, reverent and irreverent, satirical, whimsical, improvisational, and serious. Many of the poets draw from Dickinson's biography, while others imagine events from her life. Some poets borrow lines from Dickinson's poems or letters as triggers for their inspiration. Though most of the poems connect directly to Dickinson's life or work, for others the connection is more oblique.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'miss Emily's Maggie' Remembers by Jean Balderston
The Mystery Of Emily Dickinson by Marvin Hartley Bell
Your Birthday In Wisconsin You Are 140 by John Berryman
Visiting Emily Dickinson's Grave With Robert Francis by Robert Bly
For Emily Dickinson by Marianne Boruch
Queen Recluse by Lucie Brock-broido
Emily Dickinson Attends A Writing Workshop by Jayne Relaford Brown
Emily Dickinson's To-do List: Sum-sum-summertime by Andrea Carlisle
Give Me Shoots, You Said by Siv Cedering
Amherst: May 15, 1987 by Amy Clampitt
Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes by Billy Collins
Dickinson by Martha Collins
To Emily Dickinson by Harold Hart Crane
Amherst With Fries by Philip Dacey
Emily Dickinson And Gerard Manley Hopkins by Madeline Defrees
Sitting With Myself In The Seton Hall Deli At 12 O'clock Thursday by Toi Derricotte
Emily Dickinson by Richard Ghormley Eberhart
Homage To Dickinson by Lynn Emanuel
Vermont Summer by Dave Etter
A Letter For Emily Dickinson by Annie Finch
Emily Dickinson In Boston, 1864-65 by Richard Foerster
Two Ghosts by Robert Francis
Of Women Who Wear White by Alice R. Friman
My Last Tv Campaign: Wonder Bread by Alice Fulton
Emily's Bread by Sandra M. Gilbert
Emily Dickinson's Room, Main Street, Amherst by Barry Nathan Goldensohn
'who Goes To Dine Must Take His Feast' by David Graham
Teaching Emily Dickinson by Rachel Hadas
The Impossible Marriage by Donald Hall
Spelunking by Lola Haskins
Letter To Miss Dickinson by William Heyen
The Unnaming by Edward Hirsch
The Emily Dickinson by Patricia Y. Ikeda
Amherst: One Day, Five Poets: 2 by Shirley Kaufman
Emily Dickinson Leaves A Message To The World, Now That Her Homestead by X. J. Kennedy
The Deconstruction Of Emily Dickinson by Galway Kinnell
Still Life With Riddle by Thomas (tom) Wayne Koontz
After The Poetry Reading; For Marie Howe by Maxine W. Kumin
Emily Dickinson's Sestina For Molly Bloom by Barbara F. Lefcowitz
When I Read A Review Of The John Travolta Film, Michael by Lyn Diane Lifshin
Emily Dickinson by Michael Longley
In And Come In by Archibald Macleish
In The Flesh by Lee Mccarthy
The Most Emily Of All by Medbh Mcguckian
The Path Between Houses by Jay Meek
Emily Dickinson In Hell by Peter Meinke
A Love Poem For Emily Dickinson by Bruce Meyer
Emily's Words by Leslie Monsour
Hd/ed by Aife Murray
Emily Dickinson's Defunct by Marilyn Nelson
Emily by Peter Nicholson
Emily In Choir by Kathleen Norris
'half-cracked Poetess' by Joyce Carol Oates
Emily Dickinson's Writing Table In Her Bedroom At The Homestead by Sharon Olds
Frowning At Emily by Alicia Suskin Ostriker
For Emily (dickinson) by Maureen Owen
Most Sensual Of Recluses by Ron Padgett
Emily Dickinson by Linda Pastan
Because I Could Not Dump by Andrea Paterson
Desire by Molly Peacock
Feathered Friends by Robert Peters
Emily Dickinson's Ankle by John Reinhard
Emily Dickinson's Mirror, Amherst by Donald Revell
'i Am In Danger - Sir -' by Adrienne Cecile Rich
The Houses Of Emily Dickinson by Larry Rubin
The Upper Story by Mary Jo Salter
Emily Dickinson by Gary Smith
Emily Dickinson Reading Walt Whitman by Bernard Levi St. Armand
Emily by William Edgar Stafford
Lithograph Of Amherst by Lynn Strongin
Lost And Found by Mark Vinz
Between The Lines by Theodore Russell Weiss
Altitudes by Richard Wilbur
To Dickinson by Diane Williams
To Emily Dickinson by Yvor Winters
Emily Dickinson At Coleville by Harold Witt
Visiting Emily Dickinson by Charles Penzel, Jr. Wright
Emily Dickinson, Bismarck And The Roadrunner's Inquiry by Ray A. Young Bear
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

Sheila Coghill is currently working on a book-length study of Emily Dickinson and alchemy.

Thom Tammaro is author of two collections of poems, Minnesota Suite and When the Italians Came to My Home Town. He has coedited two award-winning anthologies, most recently Imagining Home: Writing from the Midwest. Both editors teach at Minnesota State University, Moorhead. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: University of Iowa Press (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877457344
• ISBN-13: 978-0877457343
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 5.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,930,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, February 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Visiting Emily: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Emily Dickinson (Paperback)

The collection is inspired and intriguing. The range of emotions created in readers by the poetry of Emily Dickinson is demonstrated through the variety of thematic works presented. From the humorous (Emily Dickinson Attends a Writing Workshop, and Emily Dickinson's To-Do List) to the introspective (The Deconstruction of Emily Dickinson), to the wishful (Emily Dickinson, Bismarck and the Roadrunner's Inquiry)--each gem is carefully chosen by the authors. If the reader is not familiar with Dickinson's work, this book will inspire a thorough reading of her poems. For those who know her work, the recognition of the power of her work will bring knowing smiles and memories. A note to the previous reviewer: the Billy Collins' poem, Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes, is included in the collection (p. 13-14).

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emily's Visitors, December 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Visiting Emily: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Emily Dickinson (Paperback)

An interesting thematic collection that sometimes is a homage to Emily and at other times (As in X.J. Kennedy's poem) gently pokes at the Emily cult. It seems that almost all poets pass through her writing at some point and at least take a sip if not a full glass. They really should have included Billy Collins' poem "Undressing Emily" which is funny, sad and, I think, lovingly done.