The Big Read 2013-14 Blog extends the conversation for the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Big Read, focusing on the poetry of Emily Dickinson. We hope you will enjoy learning about how Dickinson’s poetry came alive for readers in classrooms and communities throughout Western New York. Many of the authors of this blog are SUNY Fredonia English majors who have engaged Dickinson’s life, works and historical contexts through library exhibits and literary discussions throughout the region. We invite you to join the conversation by writing about Dickinson’s poetry and the many Big Read events planned for spring 2014.

The Big Read is sponsored by the Daniel A. Reed Library, with the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Crimes, Death and Feathers, Oh My!

To some, poetry is a thing of the past. It’s true that lately, poetry is seemingly dissolving away at an alarming rate, and even general fiction readership is at an all-time low. Emily Dickinson, however is still widely known and read by all demographics, and it’s important that we not only enjoy Dickinson’s works, but to spread her works. Nowadays, you are able to catch a bit of Emily Dickinson’s poetry in popular films, which is a modern way of keeping her poetry alive and giving her immortality. My favorite example of this is in Woody Allen’s “Crime and Misdemeanors” which you can view at the 1:17 mark:



Woody Allen is known for referring often to Emily Dickinson, as you can see from one of his famous quotes from his collection Without Feathers: “How wrong Emily Dickinson was! Hope is not ‘the thing with feathers.’ The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich.” So it can be no coincidence that Allen used Dickinson specifically instead of another poet, especially when Dickinson is not known for being taught in schools without some controversy. It’s interesting that they used “Because I could not stop for Death” in this film, not only because it’s one of Dickinson’s most recognizable poems, but because of the meaning behind the poem.

Because I could not stop for Death
By Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

Allen and Dickinson share some similarities in their works, seemingly because of the way Allen has been influenced by Dickinson. The use of this particular poem in the film is because of the theme of immortality. Like Dickinson, death is prevalent in much of Allen’s works. In the film, Allen’s character interjects, “he kindly stops, the word kindly, right?” What Allen is subtly hinting at here is Dickinson’s colloquialism when referring to Death. Death is portrayed as a sort of gentle figure that adheres to manners before duty in this poem, which Allen finds ironic. It is this sort of writing that makes Dickinson such an irreplaceable part of literary history.

Film obviously was not part of Dickinson’s life, but instead, Dickinson kept a great deal of correspondence with friends through her letters. In “Because I could not stop for Death” another motif is that of exclusion. Dickinson is leaving with Death in the poem and viewing life from the view-point of the dead, and this could be a symbol of the sort of exclusion that she felt during her life that she spent a great deal of isolation in.

Distribution of information these days are a bit different from Dickinson’s time where communication was executed through letters. Our generation was raised on television and film, and it is likely that many people learn about poets like Dickinson firstly through film. Crimes and Misdemeanors came out the year that I was born, and it’s most likely that when I first saw the film at the tender age of five, I didn’t give Dickinson a second thought (probably because I lacked the proper cognitive skills to do so). Regardless, film is not detrimental to literature or poetry because of the way they bring light to wonderful poets like Emily Dickinson.  

Sources Cited
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZpXxBJRbXM
http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/ed/files/poetry/EDtoMrsWard_AC837.jpg

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