If Emily Dickinson had a Schutzhund Dog

So I'm an animal person, and definitely a dog person. I currently have one dog (the German shepherd, Jeffrey, that is sitting in my car in my profile picture) that is Schutzhund trained and a puppy (Ajax, a border collie Norwegian elkhound mix) that I am starting on Schutzhund training. For those who aren't familiar with the sport, it consists of training dogs for protection. They aren't really "attack" dogs, but they are trained to protect their handler at all costs. It is based on a very advanced form of obedience training and encouraging a dog's natural drive to protect its pack. Police dogs and security dogs are put through this type of training.

Emily had a big dog. Newfoundlands are water dogs, but they look very similar to the bouvier de flandres, a French police dog that is very popular in Schutzhund. Now my question, is what would Ms. Dickinson do with a Schutzhund dog? What if her dog looked anything like the dog in the above picture?

I don't think Emily had a very timid personality at all. She wasn't afraid to challenge the norm and liked to surprise people with the unexpected. She didn't really seem to care about what people thought about her. Given this type of personality, giving her a Schutzhund dog might have been like giving her a loaded gun. People who were apprehensive about meeting her before might not even want to tread near her doorstep. Then again, it may have changed her perspective on everything and greatly influenced her poetry. As someone who chose to be isolated for whatever her reasons might have been, a dog like this might have changed her perspective on people. With that kind of dog, you don't really have to be afraid of much. You feel more empowered, and that may have influenced the tone of her poetry greatly.

Anyways, it was something that I've been thinking about for awhile. I honestly think it would be very funny to see Emily with a big bouvier or German shepherd by her side kicking some butt. Given how angry she got with people who did not respond to her letters, those people might have had more to worry about than an angry letter back. They might find a big black dog on their doorstep ready to inflict some justice.... :-P

Creative Work

So for my creative work...I went a little off the deep end.

Well not really.

I decided to make my own fascicle, which in hindsight probably wasn't as an original idea as it initially seemed. I "aged" some paper, folded it, wrote on it, and bound it in the way Emily Dickinson would have done. Oh, and I also added a nice finishing touch with my "PERFECT" cursive. It's fun to decipher (even for me)...just like Dickinson's.

As such, I have written here, in a "published" form, the poems contained in my fascicle. Each poem is influenced by a theme in Dickinson's poetry, so unlike her fascicles there is no overarching theme present and there is no defined order to the poems. Poems are complete with variations, alterations, and "mistakes" to reflect the fluidity of writing that Dickinson believed in. The poems also contain varying Capitalizations and dashes -

Enjoy!

-----
And so the darkness comes -
A realization Setting in -
Fear is in the Design
While the pattern is Unknown.

Light Fading - *dizzy blind -
Sinking farther Downward to
Only another Knows -
Relinquichs all Thought to Graves

*Confusion

-----
I Turn my Eyes to the Sun -
Diminishing Shapes - surround -
The new World I see to come -
*All Essence Remains -

*Only Spirit remains henceforth

-----
Stars align A velvet Night -
The skin is Cold - a smile appears -
Put to Rest - Lives final thoughts
Of new Bedfellows for Eternity.
The Eyes no longer See -
Feeling is Lost - stiffened movement -
But shape reminiscent
Of what was once so glorious in Life.

------
Furious Butterflies swim in my Brain -
Although no route to they pursue -
I fall through Dreams -
And I see the Flower wilt.
No longer pure, but strangely changed.
As life is reopened
A new World to view -
More for me and less for you -
But still I see withing your
Soul a Virtue I cannot be
Betrothed to.

-----
Appealing to the Country Girl -
To save her from Herself -
A life* of sewing a barren field -
The White Sacrament a Saving -
Grace - all lost to a new master.

Enthralling to the City Dweller,
A womb to occupy with an heir -
Beauty to own and to serve Every Need of His -
Of no Sincerity - Passion absent.

The two together hold their hopes -
Neither realize the piece of union -
Where dreams are selfish -
One thrives while the other Dies.*

*fate
*Slowly they make their coffins - The Grave welcoming the Bride.

-----
A companion Lies beside my side -
Protector and Confident all in one -
To Him I tell my secrets
Thought Understanding escapes him.
A Kiss when I am Wronged,
A nudge whilst I am Fearful -
He walks by my side
And finds my way ahead of
Me.


-----------------------------

Ms. I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T

Been having some difficulty getting my posts to show up. Any techies out there, if you have advice please offer it forward! :-)

Let's see if this one works...


One of the best elements about Emily Dickinson and her works that I have grown to appreciate is her break from the norm. Yes, she is a product of her society in many ways, but her poetry does challenge what is accepted, especially in its form.

Most first readers of Dickinson begin by asking, "Why the hell are all of these dashes here? And what's up with the strange capitalization?"

Having now been exposed to more of the original manuscripts, I would suggest to future readers of Dickinson to return to the original, because it is always better. Though difficult to decipher, the original manuscripts really show just what our dear friend Emily intended. So much gets watered down and lost in the translation of publishing, which Dickinson herself labeled as practically a crime against the art of poetry. Beyond all of this, there is something very intriguing about looking at truly, original manuscripts. You are looking a legitimate piece of history, unaltered, unedited. It's beautiful in a way, and at least for me, I feel that it has brought me a lot closer to the poetess. (I have also gathered a kind of sympathy for her publishers, since time and time again I find myself wondering what word is what.)

To get back to the point at hand, it would seem that from the very beginning Dickinson had clear intention in her writing style. It is unique for a reason. The dashes and the capitalization certainly have held through the years and years of works read and published since even the most unseasoned poetry reader can distinguish a Dickinson poem from other authors.

I would like to argue that Dickinson's poetry reflects nothing more than her desire to be separated from the norm. I don't think she was out to prove anything, other than that the world should accept her for who she was. She didn't marry for a reason, she didn't strive to be published for a reason, she chose to stay at home and away from the socialites for a reason. She didn't really care what people thought of her or her ideas, or her poetry for that matter. In this since, she embodied her art and her beliefs in the purest of forms. She didn't really lie to her audience, but lived as she claimed in her poetry in this way.

As a side note, I found this pretty cool site. This artist has done some amazing thing with the original manuscripts from Dickinson. Check it out:

http://www.jenbervin.com/html/dickinson.html

Emily Flying Solo

I remember when I was first reading Dickinson, and reading ABOUT her, the fact that she never married was always something that stuck out. It's really not anything rare for a woman to choose that lifestyle (although one is ostracized slightly, especially in Dickinson's time period). The thing that I never really fully grasped was how Dickinson could talk about love, heartbreak, and even marriage in some ways without ever fully experiencing it. And seriously, what was all of this "wife" imagery nonsense about in her poems? To me, it kind of seemed like she was just talking, for the sake of talking. But then again ... maybe there was a reason why she never married. Maybe there is a reason why she portrays the "bride" in such a way and why she is able to talk about love, heartbreak, and the nature of the two with such painful intensity at times. For instance:

"You left me - Sire - two Legacies -
A Legacy of Love
A Heavenly Father would suffice
Had He the offer of -

You left me Boundaries of Pain -
Capacious as the Sea -
Between Eternity and Time -
You Consciousness - and me-"

Obviously, our dear friend Emily felt something...two write about heartbreak and capture it as she does, you must feel it. Then again, who has heard of an author or poet who is completely sane, without any kind of tweaks or strange behavior, without any freaky past experiences that have shaped or influenced their work in some way? I would venture to say that their work would be quite boring if that was the truth. Emily obviously had been through a lot, as was shown through poems such as this that speak a painful truth that nearly everyone who has had their heart broken can relate to. By writing about it, I believe Emily was working through her emotions and attempting to sort them out in a way that would help them make sense to her.

This same idea applies to marriage, even though she never personally experienced it. For example:

"I gave Myself to Him-
And took Himself, for Pay -
The solemn contract of a Live
Was ratified, this way -

The Wealth might disappoint -
Myself a poorer prove
Than this great Puchaser suspec,
The Daily Own - of Love

Depreciate the Vision -
But till the Merchant buy -
Still Fable - In the Isles of spice -
The subtle Cargoes - lie -

At least - 'tis Mutual - Risk -
Some - found it - Mutual Gain -
Sweet Debt of Life - Each Night to owe -
Insolvent - every Noon - "

One of the most frightening aspects about marriage, especially in Emily's society (although it is true in today's society as well in some regards) is the idea that once married, women relinquish their individuality, freedom, and identity to their husband. It begins as love and lust, but ends in the grasp of the societal norms that dictate how each party should act in a marriage. Emily is obviously a very independent person (I will talk more about this in my next post) as is shown through her work. Her poems on the "wife" and marriage may be speculative in some regard, but what is communicated is the fear of what marriage means in life, how that does or does not transfer over into death, and the painful reality of the kind of slavery that settles in once the passion wears off.

The important lesson to learn from all of this is not necessarily to judge just on experience, but to judge on how that experience (whatever it may be, even if it is a lack of experience itself) impacts you through the writing. Ms. Dickinson's fears of marriage and poems on the nature of marriage itself (as strange as some might be) should not be discounted just because she was never married. They do have something to say about Emily's nature and about what she believed was true about the union between a man and woman. More importantly, her words show her thoughts and her struggle to work through the problems to reach understanding, something we all can relate to when it comes to a big, life-altering step such as marriage.


If only Emily's world was like this:



What kind of poetry would we have from her then?

Strange things...

So today I decided to try a little bit of an experiment to see how other people interpret Dickinson, and I found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwVZtT9uDNM

It is, to say the very least, a creative...unique....silly interpretation of Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for death." The question I must ask is how this helps one to understand the poem? Yes, it incorporates visual aspects of the poem, and (I would only suppose) places the work in a little more of a contemporary mindset.

What I found particularly interesting about this video was how it portrayed Emily Dickinson herself. In the beginning, she is the typical dark, bothered, surly, recluse character dressed in white and sunk in a depression that separates her from the rest of the world. But, through the quirky approach they take towards the work, Emily becomes a little bit more human. Does this make the poem easier to understand at all, or is it just a creative...and, I must say again very silly in my opinion, approach to poetic interpretation.


Then, there was this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjlqWWkQ79Q

This is a much more artistic interpretation of the work. The lack of any spoken poetry will certainly make the work slightly confusing to those who are not familiar with the poem, and it would probably be a little more advantageous to watch the work as you read along with the poem. Still, all that being said, I felt that it was a really unique interpretation of the poem, obviously incorporating all of the visual elements of the work, but in a much more abstract way.

Anyways, I felt this was an interesting approach to attempting to understand a work. Creating both of these videos would require the filmmaker to have an understanding of the poem itself, but clearly the videos in of themselves are made with the intention of helping others to understand them. I think their goal was accomplished in some ways, and not in others.

First Post

This is my first post here, so a proper hello is in store. So, HELLO ALL!

I have not had a weblog since I was in middle school, but I felt compelled to try something new. I am currently enrolled at James Madison University and I am taking a course on Emily Dickinson. The course has opened my eyes to her as a poetess, writer, and person in general. I feel that I have a lot to say about her, and I feel like I might be able to shed some light on her for those who came from the same relationship I first formed with her.

My first impressions of her were not very satisfactory, I must admit. Like so many other authors (Hemingway is a fine example) I did not understand the hype associated with her. I could not understand her work: the dashes, capitalizations, odd and often morbid subject material. She was frustrating for me. Unlike other poetry, I could not dissect her works. I could not see the deeper meaning, understand the metaphors, or really even understand the point to a certain extent. She was just "there" for me, if that makes any sense. She was an writer whom I was supposed to adore as someone who has a concentration and passion for literature and writing in general. But she was nothing more than that though, someone who I was supposed to like.

Throughout high school and some of college, I had heard the typical stories about her. She was a shut in, unmarried, childless, lonely, atheist, wrote about nature and dead, etc, etc, etc. I just accepted that, read the poems, and was done with it.

Now I have a greater opportunity to understand and appreciate her complexity. Having an opportunity to be completely emersed in her work and nothing else, in addition to learning more about her life and seeing what I can and what has been able to be identified in her psychology, I have begun to realize the connection Dickinson has formed with people. I can see how even those who do not enjoy poetry or literature often flock to her. I can see the appeal now, and I am beginning to nurture a true appreciation for her not as an icon of literature, but more as a human being who tried as hard as she could to put down in words the emotions and thoughts in her mind. Sometimes she failed, but other times she captured something that I only wish I could describe in writing as she has.

In this blog, my plan is to look further into Dickinson. I want to pick two to three poems a week to look at and discuss my thoughts on them, while also discussing parts of her life and biography. I want to try to piece together the fragments of thought that are contained in her work, and what they say not just about her state of mind but also how she manages to capture the state of mind in so many other individuals overall.

I am in no way an authority on her, but she has moved me enough to want to write about her and keep her as a focus in this blog. I want you to be able to come to see what I have seen. Hopefully somewhere out there in internet world I can find another individual like myself, once lost in Dickinson and to Dickinson, and shed a little winking light of understanding on her.

I am happy to be here blogging, and I am happy to meet all of you!