# Why is Emily Dickinson considered an important poet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 21, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563 "2020-12-21T20:11:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/1 "2020-12-21T20:11:39Z")
OK, I know this is going to stir up controversy. Her pretentious mimsy little pitherings may seem profound to perhaps a 13 year old who has not yet read widely… but really, on a broader scale, do they say anything new? Do they matter? Frankly, give me someone like Sylvia Plath who at least had blood in her veins, not stale ink. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2020, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/2 "2020-12-21T20:21:41Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > Her pretentious mimsy little pitherings may seem profound to perhaps a 13 year old who has not yet read widely… but really, on a broader scale, do they say anything new? Say anything new? She died in 1886. Maybe the reason she is important is that what she was saying a century and half ago was important, not what she brings to you now. Not that I would know. I’m not a poetry fan and have never read even a single verse of her work. However I always find it perplexing when someone reads something famous written long ago and starts complaining that it is nothing special or does nothing for them. Why is that old thing important? Maybe it is famous because it still resonates, but equally maybe it is famous because it was developmentally important. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/3 "2020-12-22T01:42:09Z")
Well, here’s some of what the poet and critic Allen Tate [had to say about Dickinson](https://www.unz.com/print/Outlook-1928aug15-00621) nearly a century ago: > [@](#): > > […] Her poetry is bold in utterance, and it is bold in technique […] Her metaphors are uncannily apt; on the other hand, her search for the precise visual equivalent of some obscure sensation often leads her into forced comparisions. Yet the curious thing about her occasional failures is the infallible immunity to faults of taste. If a few metaphors are wrong, none is false […] > > Her influence on American poetry has been gradual, insidious, and profound. The surface properties of her verse have had two effects. Her use of half, false, and echo rhymes is now in almost universal practice. And her irregular rhythms exceed perhaps in boldness, certainly in success, those of the people directly or indirectly in her influence […] > > The internal structure of her poetry—the quality of her vision—remains inviolable; it cannot be imitated […] > > In the history of the Puritan attitude she comes between Hawthorne and Emerson; she has Hawthorne’s matter and Emerson’s loose form. She is not, as I have said, the poet of a doctrine, and her spirit cannot be isolated in a single poem […] She is like Hardy, like Whitman, in one respect—but in one only; she must be read entire. You can prove nothing about Miss Dickinson by citation of chapter and verse; like Shakespeare, she never gives up her meaning in a single line. […] > > She has Hawthorne’s moral toughness, a hard and definite vision of the current reality […] Now, just because most modern poetry readers and critics agree that Dickinson was a great poet doesn’t mean that you personally have to like her poetry, or that you can’t prefer other poetry, like Plath’s, to hers. But usually, if we as readers can’t see anything at all worth admiring in work that is generally considered great, it’s largely due to our own ignorance or lack of understanding of important aspects of the work. Your comparison of Dickinson and Plath is interesting, and you may like [this article about them](https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/massachusetts/articles/rewriting-religion-emily-dickinson-and-sylvia-plath/). Maybe what you’re missing in Dickinson, as Tamerlane suggests, is awareness of the culture and form she was working within. > [@](#): > > As Lindsay Parnell attests, few other poetic voices in female poetry have encapsulated the search for identity, articulated a language of the body and elaborated a voice outside of patriarchy in the way in which these two Massachusetts natives did. […] > > Their works display an urgency and a tangible passion that is not to be denied. Despite living in different eras they shared a mutual rejection of the institution of formal religion, specifically those ideas of Christian theology, doctrine and practice. […] > > Dick[in]son’s infamously dash filled lines structure a lyrical cadence derivative of traditional Christian hymns. Her free use of psalm inspired meter often accompanied by sporadic punctuation and eclectic rhyme scheme, also deliver echoes of religious song and worship. Her clever manipulation of the hymn form to deliver content that expresses rejection of the church was something of a milestone in American poetry, although it was not recognized as such at the time. Dickinson’s work undoubtedly prized open the limits of expression for the female poets who would follow her lead, including Sylvia Plath. Plath, however would not revisit the structure of religious hymns, but would interrogate theological doctrine and iconography in her work whilst pursuing an articulation of female identity. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/4 "2020-12-22T16:02:56Z")
Normally I’d agree, why bother? Though there are some 19th century poets I can read fairly comfortably, making allowances for the style of the times. But Dickinson’s stuff is just the scrape of fingernails on a blackboard to me… basically like dismal Hallmark card verses. Tiptoeing through The house I must - Take care lest I - Disturb the dust. Oh well, chacun a son gout, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Elliot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jane_elliot/32/6166_2.png) [@Jane\_Elliot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Elliot)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/5 "2020-12-22T16:42:22Z")
Do you think that poem is about housekeeping? Are you taking it literally? Dickenson is obviously using household mundanity as a metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/6 "2020-12-22T17:10:03Z")
I don’t think that is an actual Dickinson poem – I’m pretty sure the OP is trying their hand at parody. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Elliot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jane_elliot/32/6166_2.png) [@Jane\_Elliot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Elliot)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/7 "2020-12-22T18:14:20Z")
Oh, I didn’t realize that. I don’t have her works memorized. I just thought he picked out something obscure, rather than throwing out something fake. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2020, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/8 "2020-12-22T22:38:50Z")
She did say hope is the thing with feathers, though Woody Allen claimed that was his nephew. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/9 "2020-12-23T23:19:05Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > But Dickinson’s stuff is just the scrape of fingernails on a blackboard to me… basically like dismal Hallmark card verses. Eh, that’s okay, we’ve all got some form of “tone deafness” about some writer or other who’s generally considered great but whom we just don’t “get” or appreciate at all. It doesn’t necessarily imply any massive failing on the part of either them or us. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2020, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/10 "2020-12-23T23:35:26Z")
Gimme Basho any day… _"The old pond_ _A frog leaps in._ _Sound of the water."_ Or alternately, _a danish with no hole is a donut!_ ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/11 "2020-12-24T01:17:34Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Eh, that’s okay, we’ve all got some form of “tone deafness” about some writer or other who’s generally considered great but whom we just don’t “get” or appreciate at all. It doesn’t necessarily imply any massive failing on the part of either them or us. Just as an example I will reiterate my great loathing of Thomas Hardy and my hope that he sleeps fitfully in his grave 😄. I’m more than willing to accept that as an indictment of my artistic taste and no doubt low character 😉 . ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/12 "2020-12-24T03:59:47Z")
These are two separate judgments: - Evaluating the work of an artist as great, important, etc. - Deciding whether I LIKE the artist’s work. Consider them separately. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2020, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-emily-dickinson-considered-an-important-poet/928563/13 "2020-12-24T04:13:05Z")
I used to read her after a bad break-up.