| In yesterday’s post, I quoted some text from Millicent Todd Bingham’s book Ancestors’ Brocades, The Literary Debut of Emily Dickinson. At one point, she discussed the first four lines from the poem “For each extactic instant” to make a point – “It takes a lifetime of striving, and of failure, to comprehend that” – and afterwards, she turned to her mother’s accounts of early critics of Dickinson’s poetry. “Practically all united in admiration of the confusing thoughts which seemed to arouse their latent response, heretofore unsuspected; although there was also practical unanimity in their regret that she would neglect her rhymes so flagrantly.” |  |
Of course, one noticeable “offense” is evident in the very stanza Bingham had quoted from “For each extatic instant” when Dickinson rhymed “anguish pay” with “extasy.”
A page and a half later, Bingham reported on Lavinia Dickinson’s “fury” over negative reviews of her sister’s poetry and noted that she “dismissed derogatory reviews with pitying disdain.” One such criticism, reported Bingham, entitled “Grim Slumber Songs,” appeared in an early 1891 issue of the Commercial Advertiser:
“Extreme hunger often causes strange visions. That this hermitess never satisfied, perhaps never could satisfy, her craving for human companionship, may have first brought her into her strangely visionary state. Upon the theme of human love she becomes absurdly, if not blasphemously, intemperate . . . . Isolated from humanity, she cannot turn the current of her thoughts toward it except in intermittent galvanic shocks.”
I attempted to find an online copy of this review as printed in its original source, but so far, no success. However, I did find the entire article reprinted in Emily Dickinson’s Reception in the 1890s, A Documentary History, edited by Willis J. Buckingham.
A page and a half later, Bingham reported on Lavinia Dickinson’s “fury” over negative reviews of her sister’s poetry and noted that she “dismissed derogatory reviews with pitying disdain.” One such criticism, reported Bingham, entitled “Grim Slumber Songs,” appeared in an early 1891 issue of the Commercial Advertiser:
“Extreme hunger often causes strange visions. That this hermitess never satisfied, perhaps never could satisfy, her craving for human companionship, may have first brought her into her strangely visionary state. Upon the theme of human love she becomes absurdly, if not blasphemously, intemperate . . . . Isolated from humanity, she cannot turn the current of her thoughts toward it except in intermittent galvanic shocks.”
I attempted to find an online copy of this review as printed in its original source, but so far, no success. However, I did find the entire article reprinted in Emily Dickinson’s Reception in the 1890s, A Documentary History, edited by Willis J. Buckingham.
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Lo and behold, Buckingham introduced the review with this:
“The anonymity of this notice is regrettable, for it is keenly observant. The reviewer particularly notes, with a pleasure rare for the decade, Dickinson’s ferocity, extravagance, and playfulness."
I was a bit confused. Based on the comments between Bingham and Buckingham, I wondered if the review were scathing or praising. The unnamed reviewer does seem excited by Dickinson’s daring unconventionality, her passion, and her “love of weirdness.” He appreciated her nature poetry – “With nature she is more at ease…Like an unmated child she is driven to her garden for her friends” – and noted that her “best” poetry was when she wrote of the “quiet nonchalance, the grim interest, the impartial dignity which death bestows”:
“Her best poetry throughout deals with the weirdly fleshless. Of this disembodiment of spirit she spoke from every point of view, bitterly, grimly, quaintly, exultantly, metaphysically.”
There are some awfully weird back-handed compliments strewn throughout the commentary, though, including those quoted earlier by Bingham. Plus, the author's use of “authoress” and “hermitess” seem just right for such an off-beat, bygone encomium. The entire review is below. Take a look and let me know what you think!
“The anonymity of this notice is regrettable, for it is keenly observant. The reviewer particularly notes, with a pleasure rare for the decade, Dickinson’s ferocity, extravagance, and playfulness."
I was a bit confused. Based on the comments between Bingham and Buckingham, I wondered if the review were scathing or praising. The unnamed reviewer does seem excited by Dickinson’s daring unconventionality, her passion, and her “love of weirdness.” He appreciated her nature poetry – “With nature she is more at ease…Like an unmated child she is driven to her garden for her friends” – and noted that her “best” poetry was when she wrote of the “quiet nonchalance, the grim interest, the impartial dignity which death bestows”:
“Her best poetry throughout deals with the weirdly fleshless. Of this disembodiment of spirit she spoke from every point of view, bitterly, grimly, quaintly, exultantly, metaphysically.”
There are some awfully weird back-handed compliments strewn throughout the commentary, though, including those quoted earlier by Bingham. Plus, the author's use of “authoress” and “hermitess” seem just right for such an off-beat, bygone encomium. The entire review is below. Take a look and let me know what you think!
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