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I Told My Soul to Sing: Finding God With Emily Dickinson
Book annotation not available for this I Told My Soul to Lemay, Paraclete PrPublication 2012/10/01Number of 291Binding PAPERBACKLibrary of 2012024523
304 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 30, 2014
This book came as such a pleasant surprise! It's marketed as a memoir, so I was expecting to hear more of the author's life story. I was pleased that though she mentioned parallels between her spiritual journey and Emily's (alleged) spiritual journey, she kept most of the book about Emily.
Because we know so little of Emily's life, other than the writings she left, the book is really, for all intents and purposes, all conjecture. But the author poses a theory with substantial enough (sounding) backup that I might contest bits and pieces but not the whole. It's plausible that you can trace Emily's spiritual journey through her writings. I keep thinking about how it speaks to the larger idea that we cannot completely know where a person is (or was) on their spiritual journey unless they tell us outright. But I never dreamed Emily left so many clues as to hers.
All in all, I loved this book. I loved how the author unpacked, for a non-English-major, Emily's work in a way that I understood. The book is didactic. It's separated into distinct chapters, each of which feature one poem, usually, with a distinct spiritual theme. I got a lot out of this book and keep thinking about Emily's spiritual journey and how it aligns with mine.
Through her writing Emily has changed the course of history. It's fascinating to trace her thought patterns and see how both her spiritual heritage and her spiritual journey impacted the generations who still read what she wrote.
Because we know so little of Emily's life, other than the writings she left, the book is really, for all intents and purposes, all conjecture. But the author poses a theory with substantial enough (sounding) backup that I might contest bits and pieces but not the whole. It's plausible that you can trace Emily's spiritual journey through her writings. I keep thinking about how it speaks to the larger idea that we cannot completely know where a person is (or was) on their spiritual journey unless they tell us outright. But I never dreamed Emily left so many clues as to hers.
All in all, I loved this book. I loved how the author unpacked, for a non-English-major, Emily's work in a way that I understood. The book is didactic. It's separated into distinct chapters, each of which feature one poem, usually, with a distinct spiritual theme. I got a lot out of this book and keep thinking about Emily's spiritual journey and how it aligns with mine.
Through her writing Emily has changed the course of history. It's fascinating to trace her thought patterns and see how both her spiritual heritage and her spiritual journey impacted the generations who still read what she wrote.
July 20, 2021
I really liked the overall premise of this book and the author presented some very interesting insights to Dickinson's poems that I had not heard before. I especially liked the author's use of many less or even unfamiliar poems. However, I also think that the author tried too hard to validate her point with repeating the same thing over and over. I also think that the author could have ascribed her own thoughts to the poetry without us really knowing what Dickinson honestly meant-- maybe Dickinson was questioning, maybe she changed her mind, maybe she was saying what she was supposed to say at the time or within the context, or maybe none of the above or all of the above-- we don't know especially with someone as elusive as Dickinson. I think as an English teacher I just need more evidence than conjecture.
June 17, 2021
I really enjoyed this author's process of exploring different questions, considering context then and now, breaking down word choices and giving background, but never making it feel like a text book. My favorite parts of the book were when she paralleled her own faith struggles with Emily D's.
November 13, 2012
Emily Dickinson is a poet warmly appreciated for her wit and insight, remembered both for her prodigious output (mostly published posthumously) and her eccentric manner. She lived to age 55 but never left her yard after her late thirties. When she passed away her sister found nearly eight hundred poems in the bottom drawer of her dresser (as her poems were collected, nearly 1800 were discovered). Her poetry is colloquial--punctuated with dashes,full of slant rhymes, irregular meters and unconventional capitalization. A cursory read of her poetry does not reveal their full meaning. Her poems were meditations on various themes and therefore require a slow meditative reading.
But what are we to make of Emily's spiritual life? Her poems touch on God, on Christ, on death, on immortality, on beauty. She is sometimes claimed as a doubter and skeptic but her poems show her as a an occasional believer who did not so much eschew faith as easy faith and formulaic spirituality. Emily is more complicated than her portrait as a rebel, spinster waif. Her faith is also more complex than it may seem at first brush.
In i told my soul to sing: finding God with Emily Dickinson, Kristin LeMay explores the nature of Emily's search for God. Emily claimed that she 'could not pray,' but LeMay mines twenty-five poems to see what they show us about the spiritual life as they relate to five broad themes: Belief, Prayer, Mortality, Immortality, and Beauty. LeMay is both analytical and intuitive in her reading of Emily and intertwines her exploration of theses poems with pieces of Emily's biography and her own.
In discussing Emily's Belief, LeMay explores Emily's 'conversion' which meant for Emily letting go of her own life. She failed to have a 'conversion experience' but her poems reveal the process by which she continued to wrestle with God and the ways that her poetry were her working out her own salvation. Likewise LeMay delves into the way Emily wrestles with her understanding of Scripture (the Center not the Circumference), the way Doubt is a form of Faith, and the way that belief brings understanding.
As LeMay explores the theme of Prayer, she observes that while Emily claims she cannot pray, her poems are a means of prayer (what Emily eschews is prayer as a scientific experiment). LeMay also reflects on the influence of hymn meter on Emily, the way she addresses the Divine and her understanding of God's presence. When so much prayer is technique and formula designed to force God's hand, Emily's critique is a good one.
Emily is sometimes described as overly morbid and obsessed with death. But Dickinson was surrounded by the death of loved ones and LeMay argues that Emily's poems plumb the depths of human experience. And she does not regard death as a grim finality but holds out the hope of Immortality. However it is her exploration of Beauty where Emily speaks most profoundly about the ineffable.
I appreciate LeMay's exploration of Dickinson and the homage she pays to her poetry. LeMay is a teacher of writing and adept at analyzing these poems(i.e. the way Dickinson uses meter to enhance meaning, and her unique syntax and vocabulary). While LeMay is sometimes intuiting what she feels is the best explanation of Emily's faith, her observations are based in a detailed reading of Emily's poems. She finds a kindred spirit in 'saint Emily Dickinson' as one who has struggled to come to terms with belief, Christian creeds, the experience of faith and the church. That being said, her own story and experience of faith is somewhat different from Dickinson's and she is more forthright in sharing her own journey.
This book is a good introduction to the spirituality of Emily Dickinson and bears a certain similarity to Susan Vanzanten's Mending a Tattered Faith: Devotions with Dickinson (Cascade Books, 2011). Dickinson was not an orthodox Christian and it is unclear how much of the creeds she could affirm. However, what Dickinson models is the honest struggle with faith and doubt. She doesn't resort to pious formulas but asks hard question and irreverently balks at tradition which she cannot square with her own experience. But she isn't so much a mocking skeptic as an honest seeker. I would commend this book to those who are interested in exploring Dickinson's faith or to her fellow strugglers. May we wrestle with God and not let go.
Thank you to Paraclete Press for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for this review. Below is a link to a book trailer for this book, which has a reading from a chapter called "Grasped By God" in the Beauty section of this book.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...]
But what are we to make of Emily's spiritual life? Her poems touch on God, on Christ, on death, on immortality, on beauty. She is sometimes claimed as a doubter and skeptic but her poems show her as a an occasional believer who did not so much eschew faith as easy faith and formulaic spirituality. Emily is more complicated than her portrait as a rebel, spinster waif. Her faith is also more complex than it may seem at first brush.
In i told my soul to sing: finding God with Emily Dickinson, Kristin LeMay explores the nature of Emily's search for God. Emily claimed that she 'could not pray,' but LeMay mines twenty-five poems to see what they show us about the spiritual life as they relate to five broad themes: Belief, Prayer, Mortality, Immortality, and Beauty. LeMay is both analytical and intuitive in her reading of Emily and intertwines her exploration of theses poems with pieces of Emily's biography and her own.
In discussing Emily's Belief, LeMay explores Emily's 'conversion' which meant for Emily letting go of her own life. She failed to have a 'conversion experience' but her poems reveal the process by which she continued to wrestle with God and the ways that her poetry were her working out her own salvation. Likewise LeMay delves into the way Emily wrestles with her understanding of Scripture (the Center not the Circumference), the way Doubt is a form of Faith, and the way that belief brings understanding.
As LeMay explores the theme of Prayer, she observes that while Emily claims she cannot pray, her poems are a means of prayer (what Emily eschews is prayer as a scientific experiment). LeMay also reflects on the influence of hymn meter on Emily, the way she addresses the Divine and her understanding of God's presence. When so much prayer is technique and formula designed to force God's hand, Emily's critique is a good one.
Emily is sometimes described as overly morbid and obsessed with death. But Dickinson was surrounded by the death of loved ones and LeMay argues that Emily's poems plumb the depths of human experience. And she does not regard death as a grim finality but holds out the hope of Immortality. However it is her exploration of Beauty where Emily speaks most profoundly about the ineffable.
I appreciate LeMay's exploration of Dickinson and the homage she pays to her poetry. LeMay is a teacher of writing and adept at analyzing these poems(i.e. the way Dickinson uses meter to enhance meaning, and her unique syntax and vocabulary). While LeMay is sometimes intuiting what she feels is the best explanation of Emily's faith, her observations are based in a detailed reading of Emily's poems. She finds a kindred spirit in 'saint Emily Dickinson' as one who has struggled to come to terms with belief, Christian creeds, the experience of faith and the church. That being said, her own story and experience of faith is somewhat different from Dickinson's and she is more forthright in sharing her own journey.
This book is a good introduction to the spirituality of Emily Dickinson and bears a certain similarity to Susan Vanzanten's Mending a Tattered Faith: Devotions with Dickinson (Cascade Books, 2011). Dickinson was not an orthodox Christian and it is unclear how much of the creeds she could affirm. However, what Dickinson models is the honest struggle with faith and doubt. She doesn't resort to pious formulas but asks hard question and irreverently balks at tradition which she cannot square with her own experience. But she isn't so much a mocking skeptic as an honest seeker. I would commend this book to those who are interested in exploring Dickinson's faith or to her fellow strugglers. May we wrestle with God and not let go.
Thank you to Paraclete Press for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for this review. Below is a link to a book trailer for this book, which has a reading from a chapter called "Grasped By God" in the Beauty section of this book.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...]
October 27, 2014
I read this book over the course of my East Coast vacation a couple weeks ago because visiting the Emily Dickinson museum midway through the trip was to be the pinnacle of the journey, and the reason I decided on the East Coast as our vacation destination this year.
This was a good book to read in conjunction with the visit, as it kept me immersed in Emily Dickinson's world. It's part biography, part academic examination of Emily's poetry, and part spiritual memoir. I liked the study of Emily Dickinson's complicated and evolving spirituality -- most of which, it must be said, was conjecture based on Kristin LeMay's own reading of Emily's poetry and letters. Still, she makes a compelling case for Emily's faith life, and one to which I can relate. One thing that I think is clear, amidst the disagreement, is that Emily was not one who believed immediately, easily, or without doubt, and somehow, that makes me trust her as a spiritual guide.
The author mainly lays out her own journey of trusting Emily Dickinson as a spiritual guide, finding kinship with her in areas as diverse as mortality and doubt and the transcendence of beauty. I would have liked this book to be more deeply spiritual memoir; I wanted to know even more about the author's own faith journey. Where the book fell most flat for me was in the academic examination of specific poems, the picking apart of various lines and words to make her case, etc. Although central to uncovering how the author got to her ideas about Emily Dickinson's spiritual life, it just didn't engage me as much as the personal stories about either woman's lives did. Still, it definitely gave me a better understanding of some of the poems in this collection -- most of which are fairly obscure -- than I would have come to on my own.
While this was a good choice for the trip in terms of subject-matter, I could see early on that it may not have been good "travel reading" in general. Although accessible, the subjects dealt with are weighty, and it's not the type of book in which someone can just be "swept away." I think it might be better suited to reading slowly before bed over a month than on airplanes and train stations in a week.
This was a good book to read in conjunction with the visit, as it kept me immersed in Emily Dickinson's world. It's part biography, part academic examination of Emily's poetry, and part spiritual memoir. I liked the study of Emily Dickinson's complicated and evolving spirituality -- most of which, it must be said, was conjecture based on Kristin LeMay's own reading of Emily's poetry and letters. Still, she makes a compelling case for Emily's faith life, and one to which I can relate. One thing that I think is clear, amidst the disagreement, is that Emily was not one who believed immediately, easily, or without doubt, and somehow, that makes me trust her as a spiritual guide.
The author mainly lays out her own journey of trusting Emily Dickinson as a spiritual guide, finding kinship with her in areas as diverse as mortality and doubt and the transcendence of beauty. I would have liked this book to be more deeply spiritual memoir; I wanted to know even more about the author's own faith journey. Where the book fell most flat for me was in the academic examination of specific poems, the picking apart of various lines and words to make her case, etc. Although central to uncovering how the author got to her ideas about Emily Dickinson's spiritual life, it just didn't engage me as much as the personal stories about either woman's lives did. Still, it definitely gave me a better understanding of some of the poems in this collection -- most of which are fairly obscure -- than I would have come to on my own.
While this was a good choice for the trip in terms of subject-matter, I could see early on that it may not have been good "travel reading" in general. Although accessible, the subjects dealt with are weighty, and it's not the type of book in which someone can just be "swept away." I think it might be better suited to reading slowly before bed over a month than on airplanes and train stations in a week.
April 24, 2019
Though I'm an atheist this is an interesting book to me nevertheless. LeMay's spiritual journey is just as interesting as Emily's, and it's interesting to see the influences and spiritual speculations that fueled Dickinson's poetry.
The spiritual views Emily had are integral to understanding her poems, and LeMay shows us that her views were anything but conventional---much like Emily's poetry itself. Seeing the growth of the woman as well as her complicated but intimate relationship with God gives one a deeper understanding and appreciation of Emily's poetry. Having went on this literary quest to get to know the woman behind the verses has given me the feeling of understanding her better than ever.
I definitely recommend this biography-theological study for anyone not only interested in Emily and her work, but for anyone looking for an interesting view of spirituality and for anyone who cares about the influences that shape any artist. It's so warm and full of insight that even an atheist like me almost feels the glow of God from reading it.
The spiritual views Emily had are integral to understanding her poems, and LeMay shows us that her views were anything but conventional---much like Emily's poetry itself. Seeing the growth of the woman as well as her complicated but intimate relationship with God gives one a deeper understanding and appreciation of Emily's poetry. Having went on this literary quest to get to know the woman behind the verses has given me the feeling of understanding her better than ever.
I definitely recommend this biography-theological study for anyone not only interested in Emily and her work, but for anyone looking for an interesting view of spirituality and for anyone who cares about the influences that shape any artist. It's so warm and full of insight that even an atheist like me almost feels the glow of God from reading it.
November 20, 2012
First, we must applaud Kristin LeMay for complicating a literary heroine who has been pigeonholed as a waif who couldn't get a date, so she settled for poetry, wasting away in her attic of ennui.
Thank you.
I Told My Soul to Sing intertwines biography and memoir buoyed by in-depth readings of poems, with the concept of faith functioning as a second character. Admittedly, neither faith or Dickinson have been my personal obsessions, but LeMay is like that college professor who takes her subject and brings it alive. She reminds me why I became an English major in the first place. Before all the lit crit wore me down, I loved thinking and talking with smart people about great writers. This book works as a fascinating fireside chat with you, LeMay, and Dickinson, supplied with plenty of warm beverages and treats. You know, those times when the wit and intensity of conversation are so engaging you hate to leave even for an instant because you might miss something.
LeMay suggests that you read the book in multiple sittings, to give each poem, each reflection, time to simmer. I suggest following that advice. Each chapter works as a meditative essay, which takes on a big idea (you know, little things like "Belief" and "Mortality.") The observations and meanders all deserve a good pondering, maybe a little staring off into space and losing of oneself.
Thank you.
I Told My Soul to Sing intertwines biography and memoir buoyed by in-depth readings of poems, with the concept of faith functioning as a second character. Admittedly, neither faith or Dickinson have been my personal obsessions, but LeMay is like that college professor who takes her subject and brings it alive. She reminds me why I became an English major in the first place. Before all the lit crit wore me down, I loved thinking and talking with smart people about great writers. This book works as a fascinating fireside chat with you, LeMay, and Dickinson, supplied with plenty of warm beverages and treats. You know, those times when the wit and intensity of conversation are so engaging you hate to leave even for an instant because you might miss something.
LeMay suggests that you read the book in multiple sittings, to give each poem, each reflection, time to simmer. I suggest following that advice. Each chapter works as a meditative essay, which takes on a big idea (you know, little things like "Belief" and "Mortality.") The observations and meanders all deserve a good pondering, maybe a little staring off into space and losing of oneself.
July 15, 2015
If you're an Emily Dickinson fan, and a person of faith especially, you will love this book. I felt like I was sitting in a college class, learning as she unpacked her poetry and life, enjoying getting to catch a glimpse of LeMay's story as well.
August 21, 2014
This book is substantive and would appeal to those wanting a more academic approach, in my opinion. For me it felt dull and tiresome despite my love of Dickinson's poetry.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews