The Complete poems of Emily Dickinson

by Emily Dickinson

Only eleven of Emily Dickinson's poems were published before her death in 1886, and her work was doomed to oblivion during her lifetime due to its astounding originality. Dickinson's audacious experiments in prosody, her tragic vision, and the extent of her intellectual and emotional investigations were not fully and accurately represented in early posthumously published collections, some of which featured liberally "edited" versions of the poems. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, a three-volume critical edition compiled by Thomas H. Johnson, was not published until 1995, and readers were able to assess, grasp, and appreciate Dickinson's great creative brilliance for the first time. The original texts of all 1,777 poems she composed are included in this book, which is a distillation of the three-volume Complete Poems.

Genres: Poetry

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 28, 2022

About the author

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.

Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.

A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.

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Reviews

[Marcel Plessis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite poet of all time!

[Preston Burns]

“I had no time to hate, because The grave would hinder me, And life was not so ample I Could finish enmity. Nor had I time to love; but since Some industry must be, The little toil of love, I thought, Was large enough for me.”

Kindle version formatting is awful

[Alejandra Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobre el libro:
Solo once poemas de Emily Dickinson fueron publicados antes de su muerte en 1886, y su obra estuvo condenada al olvido durante su vida debido a su asombrosa originalidad. Los audaces experimentos de Dickinson con la prosodia, su visión trágica y la extensión de sus investigaciones intelectuales y emocionales no fueron representadas de manera completa ni precisa en las primeras colecciones publicadas póstumamente, algunas de las cuales presentaban versiones "editadas" de los poemas. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, una edición crítica en tres volúmenes compilada por Thomas H. Johnson, no fue publicada hasta 1995, y los lectores pudieron evaluar, comprender y apreciar por primera vez el gran genio creativo de Dickinson. Los textos originales de los 1,777 poemas que compuso están incluidos en este libro, que es una destilación de los tres volúmenes de Complete Poems.

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Review:
El camino que recorre este libro es simplemente maravilloso. La recopilación de poemas sobre la vida, la eternidad, el amor, la muerte y la naturaleza refleja de manera única la compleja mente de Emily Dickinson y sus percepciones tan particulares del mundo, plasmadas en versos profundamente sentidos y hermosos. En particular, disfruté especialmente los poemas que abordan la muerte y la eternidad, y hallé gran consuelo en aquellos que expresan la sensación de insignificancia ante la vastedad del mundo.
No obstante, aunque la belleza de su contenido es indiscutible, la forma en que está escrito resulta algo complejo de leer, lo que puede dificultar el acceso a los temas y al mensaje que busca transmitir. Esto no solo se debe al estilo propio del inglés más antiguo, sino también a las complejas metáforas que utiliza. A pesar de ello, ha sido un verdadero placer leer a Dickinson y dejar espacio en mi corazón para sus hermosos poemas.
En definitiva, es una recopilación invaluable de su obra.

[Elsbeth Kwant]

The Sealey challenge seems a good reason to read Emily Dickinson properly. She does not have a choice of published works, as only 11 of her poems were published in her lifetime. Fascinating to find it does not resonate with me at all. Is it too American, too strange? I don't know. For another time perhaps.

[Petrina Binney · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's no doubt that Emily Dickinson is one of the most important American poets and her work should be read, enjoyed and celebrated, but this edition was very hard to read due to poor formatting, rendering whole sentences as single words, and making the poetry fall flat.

[Dr V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abstemious.

[Angela Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not camplete

Many poems are missing from this edition. Examples: To fill a gap, My life had stood a loaded gun, Water makes many beds - just to name a few.