On Emily Dickinson

[ananda]

I remember a lecture by William Hunter (Milton expert par excellence) where he waxed rapturously on Emily Dickinson's reclusiveness in nature, where she was able to crystallize her thoughts in such unusual and mind-piercing ways. I also seem to remember an American lit professor in grad school saying he did his doctoral dissertation on the theme of death in Emily Dickinson's poetry. I never read her poetry quite the same way again, for that theme underlies nearly all of it.

Here's Joyce Carol Oates writing on the romance in Dickinson's poetry. I love the title: "Soul at the White Heat" by way of being a viaticum for the soul of humankind:

http://www.usfca.edu/jco/soulatthewhiteheat/

To quote: “For the ‘poetic enterprise’ is nothing less than the attempt to realize the soul. And the attempt to realize the soul (in its muteness, its perfection) is nothing less than the attempt to create a poetry of transcendence—the kind that outlives its human habitation and its name.”

Also, here's the source poem for Oates' title:

Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat?
Then crouch within the door —
Red — is the Fire's common tint —
But when the vivid Ore
Has vanquished Flame's conditions,
It quivers from the Forge
Without a color, but the light
Of unanointed Blaze.
Least Village has its Blacksmith
Whose Anvil's even ring
Stands symbol for the finer Forge
That soundless tugs — within —
Refining these impatient Ores
With Hammer, and with Blaze
Until the Designated Light
Repudiate the Forge —

[ananda]

1. Re the Gnostic link.

Last edited Fri Jul 24, 2015, 11:00 AM - Edit history (1)

Now then, I would like to know more about Dickinson's use of Gnostic ideas or themes. I wonder what texts someone in America in the early 19thc. would access for Gnostic themes or ideas. Guy Davenport hints at the connection on p. 233 of Geography of the Imagination, as follows.

“The charmng little book by Carlo Collodi, La Avventuri di Pinocchio, can scarcely claim to be included in a history of Italian literature, and yet to a geographer of the imagination, it is a more elegant paradigm of the narrative art of the Meditarranean than any other book since Ovid's Metamorphoses, rehearses all the central myths, and adds its own to the rich stock of its tradition. It reaches back to a Gnostic theme known to both Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson: "Split the stick," said Jesus, "and I am there." It combines Pygmalion, Ovid, the book of Johah, the Commedia dell'Arte, and Apuleius; and will continue to be a touchstone of the imagination.”

The Gnostic reference is from the Gospel of Thomas. Here is the Coptic version.

** (30) Jesus said, "Where there are three gods, they are gods. Where there are two or one, I am with him."
(77b) ...Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." **

I suppose that Shakespeare might have gotten Gnostic ideas and themes by way of John Dee and the Neoplatonists.

Dickinson had a natural gift for personal gnosis. If she used actual Gnostic ideas and themes, I don't know what her sources were, but I would like to. Anyhow, here is a Dickinson poem that might utilize that theme.

Split the lark and you ’ll find the music,
Bulb after bulb, in silver rolled,
Scantily dealt to the summer morning,
Saved for your ear when lutes be old.

Loose the flood, you shall find it patent,
Gush after gush, reserved for you;
Scarlet experiment! sceptic Thomas,
Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?

It is not so easy for me to justify the claim that Dickinson was specifically Gnostic, though Davenport is a scholar of such high standing that it cannot be dismissed. I just wonder what texts and books she had access to. She is known to have read the KJV, Shakespeare and Emerson. Maybe she got it from Shakespeare, who would have had access to the Kabbalah and the Zohar, along with the rise of Neoplatonism across the continent. The character of Prospero is based on John Dee, for instance. Also, maybe she have been able to read Swedenborg or William James but I am somewhat doubtful there. I don't think the version of Gnosticism that became the theosophical movement and the Golden Dawn would have been available to her before she died. But it is clear that she knew specific lines and ideas from the Gospel of Thomas, whether firsthand or secondarily is the question. I didn't think the Gnostic gospels were available to the public until they were discovered in Naj Hammadi, but I would think that were kept alive in some form through esoterica or neoplatonist philosophy. I'm not as well informed on this tradition as I should be, that's why I'm posting this here. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can help at some point.

Also, I'm not absolutely sure that the poem "Split the lark" is really an example of that element of the Gnostic gospel that Davenport was referring to. Though its phrasing definitely recalls the "split a piece of wood" of the Gnostic gospel of Thomas, this could just be coincidence. It definitely alludes to the doubting Thomas of the KJV and certain phrasings could be read in a more mystical or alchemical context, while at the same time purporting to be allusions to the science and the KJ Bible of her time. In other words, I might be stretching it or over-reading the poem to find Gnostic and alchemical allusions. Still, I wonder: what WAS Davenport referring to?