Product Description

Emily Dickinson proved that brevity can be beautiful. Only now is her complete oeuvre--all 1,775 poems--available in its original form, uncorrupted by editorial revision, in one volume. Thomas H. Johnson, a longtime Dickinson scholar, arranged the poems in chronological order as far as could be ascertained (the dates for more than 100 are unknown). This organization allows a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the sometimes-clunky rhyme schemes of her juvenilia, including valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy, hell-obsessed writings from her last years. Quite a difference from requisite Dickinson entries in literary anthologies: "There's a certain Slant of light," "Wild Nights--Wild Nights!" and "I taste a liquor never brewed." The book was compiled from Thomas H. Johnson's hard-to-find variorum from 1955. While some explanatory notes would have been helpful, it's a prodigious collection, showcasing Dickinson's intractable obsession with nature, including death. Poem 1732, which alludes to the deaths of her father and a onetime suitor, illustrates her talent: My life closed twice before its close; It yet remains to see If Immortality unveil A third event to me, So huge, so hopeless to conceive As these that twice befell. Parting is all we know of heaven, And all we need of hell. The musicality of her punctuation and the outright elegance of her style--akin to Christina Rossetti's hymns, although not nearly so religious--rescue the poems from their occasional abstruseness. The Complete Poems is especially refreshing because Dickinson didn't write for publication; only 11 of her verses appeared in magazines during her lifetime, and she had long-resigned herself to anonymity, or a "Barefoot-Rank," as she phrased it. This is the perfect volume for readers wishing to explore the works of one of America's first poets.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12394 in Books
• Published on: 1976-01-30
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

Amazon.com
Emily Dickinson proved that brevity can be beautiful. Only now is her complete oeuvre--all 1,775 poems--available in its original form, uncorrupted by editorial revision, in one volume. Thomas H. Johnson, a longtime Dickinson scholar, arranged the poems in chronological order as far as could be ascertained (the dates for more than 100 are unknown). This organization allows a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the sometimes-clunky rhyme schemes of her juvenilia, including valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy, hell-obsessed writings from her last years. Quite a difference from requisite Dickinson entries in literary anthologies: "There's a certain Slant of light," "Wild Nights--Wild Nights!" and "I taste a liquor never brewed."

The book was compiled from Thomas H. Johnson's hard-to-find variorum from 1955. While some explanatory notes would have been helpful, it's a prodigious collection, showcasing Dickinson's intractable obsession with nature, including death. Poem 1732, which alludes to the deaths of her father and a onetime suitor, illustrates her talent:

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,

So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

The musicality of her punctuation and the outright elegance of her style--akin to Christina Rossetti's hymns, although not nearly so religious--rescue the poems from their occasional abstruseness. The Complete Poems is especially refreshing because Dickinson didn't write for publication; only 11 of her verses appeared in magazines during her lifetime, and she had long-resigned herself to anonymity, or a "Barefoot-Rank," as she phrased it. This is the perfect volume for readers wishing to explore the works of one of America's first poets.

From Library Journal
Complete is the keyword here as this is the only edition currently available that contains all of Dickinson's poems. The works were originally gathered by editor Johnson and published in a three-volume set in 1955. Essential for academic and public libraries.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

True Dickinson fans....
This is an excellent collection of all her work. It is in chronological order as well so it is quite interesting to compare different works from different times in her life. Beautiful and haunting.

Great collection of poetry!
Dickinson is probably the one poet who best personifies mood, emotion, fears, hopes, dreams, and time and eternity with such few words and in the most illustrative way. Most of her subjects are ones we readily identify with--love, death, nature, religion, passage of time. Her ability to make so much out of so little is truly a gift, and, while her poetry can be a little hard to grasp at first, it is quite powerful if you pursue it. For this reason this volume of her poems is a treasure for anyone who loves poetry, or the power of its message.

Many of her poems have an ironic twist to them, or a paradoxical message. Consider the few first lines of "The soul unto itself", where the dual nature of the soul--good and bad--is explored:

"The soul unto itself
Is an imperial friend--
Or the most agonizing spy
An enemy could send..."

Another one of her poems, "Each life converges to some center" evokes the idea that we are part of some bigger plan in the universe. She clearly has a knack for taking the reader along on the journey in the poem, and feeling its magnitude along with the speaker.

In "The Future never spoke," Dickinson personifies the future as indifferent and unpredictable, a mysterious entity that has a will of its own:

"The Future never spoke,
Nor will he, like the Dumb,
Reveal by sign or syllable
Or his profound to Come.."

The power of Dickinson's words come to life in this book, and this is one of the best collections out there of her poems. There are also many of her more popular ones, such as "I'm Nobody", where she blasts the notion of having achievements publicized and being popular and "Because I could not stop for Death", where the speaker is taken on a journey through time by Death. Over all this is a powerful collection that no literature teacher should be without. Great for anyone though, and, if you aren't a poetry fan, try this one out and maybe you'll be one.

Definitely recommended!

One of the best poetry collections around
One of my favorite poets since being assigned "I'll Tell You How the Sun Rose" in eighth grade, Dickinson has always struck a chord within me. Despite having lived over a century prior, the feelings and ideas expressed within her work are just as relevant today as ever.

The sparse beauty of Dickinson's words can both evoke loneliness and the certainty that the poet shares your pain. Her topics encompass everything from death to literature to the soul; and her mood is often somber, but also very often playful.

This particular collection is a volume I had to purchase for a graduate course on Dickinson I once took -- and it is one of the very few texts I never wanted to sell back! Margins are wide, allowing for ample underlinings and notations as readers peruse and mull the verses. At the rear is an index of first lines, in alphabetical order, to allow for easier location of particular works. This volume also preserves Dickinson's tendency to use dashes, which was often "corrected" in past versions -- also contributing greatly to the readers' ability to fully appreciate Dickinson's legacy.