Emily Dickinson Ann De Wilde — Amherst 2009

Emily Dickinson Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 1

Emily Dickinson An artist of her time Advanced Level Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 2

Introduction Talking about Art - Paintings Ø If possible, take your Ss to a museum or art gallery; if not, provide plenty of visual material Ø Ss are invited to look at different paintings and describe what they see and what they like Ø Ss are asked to describe a painting by Bruegel and one by Monet Ø Ss indicate their preference and explain why Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 3

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Describing Impressionist paintings Ss are put in groups Ø Ss receive a number of pictures by Van Gogh (e. g. Starry Night) and Monet (e. g. Sunrise) Ø Ss look at the technique used in these paintings (short brushes, thick paint, playing with light and shadow, …the best way to “see” is to “squint”) Ø Ss describe the paintings using the same technique with words: evoke an impression of what they see without describing it literally Ø Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 6

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Reading poems like reading paintings Ø Ø Ø Ø Ss sit in small groups Ss receive several poems by ED on Colours Ss read the poems as they read the paintings First to themselves, then out loud, they express what the poem does to them, what it tells them, what it makes them feel How do they imagine the writer of this poem? Can they see the parallel with the paintings? How? Can they guess when they were written? How? Do they find them modern or old-fashioned? Why? Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 11

More poems Ø Ss are invited to switch tables and they receive another set of poems, this time on nature / switch again to poems about love / switch again to poems about death Ø Same pattern as before Ø With each series of poems they try to unravel the identity of the poet Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 12

Final choice Ø Ss are asked to choose their favourite poem, read it to the class out loud and explain why they chose it. Ø Ss are asked to find a matching picture/painting for this poem. Ø Ss write their own poem about any one of the covered topics. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 13

About the poet Through the reading of the poems, Ss have now found out some information about the poet as a person Ø The info needs to be assembled and completed Ø l l l by the teacher; drawing mindmap on the BB by the Ss through webquests (seeking further info on computer) The classroom could be decorated with visual material from Emily Dickinson’s life, world & poetry - for the adventurous colleague: The teacher could dress up as Emily Dickinson (in a white dress, hair in a bun) and the Ss could interview her about her life and work Ø Extra: watching the Belle of Amherst and paying special attention to the poems put into context Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 14

A collection of Poems Ø a – Colours Ø b – Nature Ø c – Love Ø d - Death Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 15

Emily Dickinson Poem – 1/a A Slash of Blue! A Sweep of Gray! Some scarlet patches – on the way – Compose an evening sky – A little Purple – slipped between – Some Ruby Trowsers – hurried on – A Wave of Gold – a Bank of Day – This just makes out the morning sky! Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 16

Emily Dickinson Poem 2/a This is the land the sunset washes, These are the banks of the Yellow Sea; Where it rose, or whither it rushes, These are the western mystery! Night after night her purple traffic Strews the landing with opal bales; Merchantmen poise upon horizons, Dip, and vanish with fairy sails. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 17

Emily Dickinson Poem 3 /a Purple – The Color of a Queen, is this – The Color of a Sun At setting – this and Amber – Beryl – and this, at Noon – And when at night – Auroran Widths Fling suddenly on Men – ‘Tis this – and Witchcraft – nature keeps A Rank – for Iodine – Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 18

Emily Dickinson Poem 1/b Pink, small, and punctual, Aromatic, low, Covert in April, Candid in May, Dear to the moss, Known by the knoll, Next to the robin In every human soul. Bold little beauty, Bedecked with thee, Nature forswears Antiquity. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 19

Emily Dickinson Poem 2/b New feet within my garden go, New fingers stir the sod; A troubadour upon the elm Betrays the solitude. New children play upon the green, New weary sleep below; And still the pensive spring returns, And still the punctual snow! Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 20

Emily Dickinson Poem 3/b Will there really be a morning? Is there such a thing as day? Could I see it from the mountains If I were as tall as they? Has it feet like water-lilies? Has it feathers like a bird? Is it brought from famous countries Of which I have never heard? Oh, some scholar! Oh, some sailor! Oh, some wise man from the skies! Please to tell a little pilgrim Where the place called morning lies! Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 21

Emily Dickinson Poem 1/c I'll tell you how the sun rose, A ribbon at a time. The steeples swam in amethyst, The news like squirrels ran. The hills untied their bonnets, The bobolinks begun. Then I said softly to myself, "That must have been the sun!" But how he set, I know not. There seemed a purple stile Which little yellow boys and girls Were climbing all the while Till when they reached the other side, A dominie in gray Put gently up the evening bars, And led the flock away. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 22

Emily Dickinson Poem 2/c A sloop of amber slips away Upon an ether sea, And wrecks in peace a purple tar, The son of ecstasy. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 23

Emily Dickinson Poem 3/c Blazing in gold and quenching in purple, Leaping like leopards to the sky, Then at the feet of the old horizon Laying her spotted face, to die; Stooping as low as the kitchen window, Touching the roof and tinting the barn, Kissing her bonnet to the meadow, — And the juggler of day is gone! Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 24

Emily Dickinson Poem 4/c She sweeps with many-colored brooms, And leaves the shreds behind; Oh, housewife in the evening west, Come back, and dust the pond! You dropped a purple ravelling in, You dropped an amber thread; And now you ’ve littered all the East With duds of emerald! And still she plies her spotted brooms, And still the aprons fly, Till brooms fade softly into stars— And then I come away. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 25

Emily Dickinson Poem – 1/d He touched me, so I live to know That such a day , permitted so, I groped upon his breast. It was a boundless place to me, And silenced, as the awful sea Puts minor streams to rest. And now, I ’m different from before, As if I breathed superior air Or brushed a royal gown; My feet, too, that had wandered so, My gypsy face transfigured now To tenderer renown. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 26

Emily Dickinson Poem – 2/d I cannot live with you, It would be life, And life is over there Behind the shelf The sexton keeps the key to, Putting up Our life, his porcelain, Like a cup Discarded of the housewife, Quaint or broken; A newer Sèvres pleases, Old ones crack. I could not die with you, For one must wait To shut the other’s gaze down, — You could not. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 27

Emily Dickinson Poem – 3/d If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 28

Emily Dickinson Poem – 4/d Wild nights! Were I with thee, Wild nights should be Our luxury! Futile the winds To a heart in port, — Done with the compass, Done with the chart. Rowing in Eden! Ah! the sea! Might I but moor To-night in thee! Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 29

Emily Dickinson Poem 1/e Ashes denote that fire was; Respect the grayest pile For the departed creature’s sake That hovered there awhile. Fire exists the first in light, And then consolidates, — Only the chemist can disclose Into what carbonates. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 30

Emily Dickinson Poem 2/e Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves And Immortality. We slowly drove, he knew no haste, And I had put away My labor, and my leisure too, For his civility. We passed the school where children played At wrestling in a ring; We passed the fields of gazing grain, We passed the setting sun. We paused before a house that seemed A swelling of the ground; The roof was scarcely visible, The cornice but a mound. Since then ’t is centuries; but each Feels shorter than the day I first surmised the horses’ heads Were toward eternity. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 31

Emily Dickinson Poem 3/e This world is not conclusion; A sequel stands beyond, Invisible, as music, But positive, as sound. It beckons and it baffles; Philosophies don’t know, And through a riddle, at the last, Sagacity must go. To guess it puzzles scholars; To gain it, men have shown Contempt of generations, And crucifixion known. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 32

Emily Dickinson Poem 4/e 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. Ann De Wilde - Amherst 2009 33