Lesson 2: Responding to Emily Dickinson: Poetic Analysis

• Through the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program, they have developed a resource guide to Emily Dickinson including historical and literary context, biographical information, and discussion questions about her work.
• The Emily Dickinson Archive provides resources for manuscripts, published works, and general information on Emily Dickinson.
• If you are interested in audio recordings of selected works by Emily Dickinson, they are available through Librivox recordings.
• An Emily Dickinson biopic was produced in 2017 and the trailer is available here.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.3. Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.L.5. Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

Activity 1. Diction and Tone Analysis

Have students read through the first stanza of "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers" (216), available at the Dickinson Electronic Archives at the American Verse Project as it was published in 1891. While reading, have students identify vivid and important words or phrases in the poem. Read the poem aloud with the class before starting the next activity.

If possible, project this organizational web onto the board. If not possible, the web can be easily recreated on a chalk or white board. Using his web, have students volunteer the words and phrases they found to stand out in the poem and write them on the board. If projecting flip to the second slide. Students can then use these words and phrases to explore connections between these words and how they create mood, tone, and theme in the poem. Have students consider:

• Which words in the poem have similar connotations or tones?
• What is that tone and how is it represented in the poem?
• Which words conflict with this particular tone? 
• How do those words create new tones in the poem?
• What are the major themes of this poem?
• How are those themes demonstrated by specific word choice?
• What figurative language helps these words work together?
• How would the piece be different if another word/phrase were used instead of the one Dickinson chose?
• Why is that figurative language effective in communicating the themes of the poem?

While discussing, draw lines between the words and label the lines with notes about how the words in the poem connect to one another. With this handout, students can follow along with making connections, as well as create their own connections with language.

Next, guide the students in a discussion of how this poem reflects Dickinson's voice:

• Does the poem match the image Dickinson draws of herself in her letters (see Lesson One)?
• How does this poem reflect her crafted persona?
• What specific words and lines help you to draw that conclusion?
• Do you believe the poem expresses exactly how Dickinson felt when she viewed the tombs? Why, or why not?
• What freedom does poetry give her here that prose would not?

Activity 2. Manuscript Examination

The "Emily Dickinson Writing a Poem" site illustrates how Dickinson sought critique of her work and used such critique in the process of revision. Working in pairs, have the students spend about 20 minutes reading through the collected letters and manuscripts, focusing primarily on the manuscripts H B74a, H B74b, H B74c, H 11c, and H 203c d, (note: all links lead to the manuscript copy accompanied by a transcript). If students do not have access to computers, provide them with printouts of the relevant manuscript pages.

• Ask the students if Sue's input helped Dickinson to maintain her voice and achieve her goals. You may want to guide them to the line that reads, "I am not suited dear Emily with the second verse -- It is remarkable as the chain lightening that blinds us hot nights in the Southern sky but it does not go with the ghostly shimmer of the first verse as well as the other one."

Have students write a journal entry as Emily Dickinson describing her experiences writing this poem. In taking on her personality, students should address the following ideas in their journal entry.

• Her possible experiences and feelings while writing the poems
• Descriptions and reasons for making specific decisions in writing the poem
• Her possible response to her sister-in-law's revisions
• Addressing how the persona 

If teaching the entire curriculum unit, teachers should ask students to submit all work in the form of a final portfolio, which may be evaluated based on the overarching curriculum unit assessment rubric found in the third lesson.