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by: Emily Dickinson
List Price: $21.99Amazon.com's Price: $14.95 You Save: $7.04 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.4
EAN: 9780316184137
ISBN: 0316184136
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 784
Publication Date: January 30, 1976
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Sales Rank: 13242
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Editorial Review:
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.
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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - 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.
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - 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 ... Read More
Rating: - Your thoughts don't have words every day...
"Your thoughts don't have words every day..." But, oh, how skilled was Emily Dickinson at finding words to match her thoughts. And what intriguing thoughts they were - clever, insightful, playful, impassioned, meticulous... Whether describing life from the point of view of a bee or pondering the ravages of death, Dickinson was unique in her approach to her work and the world she saw around her. One of her poetic gifts was finding ways to express profound thoughts through brevity.
Most ... Read More
Rating: - mother from another planet
Under a surface of innocence, Emily Dickinson's witty, acerbic, playful & profound poems are America's wisest contribution to poetry. Sometimes she riddles, sometimes she puns--she puns not only in ambiguous word choice, but also in ideas and topics. Her small gems are the unique response of genius to the world, a dialogue on the most inspiring level--and from a given woman's experience, too. But I think Dickinson surpasses the merely human--she was sent from another planet to rescue us from Whitmanesque ... Read More
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