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Poet: Emily Dickinson
Poem: 505.
I would not paint -- a picture --
Volume: Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Year: Published/Written in 1955
Poem of the Day:
Jan 25 2007
Comment 4 of 4, added on January 29th, 2007 at 7:59 PM.
There are three perspectives involved here: artist, audience, and muse. The speaker relates that the least desirable position is that of artist. Of course, this is ironic because we associate the speaker with the artist herself. I'm not sure if the speaker indicates WHY she would prefer to be the inspiration or the audience rather than the artist. Any thoughts here?
BTW, Dickinson DID publish a handful of poems during her lifetime. Since the poems she published can be counted on one's hands, and the poems she wrote number in the thousands, we can generally assume that she wrote primarily for herself and not for a specific audience. Nevertheless, as a writer, I have to say that I generally impose poetic form upon myself; I don't feel it is something that society imposes upon me. When I break with form, I am breaking with my own rules, not society's. I don't know if this is how Dickinson felt. I do know that she made the choice to write in ballad meter; it's not that the form was "all the rage" at the time. I'm not sure that I would go so far as to scan the poem, but it is worth noting that the work contains both approximate rhythm and slant rhyme. Nothing is exact. Where do we go with this? I'm not sure. I think the answer to my previous question may relate.
colleen from United States
Comment 3 of 4, added on January 15th, 2007 at 8:24 PM.
i need to analyze this poem and paraphrase it and then do an imaginary dialogue and write an initial response to it and its due tomorrow..... scary.!!! but it seems to me that she wouldnt care if it was published or not cause she wrote so many that she knew eventually it would probably be published so why are you commenting on the publishing when you should really be commenting ont he poet or the poem. she is trying to say that she wants to be dwelled on but she also says that she hates the poem the man or women painting it or herself im not sure cause it says what would the dower be? dower meaning the owner of something but the sentence before that she says " A privilege so awful" my question is what is she talking about here is she the dower or is someone else and is it the love or the celestial feeling inside that makes her think its awful?
angie from Canada
Comment 2 of 4, added on June 14th, 2005 at 8:16 PM.
I completely disagree with the previous comment. Emily Dickinson did not publish her work obviously, however it is her precise ability to be ingeniously poetic that captures the reader. I wrote a 4 page paper specifically analyzing this poem, and I was amazed at the deliberate word choice, rythm, etc. that Dickinson used to convery her message.
annie from United States
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Comments
There are three perspectives involved here: artist, audience, and muse. The speaker relates that the least desirable position is that of artist. Of course, this is ironic because we associate the speaker with the artist herself. I'm not sure if the speaker indicates WHY she would prefer to be the inspiration or the audience rather than the artist. Any thoughts here?
BTW, Dickinson DID publish a handful of poems during her lifetime. Since the poems she published can be counted on one's hands, and the poems she wrote number in the thousands, we can generally assume that she wrote primarily for herself and not for a specific audience. Nevertheless, as a writer, I have to say that I generally impose poetic form upon myself; I don't feel it is something that society imposes upon me. When I break with form, I am breaking with my own rules, not society's. I don't know if this is how Dickinson felt. I do know that she made the choice to write in ballad meter; it's not that the form was "all the rage" at the time. I'm not sure that I would go so far as to scan the poem, but it is worth noting that the work contains both approximate rhythm and slant rhyme. Nothing is exact. Where do we go with this? I'm not sure. I think the answer to my previous question may relate.
colleen from United States