EMILY DICKINSON

enjoy this movie then visit brainpop.com for much more what you doing a ladybug whose red and black wings would make a perfect snack for one who has an empty pantry I'm talking about the praying mantis it's nice dear Tim and Moby we're reading Emily Dickinson in school but her poems are a little weird can you help me make sense of them Thanks Becca Emily Dickinson's poetry can be mysterious almost like a riddle her lines and verses are short with a natural style that's almost chatty these qualities give her one of the most distinctive voices in American poetry the major poets of her day wrote epics long pieces that tell a story while these guys looked outward writing about history and culture Dickinson wrote lyrics poems about the inner life of thoughts and feelings yeah and that's not the only area where she went her own way women in those days were strongly encouraged to get married and raise families and though she had offers Dickinson never accepted them instead she focused on her work composing nearly 2,000 poems in just a few decades on the surface her poems are about everyday subjects a dream she had something she saw in the garden an emotion she felt but once you dig a little there's a world of meaning waiting in those lines okay listen to this one a bird came down the walk he did not oh reading poems aloud can help you understand them plus you'll hear all the sounds and rhythms in poetry those things are just as important as the meaning a bird came down the walk he did not know I saw he bit an angleworm in halves and ate the fellow raw and then he drank a dew from a convenient grass and then hopped sideways to the wall to let a beetle pass this poems meter or rhythm is really strong da-dum da-dum da-dum that's called iambic meter and here it sounds kind of like a bird hopping or maybe it's his nervous heartbeat he glanced with rapid eyes that hurried all around they looked like frightened beads I thought he stirred his velvet head no there's nothing cute about this bird he's a killer who devours a worm then washes it down with a drink and check out that image eyes like frightened beads that's a simile a poetic comparison that uses like or as it's also a personification giving human qualities to an object bees aren't something you'd normally think of as frightened but you can totally imagine those creepy little eyes let's continue shall we like one in danger cautious I offered him a crumb and he unrolled his feathers and rode him softer home yeah it's not clear who feels more in danger the speaker or the bird but the tension is broken when it escapes into the sky notice how this stanza ends he rode him softer home softer than what Dickinson is setting us up to expect another simile and she spends the entire last stanza making it then ORS divided the ocean to silver for a seam or butterflies off banks of noon leap plash less as they swim hello we could spend an hour unpacking that we start with a straight-up comparison flying is like growing in a silvery see only softer then it's almost like the speaker gets carried away with the whole water idea the sky transformed into a river or pond with butterflies diving into it the edges of this pond are made of time itself banks of noon it's like a dream image it doesn't quite make sense but it's so vivid those last two lines are a metaphor a more direct comparison than a simile flying isn't like swimming it is swimming through time or existence good year once the birds off the ground the meter smooths out it's still iambic but it flows more like conversation more like water no Dickinson knew that crumb and home aren't perfect rhymes that's an example of slant rhyme one of her favorite devices with slant rhyme words only have to share similar sounds it led Dickinson experiment with language and it calls our attention to her choices she wants us to notice those words so they might hold clues to what's going on with this poem I think it might be about a person's spiritual journey his time on earth is filled with suffering and fear when he takes off maybe that's about dying he leaves the pain of life behind as he travels to his spiritual home notice how the bird is absent from the last stanza he's been replaced by a butterfly a clue that some change is taking place and the language is all about stuff that leaves no trace an or that makes no crease in the water and a dive that makes no splash yeah it's like she leaves us with a big mystery what happens when we die those kinds of questions run through her work maybe writing poetry was her way of getting closer to an answer it's true she spent most of her adulthood alone she was a recluse rarely leaving her simple bedroom in Amherst Massachusetts were you listening to that poem I highly doubt she ever got bored she used that space to let her imagination run free many of her poems are based on things she saw in her family's garden she published just a handful of poems in local papers we're really lucky to have the rest of them before she died Emily made her sister promise to burn her letters so in 1886 that's just what Lavinia Dickinson did well she had to keep her word but Lavinia also found a locked chest in her sister's room inside were 40 handmade booklets filled with poetry Lavinia became obsessed with publishing them the first volume came out four years later and was an instant success it went through eleven printings and critics loved it she was immediately recognized as a major American poet and her voice feels just as fresh today as it did back in 1890 do what oh okay I could also burn them right now are you sure you don't want me to burn them now I just meant that you'll probably outlive me visit us at brainpop.com for more on this topic and hundreds of others you'll find movies games quizzes and activities learn more about the difference brainpop can make

Channel: BrainPOP

Views: 152,012

Rating: 4.7976842 out of 5

Keywords: BrainPOP, Education, Animation, Moby

Id: zAqrpWW0Qdg

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 23 2017