The purpose of this research is to examine selected critic-isms of the work of Emily Dickinson and discuss why certain
assertions about Dickinson's work are or are not valid, with
specific reference to her poetry. Additionally, the principal
poetic technique of Dickinson will be discussed, with a view
It seems fair to say that the literary reputation of Dickinson is generally high among critics of her work. Allen Tate, identified with the New Criticism's practice of close textual analysis (1:160, passim), begins his study of modern American poetry with Emily Dickinson. Mazzaro's collection of critical essays includes Northrop Frye's "Emily Dickinson," in which Frye alludes obliquely to the universality, hence collective unconscious, of Dickinson's themes (7:112).
The perception of Dickinson as a contemporary writer appears significant for the reason that Dickinson's life began and ended
well within the margins of the Victorian era (1830-1886) and well
within the confines of traditionally Puritan New England. Received wisdom would tend to suggest that a modern, not to say
contemporary approach to poetic style and theme would be highly
unusual coming from such a milieu. Acknowledging the spare nature
of Dickinson's diction, Tate notes the way in which Dickinson
manages to compress the whole of life into a few stanzas, a few
images, a few figures of speech. In particular, he points to
"Because I Could Not Stop for Death" as "one of the greatest
[poems] in the English language" (11:33)
Martin states that among the first critics to cite Dickinson's exceptional poetic achievement was William Dean
Howells, whose criticism "appeared in influential journals from
the 1860's to 1920 . . . When the poems of Emily Dickinson first
appeared, Howells alone unequivocally praised her genius and
recognized the value of her feminine voice" (6:2668). The so-called "Imagists" such as Amy Lowell, app...