Visiting Emily

by Coghill, Sheila

• ISBN13: 9780877457398
• ISBN10: 0877457395
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-01-01
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

This unique anthology gathers work by eighty poets inspired by Emily Dickinson. Beginning with Hart Crane's 1927 poem "To Emily Dickinson" and moving forward through the century to such luminary figures as Archibald MacLeish, John Berryman, Yvor Winters, Adrienne Rich, Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Amy Clampitt, William Stafford, and Galway Kinnell,Visiting Emilyoffers both a celebration of and an homage to one of the world's great poets.If there was ever any doubt about Dickinson's influence on modern and contemporary poets, this remarkable collection surely puts it to rest. Gathered here are poems reflecting a wide range of voices, styles, and forms-poems written in traditional and experimental forms; poems whose tones are meditative, reflective, reverent and irreverent, satirical, whimsical, improvisational, and serious. Many of the poets draw from Dickinson's biography, while others imagine events from her life. Some poets borrow lines from Dickinson's poems or letters as triggers for their inspiration. Though most of the poems connect directly to Dickinson's life or work, for others the connection is more oblique.

Table of Contents

Looking for Emily	xii
Why We Love Emily Dickinson	xix
Robert Bly
``Miss Emily's Maggie'' Remembers	1	(1)
Jean Balderston
The Mystery of Emily Dickinson	2	(1)
Marvin Bell
Your Birthday in Wisconsin You Are 140	3	(1)
John Berryman
Visiting Emily Dickinson's Grave with Robert Francis	4	(1)
Robert Bly
For Emily Dickinson	5	(2)
Marianne Boruch
Queen Recluse	7	(1)
Lucy Brock-Broido
Emily Dickinson Attends a Writing Workshop	8	(1)
Jayne Relaford Brown
Emily Dickinson's To-Do List	9	(1)
Andrea Carlisle
Give Me Shoots, You Said	10	(1)
Siv Cedering
Amherst	11	(2)
Amy Clampitt
Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes	13	(2)
Billy Collins
Dickinson	15	(1)
Martha Collins
To Emily Dickinson	16	(1)
Hart Crane
Amherst with Fries	17	(2)
Philip Dacey
Emily Dickinson and Gerard Manley Hopkins	19	(2)
Madeline DeFrees
Sitting with Myself in the Seton Hall Deli at 12 O'clock Thursday Before I Read with the Great Poets at the Emily Dickinson Poetry Festival	21	(3)
Toi Derricotte
Emily Dickinson	24	(2)
Richard Eberhart
Homage to Dickinson	26	(1)
Lynn Emanuel
Vermont Summer	27	(1)
Dave Etter
A Letter for Emily Dickinson	28	(1)
Annie Finch
Emily Dickinson in Boston, 1864--65	29	(2)
Richard Foerster
Two Ghosts	31	(3)
Robert Francis
Of Women Who Wear White	34	(2)
Alice Friman
Wonder Bread	36	(1)
Alice Fulton
Emily's Bread	37	(2)
Sandra Gilbert
Emily Dickinson's Room, Main Street, Amherst	39	(2)
Barry Goldensohn
``Who Goes to Dine Must Take His Feast,''	41	(1)
David Graham
Teaching Emily Dickinson	42	(1)
Rachel Hadas
The Impossible Marriage	43	(1)
Donald Hall
Spelunking	44	(1)
Lola Haskins
Letter to Miss Dickinson	45	(1)
William Heyen
The Unnaming	46	(1)
Edward Hirsch
For Emily Dickinson	47	(2)
Patricia Y. Ikeda
Amherst: One Day, Five Poets: Part II	49	(1)
Shirley Kaufman
Emily Dickinson Leaves a Message to the World, Now That Her Homestead in Amherst Has an Answering Machine	50	(1)
X. J. Kennedy
The Deconstruction of Emily Dickinson	51	(2)
Gallway Kinnell
Still Life with Riddle	53	(1)
Tom Koontz
After the Poetry Reading	54	(1)
Maxine Kumin
Emily Dickinson's Sestina for Molly Bloom	55	(2)
Barbara F. Lefcowitz
When I Read a Review of the John Travolta Film, Michael	57	(1)
Lyn Lifshin
Emily Dickinson	58	(1)
Michael Longley
In the Flesh	59	(1)
Lee McCarthy
The Most Emily of All	60	(1)
Medbh McGuckian
In and Come In	61	(1)
Archibald MacLeish
The Path Between Houses	62	(1)
Jay Meek
Emily Dickinson in Hell	63	(1)
Peter Meinke
A Love Poem for Emily Dickinson	64	(1)
Bruce Meyer
Emily's Words	65	(1)
Leslie Monsour
HD/ED	66	(2)
Aife Murray
Emily Dickinson's Defunct	68	(1)
Marilyn Nelson
Emily	69	(2)
Peter Nicholson
Emily in Choir	71	(1)
Kathleen Norris
``Half-Cracked Poetess,''	72	(1)
Joyce Carol Oates
Emily Dickinson's Writing Table in Her Bedroom at the Homestead, Amherst Mass	73	(1)
Sharon Olds
Frowning at Emily	74	(1)
Alicia Suskin Ostriker
for Emily (Dickinson)	75	(1)
Maureen Owen
[Most sensual of recluses]	76	(1)
Ron Padgett
Emily Dickinson	77	(1)
Linda Pastan
Because I Could Not Dump	78	(1)
Andrea Paterson
Desire	79	(1)
Molly Peacock
Feathered Friends	80	(1)
Robert Peters
Emily Dickinson's Ankle	81	(3)
John Reinhard
Emily Dickinson's Mirror, Amherst	84	(1)
Donald Revell
``I Am in Danger---Sir---,''	85	(1)
Adrienne Rich
The Houses of Emily Dickinson	86	(1)
Larry Rubin
The Upper Story	87	(3)
Mary Jo Salter
Emily Dickinson	90	(1)
Gary Smith
Emily Dickinson Reading Walt Whitman	91	(2)
Barton Levi St. Armand
Emily	93	(1)
William Stafford
Lithograph of Amherst	94	(1)
Lynn Strongin
Lost and Found	95	(1)
Mark Vinz
Between the Lines	96	(1)
Theodore Weiss
Altitudes	97	(2)
Richard Wilbur
To Dickinson	99	(1)
Diane Williams
To Emily Dickinson	100	(1)
Yvor Winters
Emily Dickinson at Coleville	101	(1)
Harold Witt
Visiting Emily Dickinson	102	(2)
Charles Wright
Emily Dickinson, Bismarck and the Roadrunner's Inquiry	104	(5)
Ray Young Bear
Notes on Contributors	109	(10)
Permissions	119	(6)
Index to Titles	125