WHO IS EMILY DICKINSON?
Have you ever wondered who Emily Dickinson was?
Or what Billy Collins relationship with her poetry is all about?
Here is a link that briefly describes Dickinson's life and death- https://www.youtube.com/ emily dickinson
Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes
First, her tippet made of tulle,
easily lifted off her shoulders and laid
on the back of a wooden chair.
And her bonnet,
the bow undone with a light forward pull.
Then the long white dress, a more
complicated matter with mother-of-pearl
buttons down the back,
so tiny and numerous that it takes forever
before my hands can part the fabric,
like a swimmer's dividing water,
and slip inside.
You will want to know
that she was standing
by an open window in an upstairs bedroom,
motionless, a little wide-eyed,
looking out at the orchard below,
the white dress puddled at her feet
on the wide-board, hardwood floor.
The complexity of women's undergarments
in nineteenth century America
is not to be waved off,
and I proceed like a polar explorer
through clips, clasps, and moorings,
catches, straps, and whalebone stays,
sailing toward the iceberg of her nakedness.
Later, I wrote in a notebook
it was like riding a swan into the night
but, of course, I cannot tell you everything-
the way she closed her eyes to the orchard,
how her hair tumbled free of its pins,
how there were sudden dashes
whenever we spoke.
What i can tell you is
it was terribly quiet in Amherst
that Sabbath afternoon,
nothing but a carriage passing the house,
a fly buzzing in a windowpane.
So I could plainly hear her inhale
when I undid the very top
hook-and-eye fastener of her corset.
and I could hear her sigh when finally it was unloosened,
the way some readers sigh when they realize
that Hope has feathers
that reason is a plank,
that life is a loaded gun
that looks right at you with a yellow eye.
This poem in particular is one of my favourites because Collins literally takes off Emily Dickinson's clothes. Despite the sexual connotations associated with this poem, it is something people have been trying to do metaphorically since her death. There is very little information about Emily Dickinson so like Collins we must use her poetry to determine who she was. Below is a link to an interview of Billy Collins on Fresh Air Radio. In this interview he explains his fascination with Dickinson's poetry and his opinion on her history.
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