Focus on Flowers

2005: Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was born in 1830 and lived all of her 56 years in Amherst, Massachusetts where, during her lifetime, she was celebrated more as a gardener than a poet. Gardening in mid-Victorian times was thought to be a more appropriate activity for a woman. In her book "The Gardens of Emily Dickinson" (Harvard University Press, 2004), Judith Farr explains how Emily's hands-on-horticultural knowledge influenced her writing so profoundly. She frequently referred to herself and loved ones using flower names; flower images and garden themes were used to explore her emotional reality. She described heaven as a "garden we have not seen" and her poems as "blossoms of the brain." As a gardener, she understood that without the chill of winter, some perennial plants cannot produce new growth. Bleak times in human lives, like winter in a garden, however, may be a prelude to growth and new beginnings. For Emily, winter had a masculine persona and a stony aspect, but she also felt the promise of relief when she wrote these lines about her winter:

"Generic as a
Quarry
And hearty - as
A rose -
Invited with
Asperity
But welcome
When he goes"

This is Moya Andrews and today we focused on Emily Dickinson.

WFIU
Created and maintained by Michael Toler
Last updated: Monday, February 21, 2005
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Indiana University