Post by louisa on Nov 25, 2008 1:09:53 GMT 2
I Cannot Live with You
by Emily Dickinson
Submitted by Mary Meriam
Fragments of Emily Dickinson's lines often float through my. Mind—"wrecked solitary here," "Beauty crowds me till I die." But the root of emotion in "I cannot live with You" binds every line together into a resounding whole. It is a whole poem capturing heartbreak, every stuttering dash expressing anguish. Yet as I read this poem, the "sound" of the dashes is sometimes barely audible, hardly intrusive, as if the force of the words pushes the dashes aside. It is a highly articulate cry. As Robert Frost put it, "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."
Dickinson never married, though her poems and letters suggest that she loved both men and women. "I cannot live with You" suggests that. Dickinson longed to be married but could not. I can think of a group of people in our society who long to be married but cannot. At first, I was sure Dickinson wrote this poem to a woman she loved, her sister-in-law, Susan. But Dickinson scholar, Lillian Faderman, believes that Dickinson's letters to Rev. Wadsworth suggests that she loved him, too. Wadsworth was already married and had moved to California, far from Dickinson in Massachusetts. "For You - served Heaven" could refer to Rev. Wadsworth.
Man or woman, "You" is the object of longing. The "I" of the Plaintively repeating phrases "I cannot" and "I could not" is being
boxed in by circumstance. The poem confronts frustration bravely. I hope somehow it's a comfort to Dickinson that, one hundred years later, her anguish is completely understood by this reader.
To Read I Cannot Live With You:
poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15802
ED Collections:
www.powells.com/s?kw=Emily,
by Emily Dickinson
Submitted by Mary Meriam
Fragments of Emily Dickinson's lines often float through my. Mind—"wrecked solitary here," "Beauty crowds me till I die." But the root of emotion in "I cannot live with You" binds every line together into a resounding whole. It is a whole poem capturing heartbreak, every stuttering dash expressing anguish. Yet as I read this poem, the "sound" of the dashes is sometimes barely audible, hardly intrusive, as if the force of the words pushes the dashes aside. It is a highly articulate cry. As Robert Frost put it, "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words."
Dickinson never married, though her poems and letters suggest that she loved both men and women. "I cannot live with You" suggests that. Dickinson longed to be married but could not. I can think of a group of people in our society who long to be married but cannot. At first, I was sure Dickinson wrote this poem to a woman she loved, her sister-in-law, Susan. But Dickinson scholar, Lillian Faderman, believes that Dickinson's letters to Rev. Wadsworth suggests that she loved him, too. Wadsworth was already married and had moved to California, far from Dickinson in Massachusetts. "For You - served Heaven" could refer to Rev. Wadsworth.
Man or woman, "You" is the object of longing. The "I" of the Plaintively repeating phrases "I cannot" and "I could not" is being
boxed in by circumstance. The poem confronts frustration bravely. I hope somehow it's a comfort to Dickinson that, one hundred years later, her anguish is completely understood by this reader.
To Read I Cannot Live With You:
poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15802
ED Collections:
www.powells.com/s?kw=Emily,