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Mark I take your points, absolutely. But 'madness' seemed to me a bit extreme, while the other terms don't. I agree that both male & female critics have kept the flame alight. I realize, as I no longer have to read 'academic' criticism that it is books like Susan Howe's My Emily Dickinson that really reach me, but then we can find essays by male poets that also find in her predecessor writing, an influence that is so important. She certainly did see from a different angle, and that slant is still true.... Doug On 30-Jun-07, at 9:33 AM, Mark Weiss wrote: > How about "oddness," "eccentricity," etc. Emily Dickinson was an > outsider artist. To deny her peculiarities is, I think, to disparage > the contributions of those whose mental or emotional status is, let's > say, compromised. To admit them is not to dismiss her or diminish the > value of what she sees from a slightly different angle from the rest > of us. > > It's become something of a cliche to see Dickinson's reputation as the > hostage of mostly male critics who have noticed that she was at the > least a bit strange. Those same male critics have consistently placed > her in the top ranks of American poets. As far back as Untermeyer, she > was paired with Whitman as the great precursor of 20th century > American poetry. > > We use the past, natch, for our own purposes, but in doing so we > sometimes deny the dead their own integrity, which includes their > deformities. A pity--what we learn from, I think, is difference. > > Curiously, nobody seems to mind that Smart was as mad as a hatter. Or > for that matter that Wieners was schizophrenic. > > Mark > > At 11:19 AM 6/30/2007, you wrote: >> Wonderful poet, absolutely, visionary, for sure, but I'm not sure >> madness fits... >> >> Doug >> On 29-Jun-07, at 1:28 PM, Anny Ballardini wrote: >> >>> I agree. Welcome back Jon. >>> >>> On 6/29/07, Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>>> >>>> The greatest poet of visionary madness, I think, in English language >>>> poetry. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> =================================== >>>> >>>> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/ >>>> >>>> =================================== >>> >> Douglas Barbour >> 11655 - 72 Avenue NW >> Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9 >> (780) 436 3320 >> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ >> >> Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy) >> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664 >> >> >> God be with you, my dears. You keep >> the old bugger. I shan't be needing him! >> >> Norman Douglas (last words) > > Douglas Barbour 11655 - 72 Avenue NW Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9 (780) 436 3320 http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/ Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy) http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664 God be with you, my dears. You keep the old bugger. I shan't be needing him! Norman Douglas (last words)