national poetry month

Emily Dickinson, Poetry That Can ‘Break the Brain’

Emily Dickinson, Poetry That Can ‘Break the Brain’
April is National Poetry Month, a time to learn more about the work of Massachusetts’ own Emily Dickinson. Photo from openculture.com

This poem is an excellent entrance point into Emily Dickinson’s work; it shows off the two things she does best. First, the slow realization that life is both utterly fulfilling AND sad, somehow all at once. That problem can be found in the very first line with the empty word “it” that begins the poem and with the word “eventually” at the end of the line (which equivocates the initial future tense).  

The poem then moves through a series of the gorgeous metaphors while also showing off her second, unequaled talent: the ability to show the sheer strangeness of life. Bees despising a tune? Is “frill” an adjective or a verb? Mostly, that strangeness settles into the last four lines. They break out into two metaphors with a jarring “slant” rhyme (“gown” — “done”) that makes the poem feel incomplete just when it should neatly wrap things up. I’ve taught Dickinson for more than 35 years and her poetry always does the same thing: It breaks my brain.

 

It will be Summer — eventually

It will be Summer — eventually.

Ladies — with parasols —

Sauntering Gentlemen — with Canes —

And little Girls — with Dolls —

 

Will tint the pallid landscape —

As ’twere a bright Bouquet —

Thro’ drifted deep, in Parian —

The Village lies — today —

 

The Lilacs — bending many a year —

Will sway with purple load —

The Bees — will not despise the tune —

Their Forefathers — have hummed —

 

The Wild Rose — redden in the Bog —

The Aster — on the Hill

Her everlasting fashion — set —

And Covenant Gentians — frill —

 

Till Summer folds her miracle —

As Women — do — their Gown —

Of Priests — adjust the Symbols —

When Sacrament — is done —

— Emily Dickinson

 

Mark Scarbrough is a former academic, a current cookbook writer and the very popular leader of literature classes and reading groups in the Tristate region. His newest class, through the Cornwall Library in Cornwall, Conn., is “Emily Dickinson: The Brightness Of Being.” The eight-week Zoom class began April 6 and continues to May 25, and meets on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. until about 11:45 a.m. To register, go to www.cornwalllibrary.org/events.

national poetry month

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