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Say it Again! Saxon!: The Erotic Intimate Space of Reading

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Marianne Noble explores Emily Dickinson’s celebration of the neurological and emotional intimacies of reading in the context of mid-nineteenth-century Anglo-American literary culture.

Image courtesy of interviewee. April 18, 2024

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This video video provides a detailed overview of the life and work of American poet Emily Dickinson, highlighting her significance as a major figure alongside Walt Whitman. Born in 1830 and passing in 1886, Dickinson spent most of her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she received a good education. Despite her literary prowess, she was largely unrecognized during her lifetime, with roughly 1,800 poems discovered posthumously by her sister, Lavinia, leading to a posthumous publication that garnered immense acclaim.

The speaker elaborates on Dickinson's relationship with literature, her reading habits, and her intimate correspondence with close friends. Dickinson's poetry, which reflects the Romantic era, incorporates a sense of intimacy and emotional depth, resonating with the belief that an author's presence is infused in their work. The speaker analyzes the sensual and tactile qualities of Dickinson's poetry, emphasizing its unique style and the emotional responses it elicits.

Specific poems are discussed, illustrating themes of intimacy and eroticism. The idea that reading is an intensely communal and intimate experience is emphasized, likening the relationship between the reader and the text to a kind of erotic communication. The speaker posits that through Dickinson's work, a "non-normative" and queer form of eroticism is presented, focusing on the experience of the poem itself rather than any traditional climax.

In conclusion, Dickinson's poetry is positioned as a vital exploration of intimacy that invokes deep emotional and sensual engagement, distinguishing her work from more conventional forms of erotic expression.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.065 --> 00:02.965
So Emily Dickinson was, the greatest American poet

00:02.965 --> 00:04.765
that ever lived along with Walt Whitman.

00:05.265 --> 00:09.605
Uh, she, she was born in 1830 and died in 1886.

00:10.225 --> 00:12.245
Uh, so she was writing in the middle of the romantic era.

00:12.505 --> 00:15.285
She, she lived in Amherst, Massachusetts.

00:15.745 --> 00:19.125
Uh, she was born to an influential family in that town.

00:19.465 --> 00:21.245
And, so she was well educated.

00:21.505 --> 00:23.045
Her family, they were, you know,

00:23.045 --> 00:24.445
an influential family in the town.

00:24.445 --> 00:26.925
They were involved with, Amherst College.

00:26.985 --> 00:29.205
And so she was too, she had a good

00:29.275 --> 00:31.045
education at Amherst Academy.

00:31.665 --> 00:34.125
Uh, she went to Mount Holyoke College for one year,

00:34.705 --> 00:37.205
and then, she didn't, she didn't stay there.

00:37.985 --> 00:40.445
She returned home partly because of ill health.

00:40.505 --> 00:41.965
Partly I think she was homesick.

00:42.505 --> 00:44.445
She says her father didn't want her to stay.

00:44.505 --> 00:46.685
So she came home and,

00:46.685 --> 00:48.445
basically stayed home for the rest of her life.

00:48.785 --> 00:53.605
Um, she had some intimate, very close intimate relationships

00:54.115 --> 00:55.525
with a small number of people.

00:56.065 --> 00:59.325
Um, and then, and so she wrote letters to them.

00:59.625 --> 01:04.165
And, and then she, so she,

01:04.765 --> 01:06.605
I, I, I, I think that her life was really

01:06.685 --> 01:07.725
a life of literature.

01:08.185 --> 01:12.885
So she read all the time extensively, everybody,

01:13.805 --> 01:16.565
Emerson and Hawthorne and Longfellow,

01:16.565 --> 01:19.085
and then all the, the Brits, Keatts.

01:19.105 --> 01:23.315
And, Byron Shelly,

01:24.015 --> 01:26.915
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

01:26.915 --> 01:29.195
She, she loved all of the British and American poetry.

01:29.775 --> 01:31.275
She also read, you know, fiction.

01:31.455 --> 01:35.675
She loved Bronte, George Elliot, people like that.

01:36.455 --> 01:39.655
So, yeah, so she didn't really,

01:41.165 --> 01:44.545
so basically she had a life of, of literature, I would say.

01:45.165 --> 01:47.785
Uh, when she died, her sister

01:47.925 --> 01:52.665
and maid discovered in her her drawer, 1,700

01:52.685 --> 01:54.505
and some odd poems, like a lot.

01:54.525 --> 01:55.905
And everyone knew that she was a poet,

01:55.965 --> 01:59.025
but they were not aware of the extent of what she had done.

01:59.025 --> 02:01.105
And it was really very thrilling discovery.

02:01.885 --> 02:03.865
And, so Lavinia, her sister,

02:03.895 --> 02:05.225
made sure to get it published.

02:05.285 --> 02:08.905
She pu the first edition came out in 1890, so six years

02:08.915 --> 02:11.145
after her death, or four years after her death.

02:11.925 --> 02:14.385
Uh, and, and it just, it exploded.

02:14.445 --> 02:16.665
It took the literary world by storm, which is awesome.

02:16.895 --> 02:18.665
Stephen Crane admired it.

02:18.665 --> 02:20.905
William Dean Howells, wrote,

02:21.185 --> 02:22.665
reviewed it very enthusiastically.

02:23.205 --> 02:25.225
Um, Henry James really liked it.

02:25.605 --> 02:27.425
So it was, it was, it was quite exciting.

02:27.645 --> 02:29.065
Um, and, you know, and

02:29.185 --> 02:31.945
'cause she was completely unknown until after her death.

02:32.525 --> 02:34.105
So, let me, let me just tell you,

02:34.105 --> 02:35.265
a little story about this.

02:35.525 --> 02:40.265
So, when she was 32, she read an essay called Letter

02:40.285 --> 02:43.265
to a Young contributor by Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

02:43.265 --> 02:45.665
He was a, well-known literary critic,

02:45.665 --> 02:47.625
radical abolitionist ex minister.

02:48.405 --> 02:50.185
And he had published this in the Atlantic Month,

02:50.205 --> 02:51.985
and it was called Letter to a Young contributor,

02:52.465 --> 02:55.665
encouraging people to send him their poetry

02:56.285 --> 02:58.585
and to just to publish, really trying to encourage people

02:58.585 --> 03:00.160
who might be be seeking publication.

03:00.545 --> 03:02.005
And so Dickinson wrote him.

03:02.025 --> 03:04.085
She reached out to him and,

03:04.195 --> 03:06.085
sent him a number of her poems.

03:06.705 --> 03:09.925
Uh, and we don't have his letter back to her,

03:10.225 --> 03:13.005
but we have her, the letter she returned to him.

03:13.505 --> 03:15.645
And in that letter, she says that, you know, you,

03:16.105 --> 03:17.725
you say, I shouldn't publish.

03:18.115 --> 03:20.245
Okay? Uh, I don't really wanna publish,

03:20.605 --> 03:22.365
although I think, why else would she have written him?

03:22.905 --> 03:26.525
So, and then she said, you know, he said, you know, you say,

03:26.545 --> 03:28.285
my, my gait is spasmodic.

03:29.025 --> 03:32.175
And, and she says, I have no tribunal.

03:32.635 --> 03:35.415
And so it makes it sound like her, you know, her, the meter

03:35.415 --> 03:37.015
of her poetry is rough,

03:37.195 --> 03:41.055
and it is in fact, it can be jarring, often,

03:41.235 --> 03:43.175
and that it's deliberate on her part.

03:43.175 --> 03:45.175
And she could very easily have smoothed things out,

03:45.195 --> 03:46.935
but, you know, chose to do it differently.

03:47.515 --> 03:50.215
But I think he probably meant that she was influenced

03:50.275 --> 03:52.695
by a cool, a school called the Spasmodic.

03:53.155 --> 03:56.615
It was a fad, in 1840s and fifties

03:56.835 --> 03:58.535
and kind of dying in the sixties.

03:58.755 --> 04:01.615
But spasmodic poetry was,

04:01.735 --> 04:05.655
a group they were really interested in very,

04:05.725 --> 04:06.855
very powerful poetry.

04:07.115 --> 04:09.455
So it was very emotionally overwrought,

04:09.675 --> 04:12.415
and the meters were just crazy, really outrageous.

04:12.475 --> 04:13.775
So they were really experimental.

04:13.805 --> 04:15.335
This is the end of the romantic era.

04:15.875 --> 04:17.815
Um, it's like, you know, it's the tail end of it,

04:17.815 --> 04:19.455
and it's just things are very fervent,

04:19.525 --> 04:21.575
very emotional, very florid.

04:21.595 --> 04:23.975
And I think that he, you know, was probably suggesting

04:23.975 --> 04:26.295
that affiliating her with the Spasmodic School

04:26.715 --> 04:28.175
of Poetry, right?

04:28.275 --> 04:30.375
So, so again, so she's a romantic,

04:30.375 --> 04:32.015
she's writing in the romantic era.

04:32.555 --> 04:34.575
At the time, there was a strong belief

04:34.575 --> 04:37.055
that poetry was really intimate, that,

04:37.195 --> 04:38.215
or literature in general.

04:38.235 --> 04:39.415
And people, they felt

04:39.415 --> 04:41.695
that the writer himself was actually

04:41.935 --> 04:43.975
encapsulated into what he wrote.

04:44.515 --> 04:49.345
Um, so, so for example, Walt Whitman, you know, he wrote

04:50.055 --> 04:51.745
Rado, this is no book.

04:52.165 --> 04:55.065
Who touches this, touches a man. Is it night?

04:55.525 --> 04:58.345
Are we here alone together? Is it I you hold?

04:58.345 --> 05:01.625
And who holds you? I spring from the pages into your arms.

05:02.445 --> 05:04.185
So, I mean, it's really wonderful

05:04.185 --> 05:05.305
and outrageous, this idea

05:05.305 --> 05:07.145
that the poet himself is in the book.

05:07.885 --> 05:11.915
Um, and, but Dickinson felt the same way.

05:12.375 --> 05:15.195
Um, and she valued books, you know, for the intimacy

05:15.195 --> 05:16.955
that she, that she thought she could

05:16.955 --> 05:18.075
experience with the author.

05:18.855 --> 05:20.435
Um, and, and it was, you know,

05:20.575 --> 05:21.755
so it was part of the era.

05:22.335 --> 05:25.555
Um, so Lydia, Mariah Child said, all how all alive,

05:25.655 --> 05:27.395
the book is glowing

05:27.395 --> 05:30.995
and effervescent, like champagne poured out in the sunshine.

05:31.535 --> 05:33.755
So I think that Dickinson wanted to write works like that.

05:33.775 --> 05:35.635
She wanted to write works that were alive,

05:35.665 --> 05:37.315
that were passionately alive.

05:37.935 --> 05:41.035
She said in one poem that, she compares poets

05:41.035 --> 05:43.035
to magicians and their, you know, and their,

05:43.175 --> 05:44.635
and their poetry is magic.

05:44.695 --> 05:49.275
And she says, magic hath an element like deity to keep.

05:49.975 --> 05:53.395
And so she wants to create poetry that, that keeps

05:53.465 --> 05:54.635
that magic alive.

05:55.015 --> 05:56.795
And so Higginson in that

05:56.795 --> 05:59.405
Essay that I mentioned before, he said

05:59.405 --> 06:02.485
that good writing is so saturated with warm life

06:03.025 --> 06:04.645
and delicious association,

06:05.075 --> 06:07.005
that every sentence shall palpitate

06:07.025 --> 06:10.285
and thrill with the mere fascination of the syllables.

06:10.665 --> 06:12.885
And I think that that's why she reached out to him.

06:13.405 --> 06:15.685
'cause that's what she was trying to do was,

06:15.785 --> 06:18.285
and she's like, okay, here's somebody who gets it.

06:18.345 --> 06:20.205
And he, you know, he knows he's a pro.

06:20.625 --> 06:23.285
He can tell me if my stuff has, you know, warm life.

06:23.785 --> 06:25.805
So she wrote him the first letter that she wrote,

06:25.915 --> 06:27.665
said, dear Mr.

06:27.665 --> 06:30.305
Higginson, are you too deeply occupied to say,

06:30.325 --> 06:34.565
if my verse is alive, the mind is so near itself,

06:34.745 --> 06:37.765
it cannot see distinctly, and I have none to ask.

06:38.345 --> 06:39.685
Should you think it breathed

06:39.685 --> 06:41.365
and had you leisure to tell me I should

06:41.365 --> 06:42.525
feel quick gratitude?

06:43.185 --> 06:45.845
And, and so what I wanna lean on is the idea

06:45.845 --> 06:48.325
that her verse is alive and that it reads.

06:48.595 --> 06:49.765
It's really what she's trying to do.

06:49.945 --> 06:53.445
And she's in keeping with, with her era, right?

06:53.585 --> 06:55.925
So iterate, you know, many poets

06:55.925 --> 06:58.205
and theorists for the era were really interest.

06:58.205 --> 06:59.445
They believed that good.

06:59.705 --> 07:02.245
The, the good verse did that, that it had an aliveness

07:02.745 --> 07:04.685
of itself, that it kept the poet alive.

07:04.705 --> 07:09.595
And so, you know, so the GH Lewis,

07:09.725 --> 07:13.275
who's the, the partner of Marianne Evans, who we know

07:13.295 --> 07:15.115
as George Elliot,

07:15.175 --> 07:19.035
he wrote a whole study on the physiological effects of books

07:19.615 --> 07:21.195
on the nerves of readers.

07:21.695 --> 07:25.555
Um, he's very interested in just how they work on our bodies

07:25.695 --> 07:28.915
and at the center of everything as a nervous system.

07:29.615 --> 07:31.395
Uh, and, he felt that

07:31.395 --> 07:33.355
because we all have the same nervous systems,

07:34.045 --> 07:36.395
books affect us the same way,

07:36.465 --> 07:39.155
because we're all kind of like touched by this.

07:39.155 --> 07:42.955
And so there's a kind of a community, he says, that's formed

07:43.055 --> 07:45.955
of readers because we read, we get the same sort of nervous

07:46.515 --> 07:47.515
stimulus, which is the book,

07:47.975 --> 07:50.235
and it acts similarly upon our nerves.

07:50.235 --> 07:52.755
And there's a, a unifying effect that happens.

07:52.855 --> 07:54.875
And he's very, he's very interested in that.

07:54.875 --> 07:56.915
And so Dickinson too is really interested in

07:56.915 --> 07:58.115
those intimacies.

07:58.615 --> 07:59.915
So, you know, different, I think

07:59.915 --> 08:01.355
that Dickinson's poems are unique.

08:01.355 --> 08:02.915
They're really very different from other

08:02.915 --> 08:04.275
poetry in my experience.

08:04.615 --> 08:06.595
And I'm really, I believe that they breathe.

08:06.915 --> 08:09.115
I believe that they have that vitality that she sought.

08:09.115 --> 08:10.715
They really, for me, are very singular,

08:10.775 --> 08:12.995
and I'm really interested in trying to understand

08:13.345 --> 08:16.075
what it is, what she does that makes her poems have

08:16.075 --> 08:19.395
that all alive quality, that makes it so satisfying.

08:19.495 --> 08:22.475
And so I think that her poems are sensual in many ways,

08:22.855 --> 08:25.235
and they create an intimate experience by,

08:25.945 --> 08:27.795
they bring disparate elements together.

08:27.945 --> 08:29.755
It's almost like going into a room.

08:30.255 --> 08:31.955
Um, I compare it to going into a room there.

08:32.015 --> 08:36.115
So there's various, you know, qua syntactic or syntactic

08:36.255 --> 08:38.155
and sensual qualities.

08:38.535 --> 08:42.075
So, and so in the study that we're talking about,

08:42.395 --> 08:44.195
I do a, a reading of a poem.

08:44.295 --> 08:46.915
And so I'll, I'll read the poem for you. It's quite short.

08:48.335 --> 08:50.515
So, so it's goes like this.

08:50.815 --> 08:55.215
All the letters I can write are not fair as this syllables

08:55.265 --> 08:59.625
of velvet sentences, of plush depths of ruby

09:00.175 --> 09:04.315
untrained hid lip for the play.

09:04.315 --> 09:07.155
It we a hummingbird and just sipped me.

09:09.405 --> 09:11.225
So that's very, it's an unusual poem.

09:11.335 --> 09:14.345
It's, it's, it's suggestive, but it's not like clear.

09:14.405 --> 09:16.105
It doesn't just pop the way a Hallmark

09:16.105 --> 09:17.185
card might pop for you.

09:17.815 --> 09:20.065
It's like, it's interesting, it's provocative,

09:20.165 --> 09:21.585
but it's not entire clear.

09:22.125 --> 09:24.385
So it's helpful when we begin to think about the poem

09:24.385 --> 09:26.985
to know that when she sent it to her cousin, Mrs.

09:27.115 --> 09:30.665
Yosha Flint, and accompanying the poem was a flower.

09:31.125 --> 09:33.505
So when she says, all the letters I can write are not,

09:33.905 --> 09:36.625
is this, she's comparing her poem to the,

09:36.645 --> 09:37.705
to a flower, right?

09:37.845 --> 09:42.545
And so, so poems are like flowers, she says, so poems

09:42.805 --> 09:45.025
and flowers have syllables of velvet.

09:46.055 --> 09:49.115
Um, yeah. So flowers is a poem. It has syllables.

09:49.115 --> 09:51.115
And then she says sentences of plush.

09:51.855 --> 09:55.055
So flowers communicate, you know, with sentences,

09:55.115 --> 09:56.615
but poems are like flowers.

09:56.675 --> 09:59.455
So they have syllables of velvet, sentences of plush.

09:59.455 --> 10:02.615
So there's, there's really, just, I don't know what

10:03.275 --> 10:06.495
an interesting, I would guess, connection between poetry

10:06.635 --> 10:08.335
and flowers that, that she develops here.

10:09.705 --> 10:13.405
So, so I think that, so we imagine this flower, right?

10:13.425 --> 10:16.405
She says, she goes on, she, so we have these syllables

10:16.405 --> 10:17.925
of velvet, these sentences of plush,

10:17.925 --> 10:22.085
and then she goes on depths of ruby untrained hid lip

10:22.185 --> 10:23.605
for thee, right?

10:23.665 --> 10:27.045
So the flower itself has depths of ruby inside of it,

10:27.105 --> 10:29.445
and we're invited to imagine that in interior.

10:30.185 --> 10:32.405
Um, and, and she says, hi lip for these.

10:32.425 --> 10:35.845
So we're invited to, to go into it, as it were, or,

10:35.905 --> 10:37.645
or sip it with our lips, right?

10:37.665 --> 10:39.885
To kind of suck the nectar out of it.

10:40.465 --> 10:43.165
So we kind of enter into, there's an, there's a kind

10:43.165 --> 10:45.605
of entering that goes on where we're entering the flower,

10:45.965 --> 10:47.485
entering the poem, right?

10:47.505 --> 10:51.405
And so I, I think that it's, she's creating a space, a kind

10:51.405 --> 10:53.245
of an imagined space that we go into.

10:53.705 --> 10:57.245
And in this imagined space, we encounter these sensual

10:57.345 --> 10:59.645
and tactile, images.

10:59.645 --> 11:01.365
They're, you know, it's very tactile, right?

11:01.505 --> 11:03.925
The poem has a lot of sensual qualities as well.

11:04.465 --> 11:08.085
Um, so, it's got a repetition of l sounds.

11:08.225 --> 11:12.685
She says letters, syllables, velvet, and lip.

11:12.905 --> 11:15.125
And then, so that, that creates, I think,

11:15.205 --> 11:16.885
a really liquid quality for me.

11:16.885 --> 11:20.645
The poem is very liquid. All the letters I can write are not

11:20.645 --> 11:23.565
fair as the syllables of velvet sentences of plush.

11:23.945 --> 11:27.325
So then she's got the repetition of the s's, the syllables

11:27.325 --> 11:29.845
and sentences and sipped,

11:30.025 --> 11:33.645
and then a repetition of it hid lip it and sipped.

11:34.185 --> 11:36.165
And then there's also this image of depths

11:36.165 --> 11:37.565
of ruby untrained.

11:37.755 --> 11:40.525
It's actually a really interest, it's interesting sonically,

11:40.525 --> 11:45.125
because it's D-R-D-R-D depths of ruby untrained.

11:45.625 --> 11:49.205
And when you say it, it has a sensual feeling as you say it,

11:49.345 --> 11:52.725
depths of ruby untrained. Um, it just,

11:52.945 --> 11:54.845
It puts all of this, I think, onto your,

11:55.235 --> 11:56.725
into your lips as you read it.

11:56.745 --> 11:59.765
And so reading the poem is, you know,

11:59.785 --> 12:02.445
it makes its mark on your body as,

12:02.545 --> 12:03.885
as you put it into your mouth.

12:04.425 --> 12:07.325
It also has a, a pretty pronounced and interesting rhythm.

12:07.825 --> 12:11.125
So she says, it goes all the letters I can write, so

12:11.125 --> 12:13.005
that's dump, da, dump, da, dump, dump, dump.

12:13.345 --> 12:17.285
And that, that is repeated. Um, r not fair is this.

12:17.305 --> 12:19.045
So she leaves off the syllable at the end,

12:19.065 --> 12:22.645
but syllables of velvet, sentences of plush, they're unusual

12:22.645 --> 12:26.165
because every line starts with a beat, with a stress.

12:26.785 --> 12:28.525
Um, and then it moves dbi.

12:28.545 --> 12:30.525
So normally I would go, dumb, dumb, dumb,

12:30.525 --> 12:34.605
but it's, anyway, so,

12:35.225 --> 12:36.645
so it's pretty pronounced.

12:36.785 --> 12:38.725
Um, and you know, again, I think that it, that,

12:38.725 --> 12:41.685
that exerts its impact on the body of the reader creating,

12:41.785 --> 12:44.005
sort of sensual experience as we read it.

12:45.005 --> 12:47.345
So then the other thing that I wanna say about the,

12:47.345 --> 12:49.345
you know, the intimacies of this poem is

12:49.345 --> 12:50.625
that I think that they're queer.

12:51.175 --> 12:53.425
It's not merely sensual and intimate,

12:53.445 --> 12:54.905
but it has a queer eroticism.

12:55.965 --> 12:59.625
You know, notably it, you know, it's got lips, you know,

12:59.625 --> 13:03.025
you're like sipping, you know, so la labia

13:03.085 --> 13:05.385
or you know, that female, then a genitalia.

13:05.885 --> 13:09.545
And then that depth of ruby, I think also suggests a kind

13:09.545 --> 13:11.785
of, you know, vaginal quality.

13:11.925 --> 13:13.825
And then we've got lips and sipping

13:13.965 --> 13:17.065
and all of this kind of liquid quality of the poem itself.

13:17.645 --> 13:20.305
It creates a, just a, a queer erotic feeling.

13:20.425 --> 13:21.625
I think it, in any event, it's more,

13:21.705 --> 13:25.545
I would say about female eroticism than it is about sort

13:25.745 --> 13:27.665
of conventional phallic eroticism.

13:28.245 --> 13:30.625
But the reason that I also, you know,

13:30.645 --> 13:31.785
so maybe it could just be female,

13:31.885 --> 13:33.945
but I think that it's queer also in the sense

13:33.945 --> 13:38.745
that it doesn't privilege kind of a phallic penetration

13:38.745 --> 13:41.465
of the flower that gets to the end of the flower that kind

13:41.465 --> 13:44.665
of gets there and discovers that prize at the heart of it,

13:44.975 --> 13:47.905
there's a quest, right, for that heart of the, of the poem

13:48.285 --> 13:49.465
or the heart of the flower.

13:49.525 --> 13:50.585
But it never gets there

13:50.735 --> 13:55.185
because the heart of the thing is actually like the, the

13:55.375 --> 13:57.625
what we, what we might think of as the foreplay, right?

13:57.625 --> 14:00.145
The kind of like the sensuous touching that precedes.

14:00.145 --> 14:03.025
But there's no, there's no telos, there's no culmination.

14:03.725 --> 14:05.425
So, and I'm not alone in thinking this,

14:05.565 --> 14:07.705
I'm actually taking this idea from Margaret Holmans.

14:07.925 --> 14:09.985
But you know, the idea is that, that it,

14:10.175 --> 14:12.385
that it undoes conventional hierarchies

14:12.445 --> 14:15.785
of male female sexuality, creating a more female

14:15.965 --> 14:17.625
to female erotic communication.

14:18.445 --> 14:19.885
Um, yeah.

14:20.265 --> 14:24.165
And so, you know, so ultimately I feel because of, you know,

14:24.165 --> 14:27.485
because of the, the sensuality, the feeling of the space

14:27.505 --> 14:31.965
of the poem itself, some of the erotic imagery,

14:32.425 --> 14:35.525
the, the erotic awkwardness of the, of, you know,

14:35.585 --> 14:36.925
the terms themselves.

14:37.265 --> 14:40.245
That's why I think the poem is all alive, right?

14:40.275 --> 14:43.405
Like what Lydia, Mariah, child blowing effervescent,

14:43.405 --> 14:45.525
like champagne poured out in the sunshine.

14:46.145 --> 14:49.645
So, you know what, one of the things that I think Dickinson,

14:49.745 --> 14:50.965
suggests is

14:51.085 --> 14:54.685
that textual erotics are actually more erotic than

14:54.685 --> 14:56.005
conventional erotics.

14:56.585 --> 14:59.005
Um, that, that, you know, or,

14:59.005 --> 15:00.885
and I don't know about conventional erotics,

15:00.885 --> 15:02.645
but in any event, conventional intercourse, it's

15:02.645 --> 15:05.205
so often when we're together, things are shallow.

15:05.755 --> 15:08.165
It's all about posing and just appearance.

15:08.385 --> 15:11.925
And, but when you have a good book, it touches you

15:11.945 --> 15:13.405
so deeply in so many ways.

15:13.945 --> 15:15.965
And you have this intimate communication

15:15.965 --> 15:17.085
with the author themself

15:17.105 --> 15:19.325
and maybe other au readers at the same time.

15:20.185 --> 15:23.245
And so, so, you know, I think she tries, you know,

15:23.285 --> 15:25.665
I think, I think she suggests that,

15:26.005 --> 15:28.505
and she's not alone in suggesting that I, in fact, you know,

15:28.505 --> 15:30.465
Henry David Thoreau felt much the same way.

15:31.045 --> 15:32.065
Um, that, you know, reading,

15:32.065 --> 15:34.225
reading in particular is really intimate.

15:34.375 --> 15:37.945
It's erotic, and it's, it's not ace, it's not solitary.

15:38.015 --> 15:40.585
It's a deeply communal, communal experience.

15:41.245 --> 15:43.585
So, you know, there's another poem that I write about in my,

15:43.685 --> 15:47.825
in the essay, and, do I, shall I read it?

15:48.975 --> 15:50.865
Yeah. Okay. So it goes like this

15:53.185 --> 15:56.435
many a phrase has the English language I have heard,

15:56.435 --> 16:00.315
but one low is the laughter of the cricket loud

16:00.415 --> 16:04.955
as the thunder's tongue murmuring, like old cassian choirs,

16:05.185 --> 16:09.625
when the tides alone saying it's itself in new inflection,

16:10.295 --> 16:14.305
like a whipper will, breaking in bright orthography on my

16:14.305 --> 16:17.785
simple sleep thundering its perspective till I stir

16:18.205 --> 16:21.825
and weep, not for the sorrow done me, but the push of joy.

16:23.045 --> 16:27.425
Say it again. Saxon hush only to me.

16:28.765 --> 16:29.965
I love this poem so much.

16:30.605 --> 16:33.805
I, you know, the ending to me, I think is just so funny.

16:34.305 --> 16:36.405
She says, say it again, Saxon,

16:37.145 --> 16:39.565
and maybe like her lover, she's calling her lover.

16:39.565 --> 16:40.965
The, you know, it's a, it seems like a love poem.

16:40.965 --> 16:42.965
They're in bed together maybe, and maybe she's calling him

16:43.385 --> 16:45.365
or her Saxon, right?

16:45.665 --> 16:48.245
But it's also, so it's like, say it again, sex in,

16:48.245 --> 16:49.525
but then at the same time, it's like,

16:49.985 --> 16:52.045
say it again in plain English.

16:52.155 --> 16:56.245
Like, give me just the straight stuff. Talk to me baby.

16:56.705 --> 17:00.045
You know, like, don't, don't do anything else.

17:00.185 --> 17:01.405
You know, like, let's not have sex.

17:01.455 --> 17:03.205
Let's talk, you know,

17:03.325 --> 17:05.485
or like, let's have a really interesting

17:06.195 --> 17:07.765
poem about eroticism.

17:07.825 --> 17:10.125
And so the poem is very erotic, you know, she's like,

17:10.505 --> 17:12.445
she says, many a phrase has the English language,

17:12.445 --> 17:14.805
and maybe, maybe the hidden phrase is, I love you.

17:14.835 --> 17:17.565
That seems possible. My students think so.

17:17.905 --> 17:20.245
She says, I've only heard one, one phrase,

17:20.665 --> 17:22.805
and it's low is the laughter of a cricket.

17:23.705 --> 17:25.285
And so crickets are quiet, right?

17:25.285 --> 17:27.485
They make a low noise, but it's like, it's a laughter.

17:27.665 --> 17:31.545
And so that's really, we just imagine that,

17:31.605 --> 17:33.305
but it's at the same time, it's loud

17:33.325 --> 17:35.265
as the thunder's tongue, right?

17:35.405 --> 17:38.865
And so it's both quiet and loud at the same time.

17:39.005 --> 17:42.265
And so, you know, there's some sensual imagery

17:42.265 --> 17:43.545
that we're invited to experience,

17:43.545 --> 17:46.105
and then it murmurs like old Caspian choirs.

17:46.725 --> 17:49.145
So we don't really know Caspian, what is Caspian?

17:49.195 --> 17:52.365
It's sort of eastern and exotic in some way, right?

17:52.385 --> 17:55.845
But Caspian inquires that murmur when the tides are low.

17:56.465 --> 17:57.685
And then it's like a whipper will,

17:57.685 --> 17:59.285
which is a very emphatic whipper will

17:59.285 --> 18:00.405
whipper will whipper will.

18:00.625 --> 18:03.005
So it murmurs, but at the same time, it's very emphatic.

18:03.025 --> 18:05.525
So there are these interesting contradictions,

18:05.525 --> 18:07.925
and we kind of inhabit them as we read the poem

18:08.425 --> 18:09.725
and just imagine these things.

18:10.585 --> 18:12.405
Um, and then, you know, she says it,

18:12.505 --> 18:16.205
it breaks in bright orthography on my simple sleep, right?

18:16.225 --> 18:18.165
So there she is in bed, right?

18:18.165 --> 18:21.405
And it's breaking on her like orthography, which is,

18:21.405 --> 18:23.645
you know, the, this, the idea of correct writing.

18:24.425 --> 18:27.285
Um, and it just breaks. So this writing breaks on her,

18:27.865 --> 18:31.205
you know, until, you know, until she stirs and weeps, right?

18:31.265 --> 18:33.685
So you're, and but not from sorrow, from joy,

18:33.715 --> 18:34.765
from the push of joy.

18:35.345 --> 18:36.925
And so, you know, there's a lot of,

18:36.985 --> 18:40.245
and again, we have some erotic, a cluster

18:40.345 --> 18:42.565
of erotic images like laughter

18:42.665 --> 18:46.165
and the thunder's tongue, the tide, you know,

18:46.555 --> 18:47.765
it's lulling quality.

18:47.895 --> 18:51.325
She's in sleep, and then she stirs and weeps, you know?

18:51.325 --> 18:52.725
But what is it that is, you know,

18:52.965 --> 18:54.205
creating this erotic experience?

18:54.205 --> 18:55.485
It's this poem, right?

18:55.485 --> 18:56.525
It's the poem itself

18:56.525 --> 18:59.205
and the sororities of it that are just, thrilling.

18:59.825 --> 19:01.295
So yeah.

19:01.635 --> 19:05.055
So, yeah, that's what I've got.

19:05.115 --> 19:07.815
So, so again, so the point I would say is the sensual

19:07.925 --> 19:11.975
encounter with the poem itself, rather than some climax,

19:12.065 --> 19:16.845
which is what I think makes it, non-normative,

19:16.865 --> 19:18.725
in some way and non-normative sexuality.

19:18.905 --> 19:20.565
Um, and, and feminine

19:21.105 --> 19:24.405
and queer creating, you know, I think spaces for a queer

19:24.545 --> 19:26.045
or a different kind of eroticism.

Emily Dickinson: Life, Poetry, and Legacy

00:00:00 - So Emily Dickinson was, the greatest American poet that ever lived along with Walt Whitman. she, she was born in 1830 and died in 1886. so she was writing in the middle of the romantic era. She, she lived in Amherst, Massachusetts. she was born to an influential family in that town. And, so she was well educated. Her family, they were, you know, an influential family in the town. They were involved with, Amherst College. And so she was too, she had a good education at Amherst Academy.
00:00:34 - and then, she didn't, she didn't stay there. She returned home partly because of ill health. Partly I think she was homesick. She says her father didn't want her to stay. So she came home and, basically stayed home for the rest of her life. she had some intimate, very close intimate relationships with a small number of people. and then, and so she wrote letters to them. And, and then she, so she,
00:01:06 - a life of literature. So she read all the time extensively, everybody, Emerson and Hawthorne and Longfellow, and then all the, the Brits, Keatts. And, Byron Shelly, Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She, she loved all of the British and American poetry. She also read, you know, fiction. She loved Bronte, George Elliot, people like that.
00:01:41 - so basically she had a life of, of literature, I would say. when she died, her sister and maid discovered in her her drawer, 1,700 and some odd poems, like a lot. And everyone knew that she was a poet, but they were not aware of the extent of what she had done. And it was really very thrilling discovery. And, so Lavinia, her sister, made sure to get it published. She pu the first edition came out in 1890, so six years
00:02:11 - and, and it just, it exploded. It took the literary world by storm, which is awesome. Stephen Crane admired it. William Dean Howells, wrote, reviewed it very enthusiastically. Henry James really liked it. So it was, it was, it was quite exciting. and, you know, and 'cause she was completely unknown until after her death. So, let me, let me just tell you, a little story about this. So, when she was 32, she read an essay called Letter
00:02:43 - He was a, well-known literary critic, radical abolitionist ex minister. And he had published this in the Atlantic Month, and it was called Letter to a Young contributor, encouraging people to send him their poetry and to just to publish, really trying to encourage people who might be be seeking publication. And so Dickinson wrote him. She reached out to him and, sent him a number of her poems. and we don't have his letter back to her, but we have her, the letter she returned to him.

Emily Dickinson and Spasmodic Poetry Influence

00:03:16 - you say, I shouldn't publish. Okay? I don't really wanna publish, although I think, why else would she have written him? So, and then she said, you know, he said, you know, you say, my, my gait is spasmodic. And, and she says, I have no tribunal. And so it makes it sound like her, you know, her, the meter of her poetry is rough, and it is in fact, it can be jarring, often, and that it's deliberate on her part. And she could very easily have smoothed things out,
00:03:47 - But I think he probably meant that she was influenced by a cool, a school called the Spasmodic. It was a fad, in 1840s and fifties and kind of dying in the sixties. But spasmodic poetry was, a group they were really interested in very, very powerful poetry. So it was very emotionally overwrought, and the meters were just crazy, really outrageous. So they were really experimental. This is the end of the romantic era.
00:04:17 - and it's just things are very fervent, very emotional, very florid. And I think that he, you know, was probably suggesting that affiliating her with the Spasmodic School of Poetry, right? So, so again, so she's a romantic, she's writing in the romantic era. At the time, there was a strong belief that poetry was really intimate, that, or literature in general. And people, they felt that the writer himself was actually encapsulated into what he wrote. so, so for example, Walt Whitman, you know, he wrote
00:04:52 - Who touches this, touches a man. Is it night? Are we here alone together? Is it I you hold? And who holds you? I spring from the pages into your arms. So, I mean, it's really wonderful and outrageous, this idea that the poet himself is in the book. and, but Dickinson felt the same way. and she valued books, you know, for the intimacy that she, that she thought she could experience with the author. and, and it was, you know,
00:05:22 - so Lydia, Mariah Child said, all how all alive, the book is glowing and effervescent, like champagne poured out in the sunshine. So I think that Dickinson wanted to write works like that. She wanted to write works that were alive, that were passionately alive. She said in one poem that, she compares poets to magicians and their, you know, and their, and their poetry is magic. And she says, magic hath an element like deity to keep. And so she wants to create poetry that, that keeps
00:05:55 - And so Higginson in that Essay that I mentioned before, he said that good writing is so saturated with warm life and delicious association, that every sentence shall palpitate and thrill with the mere fascination of the syllables. And I think that that's why she reached out to him. 'cause that's what she was trying to do was, and she's like, okay, here's somebody who gets it. And he, you know, he knows he's a pro. He can tell me if my stuff has, you know, warm life.

The Vitality of Dickinson's Poetry

00:06:25 - said, dear Mr. Higginson, are you too deeply occupied to say, if my verse is alive, the mind is so near itself, it cannot see distinctly, and I have none to ask. Should you think it breathed and had you leisure to tell me I should feel quick gratitude? And, and so what I wanna lean on is the idea that her verse is alive and that it reads. It's really what she's trying to do. And she's in keeping with, with her era, right? So iterate, you know, many poets
00:06:58 - They believed that good. The, the good verse did that, that it had an aliveness of itself, that it kept the poet alive. And so, you know, so the GH Lewis, who's the, the partner of Marianne Evans, who we know as George Elliot, he wrote a whole study on the physiological effects of books on the nerves of readers. he's very interested in just how they work on our bodies and at the center of everything as a nervous system.
00:07:31 - because we all have the same nervous systems, books affect us the same way, because we're all kind of like touched by this. And so there's a kind of a community, he says, that's formed of readers because we read, we get the same sort of nervous stimulus, which is the book, and it acts similarly upon our nerves. And there's a, a unifying effect that happens. And he's very, he's very interested in that. And so Dickinson too is really interested in those intimacies. So, you know, different, I think
00:08:01 - They're really very different from other poetry in my experience. And I'm really, I believe that they breathe. I believe that they have that vitality that she sought. They really, for me, are very singular, and I'm really interested in trying to understand what it is, what she does that makes her poems have that all alive quality, that makes it so satisfying. And so I think that her poems are sensual in many ways, and they create an intimate experience by, they bring disparate elements together. It's almost like going into a room.
00:08:32 - So there's various, you know, qua syntactic or syntactic and sensual qualities. So, and so in the study that we're talking about, I do a, a reading of a poem. And so I'll, I'll read the poem for you. It's quite short. So, so it's goes like this. All the letters I can write are not fair as this syllables of velvet sentences, of plush depths of ruby untrained hid lip for the play.
00:09:09 - So that's very, it's an unusual poem. It's, it's, it's suggestive, but it's not like clear. It doesn't just pop the way a Hallmark card might pop for you. It's like, it's interesting, it's provocative, but it's not entire clear. So it's helpful when we begin to think about the poem to know that when she sent it to her cousin, Mrs. Yosha Flint, and accompanying the poem was a flower. So when she says, all the letters I can write are not, is this, she's comparing her poem to the,

Poetry and Flowers: A Sensual Connection

00:09:37 - And so, so poems are like flowers, she says, so poems and flowers have syllables of velvet. yeah. So flowers is a poem. It has syllables. And then she says sentences of plush. So flowers communicate, you know, with sentences, but poems are like flowers. So they have syllables of velvet, sentences of plush. So there's, there's really, just, I don't know what an interesting, I would guess, connection between poetry and flowers that, that she develops here.
00:10:13 - She says, she goes on, she, so we have these syllables of velvet, these sentences of plush, and then she goes on depths of ruby untrained hid lip for thee, right? So the flower itself has depths of ruby inside of it, and we're invited to imagine that in interior. and, and she says, hi lip for these. So we're invited to, to go into it, as it were, or, or sip it with our lips, right? To kind of suck the nectar out of it.
00:10:43 - of entering that goes on where we're entering the flower, entering the poem, right? And so I, I think that it's, she's creating a space, a kind of an imagined space that we go into. And in this imagined space, we encounter these sensual and tactile, images. They're, you know, it's very tactile, right? The poem has a lot of sensual qualities as well. so, it's got a repetition of l sounds. She says letters, syllables, velvet, and lip.
00:11:15 - a really liquid quality for me. The poem is very liquid. All the letters I can write are not fair as the syllables of velvet sentences of plush. So then she's got the repetition of the s's, the syllables and sentences and sipped, and then a repetition of it hid lip it and sipped. And then there's also this image of depths of ruby untrained. It's actually a really interest, it's interesting sonically, because it's D-R-D-R-D depths of ruby untrained.
00:11:49 - depths of ruby untrained. it just, It puts all of this, I think, onto your, into your lips as you read it. And so reading the poem is, you know, it makes its mark on your body as, as you put it into your mouth. It also has a, a pretty pronounced and interesting rhythm. So she says, it goes all the letters I can write, so that's dump, da, dump, da, dump, dump, dump. And that, that is repeated. r not fair is this.
00:12:19 - but syllables of velvet, sentences of plush, they're unusual because every line starts with a beat, with a stress. and then it moves dbi. So normally I would go, dumb, dumb, dumb, but it's, anyway, so, so it's pretty pronounced. and you know, again, I think that it, that, that exerts its impact on the body of the reader creating, sort of sensual experience as we read it. So then the other thing that I wanna say about the,

Exploring Queer Eroticism in Dickinson's Poetry

00:12:49 - that I think that they're queer. It's not merely sensual and intimate, but it has a queer eroticism. You know, notably it, you know, it's got lips, you know, you're like sipping, you know, so la labia or you know, that female, then a genitalia. And then that depth of ruby, I think also suggests a kind of, you know, vaginal quality. And then we've got lips and sipping and all of this kind of liquid quality of the poem itself.
00:13:20 - I think it, in any event, it's more, I would say about female eroticism than it is about sort of conventional phallic eroticism. But the reason that I also, you know, so maybe it could just be female, but I think that it's queer also in the sense that it doesn't privilege kind of a phallic penetration of the flower that gets to the end of the flower that kind of gets there and discovers that prize at the heart of it, there's a quest, right, for that heart of the, of the poem
00:13:49 - But it never gets there because the heart of the thing is actually like the, the what we, what we might think of as the foreplay, right? The kind of like the sensuous touching that precedes. But there's no, there's no telos, there's no culmination. So, and I'm not alone in thinking this, I'm actually taking this idea from Margaret Holmans. But you know, the idea is that, that it, that it undoes conventional hierarchies of male female sexuality, creating a more female to female erotic communication.
00:14:20 - And so, you know, so ultimately I feel because of, you know, because of the, the sensuality, the feeling of the space of the poem itself, some of the erotic imagery, the, the erotic awkwardness of the, of, you know, the terms themselves. That's why I think the poem is all alive, right? Like what Lydia, Mariah, child blowing effervescent, like champagne poured out in the sunshine. So, you know what, one of the things that I think Dickinson,
00:14:51 - that textual erotics are actually more erotic than conventional erotics. that, that, you know, or, and I don't know about conventional erotics, but in any event, conventional intercourse, it's so often when we're together, things are shallow. It's all about posing and just appearance. And, but when you have a good book, it touches you so deeply in so many ways. And you have this intimate communication with the author themself and maybe other au readers at the same time.
00:15:23 - I think, I think she suggests that, and she's not alone in suggesting that I, in fact, you know, Henry David Thoreau felt much the same way. that, you know, reading, reading in particular is really intimate. It's erotic, and it's, it's not ace, it's not solitary. It's a deeply communal, communal experience. So, you know, there's another poem that I write about in my, in the essay, and, do I, shall I read it? Yeah. Okay. So it goes like this

Exploring Eroticism in Dickinson's Poetic Imagery

00:15:56 - but one low is the laughter of the cricket loud as the thunder's tongue murmuring, like old cassian choirs, when the tides alone saying it's itself in new inflection, like a whipper will, breaking in bright orthography on my simple sleep thundering its perspective till I stir and weep, not for the sorrow done me, but the push of joy. Say it again. Saxon hush only to me.
00:16:30 - I, you know, the ending to me, I think is just so funny. She says, say it again, Saxon, and maybe like her lover, she's calling her lover. The, you know, it's a, it seems like a love poem. They're in bed together maybe, and maybe she's calling him or her Saxon, right? But it's also, so it's like, say it again, sex in, but then at the same time, it's like, say it again in plain English. Like, give me just the straight stuff. Talk to me baby. You know, like, don't, don't do anything else.
00:17:01 - Let's talk, you know, or like, let's have a really interesting poem about eroticism. And so the poem is very erotic, you know, she's like, she says, many a phrase has the English language, and maybe, maybe the hidden phrase is, I love you. That seems possible. My students think so. She says, I've only heard one, one phrase, and it's low is the laughter of a cricket. And so crickets are quiet, right? They make a low noise, but it's like, it's a laughter. And so that's really, we just imagine that,
00:17:33 - as the thunder's tongue, right? And so it's both quiet and loud at the same time. And so, you know, there's some sensual imagery that we're invited to experience, and then it murmurs like old Caspian choirs. So we don't really know Caspian, what is Caspian? It's sort of eastern and exotic in some way, right? But Caspian inquires that murmur when the tides are low. And then it's like a whipper will, which is a very emphatic whipper will whipper will whipper will. So it murmurs, but at the same time, it's very emphatic.
00:18:05 - and we kind of inhabit them as we read the poem and just imagine these things. and then, you know, she says it, it breaks in bright orthography on my simple sleep, right? So there she is in bed, right? And it's breaking on her like orthography, which is, you know, the, this, the idea of correct writing. and it just breaks. So this writing breaks on her, you know, until, you know, until she stirs and weeps, right? So you're, and but not from sorrow, from joy,
00:18:35 - And so, you know, there's a lot of, and again, we have some erotic, a cluster of erotic images like laughter and the thunder's tongue, the tide, you know, it's lulling quality. She's in sleep, and then she stirs and weeps, you know? But what is it that is, you know, creating this erotic experience? It's this poem, right? It's the poem itself and the sororities of it that are just, thrilling. So yeah. So, yeah, that's what I've got.

Queer Spaces in Poetic Eroticism

00:19:24 - encounter with the poem itself, rather than some climax, which is what I think makes it, non-normative, in some way and non-normative sexuality. and, and feminine and queer creating, you know, I think spaces for a queer or a different kind of eroticism.

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