AMERICAN
VOICES
AMERICAN
VOICES
Whitman
and Dickinson
Friday, November 15, 2002
4:00 p.m., Farwell Lounge
Luther College, Decorah, IA
INTRODUCTION
Carol Gilbertson, 2002-04 Jones Professor
Emily
Dickinson’s Life and Contribution
Diane Scholl, English
Dickinson’s
Poems
Poems of Death and Anguish
“Because I Could Not Stop for Death” (#712)
“There’s a Certain Slant of Light” (#258)
“After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes” (#341)
Kelly
Bumpus , LC03, English and Psychology
Poems
of Renunciation and Resolution
“I’m Nobody! Who are You?” (#288)
“Much Madness Is Divinest Sense” (#435)
“Renunciation--is a Piercing Virtue” (#745)
Gwen
Rudy, LC 04, English and Music
"A
Word Is Dead” (#1212)
Kendra Korte, LC 03, English
Walt
Whitman’s Life and Contribution
Martin Klammer, English
Whitman’s
Calamus Poems
“To a Stranger”--Joe Sievers, LC03, English
“Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances”--
Stacey McKim, LC03, English
“Among the Multitude”--Galen Miller, LC03, English
Whitman’s
Drum-Taps Poems
“Come Up from the Fields, Father”--Joe Sievers, LC03, English
“To a Certain Civilian”--Galen Miller, LC03, English
“By the Bivouac’s Fitful Flame” and “Reconciliation”--
Lisa Moe, English
Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson are two quintessential American voices who initiated two strands of American poetry that have continued to this day. Whitman (1819-92) began as a journalist and worked for a while in government. In 1855, Whitman’s bold poem Leaves of Grass was considered scandalous: the poem declares the human body divine and celebrates sexuality as well as the human communion with nature. Whitman explains the collection’s democratic values in his famous preface, in which he labels his poem’s subject “the United States themselves.”
Dickinson’s life (1830-86) was as private as Whitman’s was public. She was born and spent nearly her entire life in Amherst, Massachusetts, some of the time as a near reluse. While Whitman wrote many long poems as well as shorter ones, Dickinson wrote almost 2000 very short poems. While Whitman has been most influential for his powerfully sweeping, rhythmic lines of free verse, Dickinson is best known for her cryptic, short, metered lines and skillful use of the four-line ballad stanza. Both poets write highly intelligent and witty poetry, though Whitman’s tone is often exuberant and demonstrative, while Dickinson’s is often skeptical and indirect.
