I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - Too?
Then there's a pair of us
Don't tell! They'd advertise – you know!

How dreary - to be - Somebody!
How public - like a Frog
To tell one's name - the livelong June
To an admiring Bog!

© Faber and Faber, 1970

De bundel bevat 1775 gedichten van Emily Dickinson (gedichten die met een nummer of met de eerste regel van het gedicht worden aangegeven). Hieronder staan de eerste regels/titels:
• ‘A bird came down the walk’, ‘A cap of lead across the sky’, ‘A charm invests a face’, ‘A clock stopped - not the mantel’s’, ‘A death-blow is a life-blow to some’, ‘A deed knocks first at thought’, ‘A dew sufficed itself’, ‘A door just opened on a street’, ‘Adrift! A little boat adrift!’, ‘A drop fell on the apple tree’, ‘Adventure most unto itself’, ‘A face devoid of love or grace’, ‘Afraid? Of whom am I afraid?’, ‘After a hundred years’, ‘Ah, Teneriffe!’, ‘A lady red upon the hill’, ‘A light exists in spring’, ‘A little overflowing word’, ‘A little madness in the Spring’, ‘A little over Jordan’, ‘A little road not made of man’, ‘All circumstances are the frame’, ‘All I may, if small’, ‘All overgrown by cunning moss’, ‘A long, long sleep, a famous sleep’, ‘Alter? When the hills do’, ‘Ambition cannot find him’, ‘A modest lot, a fame ‘petite’, ‘Ample make this bed’, ‘A murmur in the trees to note’, ‘A narrow fellow in the grass’, ‘An everywhere of silver’, ‘An altered look about the hills’, ‘An awful tempest mashed the air’, ‘Angels in the early morning’, ‘A poor torn heart, a tattered heart’, ‘Apparently with no surprise’, ‘A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is’, ‘A prompt, executive Bird is the Jay’, ‘Arcturus is his other name’, ‘Are friends delight or pain?’, ‘A route of evanescence’, ‘A sepal, petal, and a thorn’, ‘A shady friend for torrid days’, ‘A sickness of this world it most occasions’, ‘As by the dead we love to sit’, ‘As children bid the guest good-night’, ‘As far from pity as complaint’, ‘As if some little Arctic flower’, ‘As imperceptibly as grief’, ‘Ashes denote that fire was’, ‘A sloop of amber slips away’, ‘A solemn thing it was, I said’, ‘A something in a summer’s day’, ‘A spider sewed at night’, ‘At half-past three a single bird’, ‘A thought went up my mind to-day’, ‘A throe upon the features’, ‘At last to be identified!’, ‘At least to pray is left, is left’, ‘A toad can die of light!’, ‘A train went through a burial gate’, ‘A triumph may be of several kinds’, ‘A word is dead’, ‘A wounded deer leaps highest’;
• ‘Beauty crowds me till I die’, ‘Because I could not stop for Death’, ‘Before I got my eye put out’, ‘Before the ice is in the pools’, ‘Before you thought of spring’, ‘Belshazzar had a letter', 'Bereaved of all, I went abroad’, ‘Besides the autumn poets sing’, ‘Blazing in gold and quenching in purple’, ‘Bless God, he went as soldiers’, ‘Bloom upon the Mountain, stated,’, ‘Bring me the sunset in a cup’;
• ‘Candor, my tepid Friend’, ‘Come slowly, Eden!’, ‘Could I but ride indefinite’, ‘Could mortal lip divine’, ‘Crisis is sweet and, set of Heart’;
• ‘Dare you see a soul at the white heat?’, ‘Dear March, come in!’, ‘Death is a dialogue between’, ‘Death is like the insect’, ‘Death sets a thing significant’, ‘Delayed till she had ceased to know’, ‘Delight becomes pictorial’, ‘Departed to the judgment’, ‘Did the harebell loose her girdle’, ‘Distance is not the realm of Fox’, ‘Doubt me, my dim companion!’, ‘Down Time’s quaint stream’, ‘Drab habitation of whom?’, ‘Dropped into the’, ‘Drowning is not so pitiful’, ‘Dust is the only secret’;
• ‘Each life converges to some center’, ‘Each that we lose takes part of us’, ‘Eden is that old-fashioned House’, ‘Elijah’s wagon knew no thill’, ‘Elysium is as far as to’, ‘Essential oils are wrung’, ‘Except the heaven had come so near’, ‘Except the smaller size, no Lives are round’, ‘Except to heaven, she is nought’, ‘Exhilaration is the Breeze’, ‘Experiment to me’, ‘Exultation is the going’;
• ‘Faith is a fine invention’, ‘Fame is a fickle food’, ‘Far from love the Heavenly Father’, ‘Farther in summer than the birds’, ‘Fate slew him, but he did not drop’, ‘Father, I bring thee not myself’, ‘Few get enough, - enough is one’, ‘Finite to fail, but infinite to venture’, ‘Follow wise Orion’, ‘Forbidden fruit a flavor has’, ‘For Death, - or rather’, ‘For each ecstatic instant’, ‘Forever cherished be the tree’, ‘Frequently the woods are pink’, ‘From all the jails the boys and girls’, ‘From cocoon forth a butterfly’, ‘From use she wandered now a year’;
• ‘Give little anguish’,’Given in marriage unto thee’, ‘Glee! the great storm is over!’, ‘Glory is that bright tragic thing’, ‘Glowing is her Bonnet’, ‘God gave a loaf to every bird’, ‘God made a little gentian’, ‘God permits industrious angels’,’Going to heaven!’, ‘Going to him! Happy letter! Tell him’, ‘Good night! which put the candle out?’, ‘Great streets of silence led away’;
• ‘Had this one day not been’, ‘Have you got a brook in your little heart’, ‘Heart not so heavy as mine’, ‘Heart, we will forget him!’, ‘He ate and drank the precious words’, ‘Heaven is what I cannot reach!’, ‘‘Heavenly Father,’ take to thee’, ‘He fumbles at your spirit’, ’He preached upon ‘breadth’, ‘He put the belt around my life’, ‘Her final summer was it’, ‘Her Grace is all she has’, ‘Her ‘Last Poems’, ‘He touched me, so I live to know’, ‘High from the earth I heard a bird’, ‘His bill an auger is’, ‘His Cheek is his Biographer’, ‘His mind, of man a secret makes’, ‘Hope is a subtle glutton’, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’, ‘How dare the robins sing’, ‘How destitute is he’, ‘How happy is the little stone’, ‘How many times these low feet staggered’, ‘How still the bells in steeples stand’, ‘How the old mountains drip with sunset’;
• ‘I asked no other thing’, ‘I bet with every Wind that blew’, ‘I breathed enough to learn the trick’, ‘I bring an unaccustomed wine’, ‘I can’t tell you, but you feel it’, ‘I can wade grief’, ‘I cannot live with you’, ‘I did not reach thee’, ‘I died for beauty, but was scarce’, ‘I dreaded that first robin so’, ‘I envy seas whereon he rides’, ‘If anybody’s friend be dead’, ‘I felt a cleavage in my mind’, ‘I felt a funeral in my brain’, ‘If I can stop one heart from breaking’, ‘If I could tell how glad I was’, ‘If I may have it when it’s dead’, ‘If I should die’, ‘If I shouldn’t be alive’, ‘I fit for them’, ‘I found the phrase to every thought’, ‘If pain for peace prepares’, ‘If recollecting were forgetting’, ‘If the foolish call them ‘flowers’, ‘If tolling bell I ask the cause’, ‘If what we could were what we would’, ‘If you were coming in the fall’, ‘I gained it so’, ‘I gave myself to him’, ‘I had a daily bliss’, ‘I had a guinea golden’, ‘I had been hungry all the years’, ‘I had no cause to be awake’, ‘I had no time to hate, because’, ‘I have a king who does not speak’, ‘I have no life but this’, ‘I have not told my garden yet’, ‘I heard a fly buzz when I died’, ‘I held a jewel in my fingers’, ‘I hide myself within my flower’, ‘I know a place where summer strives', 'I know some lonely houses off the road’, ‘I know that he exists’, ‘I like a look of agony’, ‘I like to see it lap the miles’, ‘I live with him, I see his face’, ‘I lived on dread; to those who know’, ‘I ’ll tell you how the sun rose’, ‘I lost a world the other day’, ‘I many times thought peace had come’, ‘I ’m ceded, I ’ve stopped being theirs’, ‘I meant to find her when I came’, ‘I meant to have but modest needs’, ‘I measure every grief I meet’, ‘Immortal is an ample word’, ‘Immured in Heaven! What a Cell!’, ‘I’m nobody! Who are you?’, ‘I ’m thinking of that other morn’, ‘I’m wife; I’ve finished that’, ‘I never hear the word ‘escape’, ‘I never lost as much but twice’, ‘I never saw a moor’’, ‘I never told the buried gold’, ‘In lands I never saw, they say', 'I noticed people disappeared’, ‘In winter, in my room’, ‘I read my sentence steadily’, ‘I reason, earth is short’, ‘Is bliss, then, such abyss’, ‘I see thee better in the dark’, ‘I send two Sunsets’, ‘I shall know why, when time is over’, ‘Is Heaven a physician?’, ‘I should have been too glad, I see’,’I should not dare to leave my friend’, ‘I showed her heights she never saw’, ‘I sing to use the waiting’,’I started early, took my dog’, ‘I stepped from plank to plank’, ‘It can’t be summer, - that got through’, ‘It dropped so low in my regard’,’It makes no difference abroad’, ‘It might be easier’, ‘It’s all I have to bring to-day’, ‘It sifts from leaden sieves’, ‘It’s like the light’, ‘It sounded as if the streets were running’, ‘It’s such a little thing to weep’, ‘It struck me every day’, ‘It tossed and tossed’, ‘It was not death, for I stood up’, ‘It was too late for man’, ‘I taste a liquor never brewed’,’I think just how my shape will rise’, ‘I think that the root of the Wind is Water’, ‘I think the hemlock likes to stand’, ‘I took my power in my hand’, ‘I’ve got an arrow here’, ‘I’ve seen a dying eye’, ‘I watched her face to see which way’, ‘I went to heaven’, ‘I went to thank her’, ‘I wish I knew that woman’s name’, ‘I wonder if the sepulchre’, ‘I worked for chaff, and earning wheat’, ‘I years had been from home’;
• ‘Just lost when I was saved!’, ‘Just so, Jesus raps - He does not weary’;
• ‘Lay this laurel on the one’,’Let down the bars, O Death!’, ‘Let me not mar that perfect dream’, ‘Life, and Death, and Giants’, ‘Lightly stepped a yellow star’, ‘Like brooms of steel', 'Like Men and Women shadows walk’, ‘Like mighty footlights burned the red’, ‘Like some old-fashioned miracle’, ‘Like trains of cars on tracks of plush’, ‘Look back on time with kindly eyes’, ‘Love is anterior to life’, ‘Love reckons by itself alone’, ‘Low at my problem bending’;
• ‘March is the month of expectation’, ‘Me! Come! My dazzled face’, ‘Mine by the right of the white election!’, ‘Mine enemy is growing old’, ‘Morning is the place for dew’, ‘‘Morning’ means ‘Milking’ to the Farmer’, ‘Morns like these we parted’, ‘Much madness is divinest sense’, ‘Musicians wrestle everywhere’, ‘My cocoon tightens, colors tease’, ‘My country need not change her gown’, ‘My friend must be a bird’, ‘My life closed twice before its close’, ‘My nosegays are for captives’, ‘My river runs to thee’, ‘My Wheel is in the dark’, ‘My worthiness is all my doubt’;
• ‘Nature is what we see’, ‘Nature rarer uses yellow’, ‘Nature, the gentlest mother', 'New feet within my garden go’, ‘No Autumn’s intercepting chill’, ‘No brigadier throughout the year’, ‘No matter where the Saints abide’, ‘No other can reduce’, ‘No rack can torture me', 'No romance sold unto’, ‘Not any higher stands the grave’, ‘Not any sunny tone’, ‘Not in this world to see his face’, ‘Not knowing when the dawn will come’, ‘Not one by Heaven defrauded stay’, ‘Not when we know’, ‘Not with a club the heart is broken’;
• ‘Of tribulation these are they’, ‘Of all the souls that stand create’, ‘Of all the sounds despatched abroad’, ‘Of bronze and blaze’, ‘Of Death the sharpest function’, ‘Of so divine a loss’, ‘Of this is Day composed’, ‘One blessing had I, than the rest’, ‘One day is there of the series’, ‘One dignity delays for all’, ‘One need not be a chamber to be haunted’, ‘One of the ones that Midas touched’, ‘One sister have I in our house’, ‘On my volcano grows the grass’, ‘On such a night, or such a night’, ‘On the bleakness of my lot’, ‘On this long storm the rainbow rose’, ‘On this wondrous sea’, ‘Our journey had advanced’, ‘Our lives are Swiss’, ‘Our share of night to bear’;
• ‘Pain has an element of blank’, ‘Papa above!’, ‘Perception of an’, ‘Perhaps you’d like to buy a flower?’, ‘Peril as a possession’, ‘Pigmy seraphs gone astray’, ‘Pink, small, and punctual’, ‘Pompless no life can pass away’’, ‘Poor little heart!’, ‘Portraits are to daily faces’, ‘Prayer is the little implement’, ‘Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn’, ‘Proud of my broken heart since thou didst break it’;
• ‘Read, sweet, how others strove’, ‘‘Remember me,’ implored the Thief’, ‘Remembrance has a rear and front’, ‘Remorse is memory awake’, ‘Reverse cannot befall that fine Prosperity’;
• ‘Safe Despair it is that raves’,’Safe in their alabaster chambers’, ‘She died at play’, ‘She died, - this was the way she died’, ‘She laid her docile crescent down’, ‘She rose to his requirement, dropped’, ‘She slept beneath a tree’, ‘She sweeps with many-colored brooms’, ‘She went as quiet as the dew’, ‘Sleep is supposed to be’, So bashful when I spied her’, ‘So, from the mould’, ‘Softened by Time’s consummate plush’, ‘So gay a flower bereaved the mind’, ‘Some Days retired from the rest’, ‘Some keep the Sabbath going to church’, ‘Some rainbow coming from the fair!’, ‘Some things that fly there be’, ‘Some, too fragile for winter winds’, ‘So proud she was to die’, ‘So set its sun in thee’, ‘Soul, wilt thou toss again?’, ‘South winds jostle them’, ‘Sown in dishonor?’, ‘Speech is a symptom of affection’, ‘Split the lark and you ’ll find the music’, ‘Step lightly on this narrow spot!’, ‘Success is counted sweetest’, ‘Summer begins to have the look’, ‘Summer for thee grant I may be’, ‘Superfluous were the sun’, ‘Superiority to fate’, ’Surgeons must be very careful’, ‘Sweet hours have perished here’, ‘Sweet is the swamp with its secrets’;
• ‘Taken from men this morning’, ‘Talk with prudence to a beggar’, ‘’T is an honorable thought’, ‘’T is little I could care for pearls’, ‘’T is so much joy!’, ‘’T is sunrise, little maid, hast thou’, ‘’T is whiter than an Indian pipe’, ‘That I did always love’, ‘That is solemn we have ended’, ‘That Love is all there is’, ‘That she forgot me was the least’, ‘That short, potential stir’, ‘That such have died enables us’, ‘The bat is dun with wrinkled wings’, ‘The bee is not afraid of me’, ‘The Bible is an antique volume’, ‘The blunder is to estimate’, ‘The body grows outside’, ‘The bone that has no marrow’, ‘The brain is wider than the sky’, ‘The brain within its groove’, ‘The bustle in a house’, ‘The butterfly’s assumption-gown’, ‘The butterfly obtains', 'The clouds their backs together laid’, ‘The cricket sang’, ‘The daisy follows soft the sun’, ‘The day came slow, till five o’clock’, ‘The Devil, had he fidelity’, ‘The difference between despair’, ‘The distance that the dead have gone’, ‘The Duties of the Wind are few’, ‘The dying need but little, dear’, ‘The Face we choose to miss’, ‘The farthest thunder that I heard’, ‘The feet of people walking home’, ‘The Future never spoke’, ‘The gentian weaves her fringes’, ‘The gleam of an heroic act’, ‘The grass so little has to do’, ‘The grave my little cottage is’, ‘The healed Heart shows its shallow scar’, ‘The heart asks pleasure first’, ‘The Hills erect their purple heads’, ‘The incidents of Love’, ‘The inundation of the Spring’, ‘Their height in heaven comforts not’, ‘The largest fire ever known’, ‘The last night that she lived’, ‘The leaves, like women, interchange’, ‘The long sigh of the Frog’, ‘The Look of Thee, what is it like?’, ‘The luxury to apprehend’, ‘The missing All prevented me’, ‘The Moon upon her fluent route’, ‘The moon is distant from the sea’, ‘The moon was but a chin of gold’, ‘The morns are meeker than they were’, ‘The mountain sat upon the plain’, ‘The murmur of a bee’, ‘The murmuring of bees has ceased’, ‘The mushroom is the elf of plants’, ‘The nearest dream recedes, unrealized’, ‘The night was wide, and furnished scant’, ‘The one that could repeat the summer day’, ‘The Ones that disappeared are back’, ‘The only ghost I ever saw’, ‘The over-takelessness of those’, ‘The past is such a curious creature’, ‘The pedigree of honey’, ‘The props assist the house’, ‘The rat is the concisest tenant’, ‘There ’s something quieter than sleep’, ‘There came a day at summer’s full’, ‘There came a wind like a bugle’, ‘There is a flower that bees prefer’, ‘There is a shame of nobleness’, ‘There is a solitude of space’, ‘There is a word’, ‘There is another Loneliness’, ‘There is no frigate like a book’, ‘There’s a certain slant of light’, ‘There’s been a death in the opposite house’, ‘The reticent volcano keeps’, ‘The right to perish might be thought’, ‘The robin is the one’, ‘The rose did caper on her cheek’, ‘These are the days that Reindeer love’, ‘These are the days when birds come back’, ‘The Sea said ‘Come’ to the Brook’, ‘The show is not the show’, ‘The skies can’t keep their secret!’, ‘The sky is low, the clouds are mean’, ‘The Soul that has a Guest’, ‘The soul selects her own society’, ‘The soul should always stand ajar’, ‘The Soul’s superior instants’, ‘The soul unto itself’, ‘The spider as an artist’, ‘The springtime’s pallid landscape’, ‘The Stars are old, that stood for me’, ‘The stimulus, beyond the grave’, ‘The suburbs of a secret’, ‘The sun just touched the morning’, ‘The sun kept setting, setting still’, ‘The sweets of Pillage can be known’, ‘The thought beneath so slight a film’, ‘The treason of an accent’, ‘The way I read a letter’s this’, ‘The wind begun to rock the grass’, ‘The wind tapped like a tired man’, ‘The Winds drew off’, ‘They won’t frown always - some sweet day’, ‘They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars’, ‘They say that ‘time assuages’, ‘This is my letter to the world’, ‘This is the land the sunset washes’, ‘This merit hath the worst’, ‘This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies’, ‘This was in the white of the year’, ‘This world is not conclusion’, ‘Those final Creatures, - who they are’, ‘Though I get home how late, how late!’, ‘Three weeks passed since I had seen her’, ‘Through lane it lay, through bramble’, ‘Through the straight pass of suffering’, ‘Tie the strings to my life, my Lord’, ‘Title divine is mine’, ‘To be alive is power’, ‘To-day or this noon’, ‘To fight aloud is very brave’, ‘To hang our head ostensibly’, ‘To hear an oriole sing’, ‘To help our bleaker parts’, ‘To know just how he suffered would be dear’, ‘To learn the transport by the pain’, ‘To lose one’s faith surpasses’, ‘To lose thee, sweeter than to gain’, ‘To love thee, year by year’, ‘To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee’, ‘To my quick ear the leaves conferred’, ‘Too cold is this’, ‘To pile like Thunder to its close’, ‘To see her is a picture’, ‘To tell the beauty would decrease’, ‘To the staunch Dust we safe commit thee’, ‘To this apartment deep’, ‘To venerate the simple days’, ‘’T was a long parting, but the time’, ‘’T was comfort in her dying room’, ‘’T was just this time last year I died’, ‘’T was later when the summer went’, ‘’T was such a little, little boat’, ‘Two butterflies went out at noon’, ‘Two lengths has every day’, ‘Two swimmers wrestled on the spar’;
• ‘Undue significance a starving man attaches’, ‘Unto my books so good to turn’, ‘Upon the gallows hung a wretch’;
• ‘Victory comes late’, ‘Volcanoes be in Sicily’;
• ‘Wait till the majesty of Death’, ‘Water is taught by thirst’, ‘We cover thee, sweet face’, ‘We learn in the retreating’, ‘We like March, his shoes are purple’, ‘We never know how high we are’, ‘We never know we go, - when we are going’, ‘Went up a year this evening!’, ‘We out-grow love like other things’, ‘We play at paste’, ‘We should not mind so small a flower’, ‘We spy the Forests and the Hills’, ‘We thirst at first, - ’t is Nature’s act’, ‘What if I say I shall not wait?’, ‘What inn is this’, ‘What mystery pervades a well!’, ‘What soft, cherubic creatures’, ‘When Etna basks and purrs’, ‘When I hoped I feared’, ‘When I was small, a woman died’, ‘When night is almost done’,’When roses cease to bloom, dear’, ‘Where every bird is bold to go’, ‘Where ships of purple gently toss’, ‘Whether my bark went down at sea’, ‘While I was fearing it, it came’, ‘Who has not found the heaven below’, ‘Who is it seeks my pillow nights?’, ‘Who never wanted, - maddest joy’, ‘Who never lost, are unprepared’, ‘Who robbed the woods’, ‘‘Whose are the little beds,’ I asked’, ‘Who were ‘the Father and the Son’, ‘Wild nights! Wild nights!’, ‘Will there really be a morning?’, ‘Witchcraft has not a pedigree’, ‘Within my reach!’;
• ‘You cannot put a fire out’, ‘You left me, sweet, two legacies’, ‘Your riches taught me poverty’, ‘You ’ve seen balloons set, haven’t you?’.

ERK Niveau:

B2

Schrijver:

Emily Dickinson

Jaar van uitgave:

1890

Aantal pagina's:

770

Tijd waarin het verhaal zich afspeelt:

1850-1890

Plaats van handeling:

USA, het platteland

Bijzonderheden:

De bundel bestaat uit 1775 genummerde gedichten.
In het Nederlands heet het boek ‘Verzamelde gedichten’.

IS HET BOEK VOOR JOU INTERESSANT?

‘The Complete Poems’ is een prachtige bundel met daarin alle gedichten van ongetwijfeld de beroemdste Amerikaanse vrouwelijk dichter: Emily Dickinson. Haar gedichten zijn bekend sinds 1890 en ze worden nog altijd heel veel gelezen en geciteerd.

WAT MOET JE WETEN?

De gedichten uit ‘The Complete Poems’ werden geschreven door een vrouw die nauwelijks onder de mensen kwam. Ze kwam zelden in aanraking met mensen – en nog minder met mede-schrijvers. Dat heeft er wellicht voor gezorgd dat haar gedichten anders zijn dan alle andere die tot die tijd werden geschreven: een afwijkend rijm (als dat er al was), een vreemde interpunctie en een eigenaardig hoofdlettergebruik en een afwijkende onderwerpkeuze. Zo kon zij allegorisch schrijven over de dood en de liefde, ze maakte gebruik van personificatie en ze schreef gedichten vanuit het perspectief van een dier (een kikvors, een wielewaal, een rat, een bij). Vreemd allemaal – maar ongelooflijk origineel. En een bron van studie tot op de dag van vandaag.

DE TAAL

De woorden en de zinnen in ‘The Complete Poems’ zijn zelden moeilijk. Iemand met een paar jaar Engels kan de gedichten lezen. Maar ze begrijpen is een andere zaak. Het feit dat ze voor zoveel personen een andere betekenis hebben, maakt de gedichten extra interessant.
De gedichten en de zinnen zijn vaak bijzonder kort.

DE TAAL EN HET VERHAAL

Wat taal betreft is ‘The Complete Poems’ heel toegankelijk.
De gedichten zijn prachtig, mysterieus, boeiend. Ze gaan over de liefde, over relaties, over leven en dood, over ziekte en vrolijkheid, en over … vul maar in.
Op basis van deze eigenschappen is ‘The Complete Poems’ een boek met een literair niveau C 4a en een taal-(ERK-)niveau B2.

Schrijfstijl:

‘The Complete Poems’ is heel origineel geschreven – op een manier waarop dat nooit eerder gebeurde.

Actie:

De bundel ‘The Complete Poems’ bevat gedichten met weinig actie. Ze zijn vaak reflectief – maar wel degelijk met gebeurtenissen die vaak als het ware off-stage hebben plaatsgevonden.

Tijd:

‘The Complete Poems’ speelt zich af in de jaren 1850-1900. Maar aan de andere kant zijn ze ook tijdloos. Er zijn maar zelden verwijzingen naar de tijd waarin of de plaats waar ze geschreven werden.

Plaats:

Wat geldt voor de tijd geldt ook voor de plaats: de gedichten uit ‘The Complete Poems’ zijn nauwelijks ergens te lokaliseren.

Verhaallijn:

Er zijn veel verschillende verhaallijnen in ‘The Complete Poems’.

Verteller:

De dichtbundel ‘The Complete Poems’ heeft een auctoriale vertellers en ik-vertellers.

Hoofdkarakters:

Het hoofdkarakter in ‘The Complete Poems’ is:
• De dichter: de ik-verteller.

Bijfiguren:

De belangrijkste bijfiguren in ‘The Complete Poems’ zijn:
• Allerlei mensen: verliefde, gelukkige, zieke, stervende, reizende, twijfelende mensen;
• Allerlei dieren: een bij, een kikvors, een vogel, een paard.

Website:

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems/45673

Film:

De gedichten uit ‘The Complete Poems’ zijn soms verfilmd. Maar ze zijn vaker gebruikt ter inspiratie bij een film(fragment). Zie bijvoorbeeld de film ‘Sophie’s Choice’, waarin ‘Ample Make This Bed’ wordt geciteerd.

Overig:

‘The Complete Poems’ is een verzameling gedichten die na het leven van de dichter belangrijk werd: Emily Dickinson schreef ze allemaal zonder enige feedback van wie dan ook (voor zover bekend).

Link naar pagina over auteur

-->Informatie over Emily Dickinson.

Leessuggesties:

Als je dit een mooi boek vond, zou je ook kunnen lezen:
• The Poems van Dylan Thomas
• Ariel van Sylvia Plath
• The Hawk in the Rain van Ted Hughes

Citaat:

Ample make this Bed -
Make this Bed with Awe -
In it wait till Judgment break
Excellent and Fair

Be its Mattress straight -
Be its Pillow round -
Let no Sunrise' yellow noise
Interrupt this Ground -

Vragen over het boek:

Analyseer de onderstaande gedichten:
1. ‘What Inn is this’ (115)
2. ‘I’m Nobody! Who are you?’ (288)
3. ‘Because I could not stop for Death -’ (712)
4. ‘Ample make this Bed’ (829)