Adrienne Rich, Ruth Stone, Amy Clampitt, Katha Pollitt, Sharon Olds, Marilyn Hacker, Carolyn Kizer, Toi Derricotte, Maxine Kumin, Mary Oliver, Joyce Carol Oates, Sandra Gilbert, Alicia Ostriker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Denise Levertov were all there- "Poetry-in-the-Round" it was called, an apt descriptor not only because of the shape of the theater in which the readings took place, but because of the taking turns, the offerings making their way around a range of our contemporary poets who have at least two things in common with Emily Dickinson-they are each and all women, and poets. That tribute featured contemporary women poets reading hour after hour, from morning until night "to commemorate the centenary of the death of Emily Dickinson," which occurred on May 15, 1886. These remarks are an extension of what I first imagined as a book interacting with televisual interviews, a volume to be named "Titanic Operas: Dickinson & American Women's Poetry." In collaboration with Professor John Harrington of Seton Hall University, I had imagined that book after I attended the marvelous centennial tribute he organized there in South Orange, New Jersey. Mulling over the present state of Dickinson Studies, which is a very rich field indeed, but one rife with ad feminam arguments, served to launch my musings, which will lead, I hope, to conversations extending well beyond our intercourse today. But I want to consider some of her work's reverberations in contemporary American poetry, and I do so because I want to think out loud about the role of poetry in United States' culture, society, and for its readers at the end of the twentieth century.
Gentle reader josephine jacobsen series#
When I pondered what I wanted to talked about for this lectureship series in American poetry, I knew that Emily Dickinson's work would play a major role.
A committed and dedicated student, a conscientious, thorough, gentle yet forceful teacher he remained to the end of his days. Though I only knew him online, I became familiar enough with his character so that I was not at all surprised to learn that, before retiring to Santa Fe, he had taught at the Teacher's College of Columbia University for 40 years. And I feel confident they will not only not mind but will in fact take pleasure in sharing that honor with our late friend Louis Forsdale.
This talk is in tribute to George and Barbara Kelly, and their generosity at making such face-to-face exchanges possible. This is only the second time I have been on the Penn State campus, and I'm delighted to be here at such splendidly sunlit time of the year. I'd like especially to thank the Kellys - Barbara & George Robin Schulze, who graciously extended the invitation and made the arrangements and my trip to State College all the easier and more comfortable. I am deeply honored to have been asked to give this inaugural lecture of the Emily Dickinson Lectureship in American poetry. The Inaugural Lecture of the Emily Dickinson Lectureship in American Poetry, Pennsylvania State University, October 1999.
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