EN 2100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Protestantism, Perfect And Imperfect Rhymes
Document Summary
Along with walt whitman, she forms the two pillars of american poetry. Bridgepoint between transcendentalists and american 20th century poetry. Reduce reliance as much as possible on white men . Whitman was a vast expansive and overly confident poet. Whitman is the expansive poet of america and american individualism. Dickinson is the american of the interior individual; the minimal vs whitman"s maximal. Dickinson is almost always uncertain or conflicted; doubts but wants to believe. Monadic self - self contained in a self-actualized individual; there is a core essence of the individual that is innate. She wrote 1800 poems; published 10 in her lifetime. She chose not to publish, but to write; consciously avoided joining the literary community. Voracious reader and very much in connection to the literary community through letters. Primarily thomas wentworth higginson she was in contact with. I"m not interested in publication because publication is tied up in implications of fame .
