The Death-Motif in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti

198 Pages·1996·5.166 MB·English

by  Claudia Ottlinger

The Death-Motif in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti
STUD IEN ZUR ENG LISCH EN
UNO
AMERIKANISCHEN LITERATUR
Herausgegeben von Gunter Ahrends
Bandt?
PETER LANG
Frankfurt am Main ·Berlin· Bern · New York· Paris · Wien
Claudia Ottlinger
The Death-Motif in the Poetry
of Emily Dickinson
and Christina Rossetti
PETER LANG
Europaischer Verlag der Wissenschaften
Die Deutsche Bibliothek-CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Ottlinger, Claudia:
The death-motif in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and
Christina Rossetti I Claudia Ottlinger. -Frankfurt am Main ;
Berlin; Bern; New York; Paris; Wien: Lang, 1996
(Studien zur englischen und amerikanischen Literatur ;
Bd. 17)
Zugl.: Bochum, Univ., Diss., 1995
ISBN 3-631-30216-9
NE:GT
D294
ISSN 4721-4103
ISBN 3-631-30216-9
US-ISBN 0-8204-3183-4
© Peter Lang GmbH
Europaischer Verlag der Wissenschaften
Frankfurt am Main 1996
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any
utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without
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Printed in Germany 1 2 3 4 5 7
Vorwort
Mein Dank gilt zuallererst meinem langjahrigen Forderer,
Lehrer, Vorgesetzten und Doktorvater, Hem1 Prof. Dr. Giinter Ahrends, der
meine Dissertation wahrend des gesamten Zeitraums ihrer Entstehung mit
konstruktiver Kritik betreut hat.
Besonderer Dank gebiihrt meiner Mutter, die durch ihren
emotionalen und ideellen Beistand eine nie versagende Energiequelle fur
mich war und deren Geduld, Vertrauen und Ermutigung mir den notigen
Riickhalt gegeben haben.
SchlieBlich mochte ich noch die Teilnehmerinnen und Teil
nehmer der verschiedenen Doktorandenkolloquien unter der Leitung von
Prof. Ahrends erwahnen, denen ich viele produktive Anregungen verdanke.
Witten, im Januar 1996 Claudia Ottlinger
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Contents
Page
1. Introduction and critical assessment of research on Emily
Dickinson and Christina Rossetti 9
2. Dickinson, Rossetti, and their obsession with death -the
biographical and historical background
21
3. The phenomenon of death in Dickinson's and Rossetti's
poetry
3.1 General characteristics of death:
"the uncertain certainty" (Dickinson, 1411)
"Holy slumber, holy quiet" (Rossetti, "Song (The stream
moaneth as it floweth)") 39
3.2 Witnessing other people's death:
"His death is full, and mine begun." (Rossetti, "A Peal of
Bells")
"Looking at Death, is Dying-" (Dickinson, 281) 63
3.3 The relationship between the living and the dead:
"Yet Blesseder- than We -I Through Knowing"
(Dickinson, 499)
"Brimful of knowledge they may not impart" (Rossetti,
"Later Life", 28) 77
3.4 Reactions of the moumers:
"Whilst I weep I Angels sing around thy singing soul"
(Rossetti, "Better so")
"A darker Ribbon- for a Day-" (Dickinson, 255) 97
7
3.5 Visions of their own deaths:
"I could not see to see" (Dickinson, 465)
"Dumb I was when the ruin fell" (Rossetti, Introspective")
115
3.6 Beyond death: eternity and immortality:
"the far-away home of beautiful Paradise" (Rossetti, "So
great a Cloud of Witnesses")
" 'Heaven' has different Signs-to me-" (Dickinson, 575)
137
4. Evaluation 167
5. Bibliography 175
6. Index of poems treated or mentioned 183
8
1. Introduction and critical assessment of research on Emily Dickinson
and Christina Rossetti
The title of this dissertation sufficiently indicates its purpose -
to draw a comparison between Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti with
regard to the death-motif which is predominant in their poetry. Amazingly
enough, scholars have virtually ignored the striking analogies between
Dickinson and Rossetti and only a tiny amount of literature can be found that
is concerned with a comparison between the two.1
Emily Dickinson's poetry, almost unpublished in her lifetime,2
has been much more fully worked on than Christina Rossetti's. After her
death in 1886, her younger sister Lavinia discovered her manuscripts sewed
together into packets and was determined to find someone who would
undertake the task of publishing them. Mabel Loomis Todd, the wife of a
professor at Amherst College and the mistress of Emily's elder brother
Austin, agreed to prepare them for publication with the assistance of Colonel
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a highly reputed essayist and lecturer with
whom Dickinson had corresponded for several years. Collaborating, they
brought out a selection of 115 poems in 1890. Encouraged by the success of
this limited publication, they issued Poems, Second Series in 1891. Poems,
Third Series was edited in 1896 by Mrs. Todd alone, who also published a
Diehl, Joanne Feit, "'Come Slowly-Eden': An Exploration of Women Poets
and Their Muse", Signs. Journal ofWomen in Culture and Society, Vol. 3, 1978,
pp. 572-587
Homans, Margaret, "'Syllables of Velvet': Dickinson, Rossetti, and the Rhetorics of
Sexuality", Feminist Studies 11 (3), 1985, pp. 569-593
Kaplan, Cora, "The Indefinite Disclosed: Christina Rossetti and Emily Dickinson", in:
Women Writing and Writing about Women, ed. Mary Jacobus, New York 1979,
pp.61-79
Zabel, Morton D., "Christina Rossetti and Emily Dickinson", Poetry XXXVII, 1931,
pp 213-216
2 OfDickinson's 1775 poems and fragments, only ten were published while she
was alive. They appeared anonymously and were editorially altered.
9