Emily Dickinson help ...

I have a paper to write analyzing, comparing, and contrasting three of Dickinson's poems, with a specific focus on her feelings of love. I have chosen "I cannot live with you", "Wild nights; wild nights!", and "If you were coming in the fall". The main thesis is more or less about Dickinson's longing for love; as well as how her works expose/exemplify such emotions.

I have some ideas but am having trouble getting them down on paper. Hence, I am hoping some people on here may be able to help convert some such ideas into something more concrete.

So, any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I believe you would normally get more responses to 'help' threads like these if you posted the poems along with your question. I'll look into the poems and try to get back here to help though.

WILD NIGHTS! WILD NIGHTS!

Wild Nights! Wild Nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port,--
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!

IF YOU WERE COMING IN THE FALL:

If you were coming in the Fall,
I'd brush the Summer by
With half a smile, and half a spurn,
As Housewives do, a Fly.

If I could see you in a year,
I'd wind the months in balls --
And put them each in separate Drawers,
For fear the numbers fuse --

If only Centuries, delayed,
I'd count them on my Hand,
Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
Into Van Dieman's Land.

If certain, when this life was out --
That yours and mine, should be
I'd toss it yonder, like a Rind,
And take Eternity --

But, now, uncertain of the length
Of this, that is between,
It goads me, like the Goblin Bee --
That will not state -- its sting.

I CANNOT LIVE WITH YOU:

I cannot live with You --
It would be Life --
And Life is over there --
Behind the Shelf

The Sexton keeps the Key to --
Putting up
Our Life -- His Porcelain --
Like a Cup --

Discarded of the Housewife --
Quaint -- or Broke --
A newer Sevres pleases --
Old Ones crack --

I could not die -- with You --
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down --
You -- could not --

And I -- Could I stand by
And see You -- freeze --
Without my Right of Frost --
Death's privilege?

Nor could I rise -- with You --
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus' --
That New Grace

Glow plain -- and foreign
On my homesick Eye --
Except that You than He
Shone closer by --

They'd judge Us -- How --
For You -- served Heaven -- You know,
Or sought to --
I could not --

Because You saturated Sight --
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be --
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame --

And were You -- saved --
And I -- condemned to be
Where You were not --
That self -- were Hell to Me --

So We must meet apart --
You there -- I -- here --
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are -- and Prayer --
And that White Sustenance --
Despair --

Those are the three. Sorry I didn't post them originally.

Hello, Lindsey, welcome to the forum. :)
Finding love poems by Emily Dickinson outlines a true task worth researching, as she wrote few love poems, but the few she did write distinguish well among the majority about introspection, death, and transcendentalism-like thought.

Quote:

---

Wild Nights! Wild Nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port,--
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!

---

In this easiest-of-the-three poem, Dickinson refers slightly less to a concept of love, and more to a concept of positive change, variety, and diversity in life, though this, perhaps, could fit the category of love. In the second stanza, she communicates clearly the guide of the heart (maybe an idea of following intuition without the 'compass' and 'chart' of logic). She desires all positive aspects - Eden, paradise, and in great amounts ('a moor'), which, I see, could fit your goal as an aim toward love.
-----

Quote:

---

If you were coming in the Fall,
I'd brush the Summer by
With half a smile, and half a spurn,
As Housewives do, a Fly.

If I could see you in a year,
I'd wind the months in balls --
And put them each in separate Drawers,
For fear the numbers fuse --

If only Centuries, delayed,
I'd count them on my Hand,
Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
Into Van Dieman's Land.

If certain, when this life was out --
That yours and mine, should be
I'd toss it yonder, like a Rind,
And take Eternity --

But, now, uncertain of the length
Of this, that is between,
It goads me, like the Goblin Bee --
That will not state -- its sting.

---

-----
Poems of Dickinson's like these I always love reading aloud, especially with her peculiar use of hypens and other punctuation. The subject, I think, seems relatively straight-forward, as she communicates and translates measures and concepts of time into tangible objects available for spending and waste. Whoever "comes in the fall" she obviously cares much for - whether a lover or not, I have no idea, but some readers think she had some sort of affair. Besides the subject of transpassing time with material objects easily spent, notice the use of unfit capitalizing of certain words that, I think, she intended to emphasize (also with the hyphenated separations of clauses and fragments).

Quote:

---

I cannot live with You --
It would be Life --
And Life is over there --
Behind the Shelf

The Sexton keeps the Key to --
Putting up
Our Life -- His Porcelain --
Like a Cup --

Discarded of the Housewife --
Quaint -- or Broke --
A newer Sevres pleases --
Old Ones crack --

I could not die -- with You --
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down --
You -- could not --

And I -- Could I stand by
And see You -- freeze --
Without my Right of Frost --
Death's privilege?

Nor could I rise -- with You --
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus' --
That New Grace

Glow plain -- and foreign
On my homesick Eye --
Except that You than He
Shone closer by --

They'd judge Us -- How --
For You -- served Heaven -- You know,
Or sought to --
I could not --

Because You saturated Sight --
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be --
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame --

And were You -- saved --
And I -- condemned to be
Where You were not --
That self -- were Hell to Me --

So We must meet apart --
You there -- I -- here --
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are -- and Prayer --
And that White Sustenance --
Despair --

---

This seems one of Dickinson's most popular poems, but also the most difficult. Without hesitation, one can easily conclude that Dickinson held this person in high glory, seemingly superior to herself, and who, perhaps, she felt unworthy in presence. The superiority arrives in lines like 'For You -- served Heaven -- You know, Or sought to -- I could not' and almost a concept of idolatry and obsessive love comes into the perception. The separation seems permanent and needed for unstated reasons, though Dickinson easily states her need for this person, but depressingly acknowledges that 'We must meet apart,' as she states her availability and desire ('with just the Door ajar'), but seems the 'Oceans,' 'White Sustenance,' and 'Despair' separates them.

Thank you so much for the input, Mono!! I really appreciate the help!

Hello, All,
I'd like to suggest, to anyone who needs biographical info on E.D., that they see the Belle of Amherst, starring Julie Harris.
It's a film of a one-person play for which she won a Tony.
I got it from Netflix, just finished watching it. Very moving!

I thought Emily Dickinson was known for her religious poems. These three sound like religious poems to me too, dedicated to God.

Religious, yes, along with her intense pursuit of an ideal spiritual reality, percolated through her poems, and this may lead to her dedication to poetry, as poets are like the sacrifice to gods. Yeats once queried that life's perfection and art's, from which we'd choose, since they seem hard to coexist, or with rivalry only. The 'You' in the poem 'I cannot live with You' could symbolize her follow of 'life's perfection', especially for love, or a real person who captured her soul, and thus to live with him would sabotage her relation with gods, and breach her born duty. Since she chose art, and left the beloved, she suffered.

Quote:

---

I could not die -- with You --
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down --
You -- could not --

Nor could I rise -- with You --
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus' --
That New Grace

---

'You' could not wait to shut 'my' Gaze down-'I' am immortal by serving God with poems.

'Your Face would put out Jesus' '-Love overwhelming, that would distracted me in serving God.

-Just my personal thoughts. Use wisely if it is workable. ;)