Visiting Emily: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Emily Dickinson

by Sheila Coghill, Sheila Coghill (Editor), Robert Bly (Foreword by)

This unique anthology gathers work by eighty poets inspired by Emily Dickinson. Beginning with Hart Crane's 1927 poem “To Emily Dickinson” and moving forward through the century to such luminary figures as Archibald MacLeish, John Berryman, Yvor Winters, Adrienne Rich, Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Amy Clampitt, William Stafford, and Galway Kinnell, Visiting Emily offers both a celebration of and an homage to one of the world's great poets.

If there was ever any doubt about Dickinson's influence on modern and contemporary poets, this remarkable collection surely puts it to rest. Gathered here are poems reflecting a wide range of voices, styles, and forms—poems written in traditional and experimental forms; poems whose tones are meditative, reflective, reverent and irreverent, satirical, whimsical, improvisational, and serious. Many of the poets draw from Dickinson's biography, while others imagine events from her life. Some poets borrow lines from Dickinson's poems or letters as triggers for their inspiration. Though most of the poems connect directly to Dickinson's life or work, for others the connection is more oblique.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies

156 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 2000

Reviews

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. It's a collection of poems written in evocation of Emily Dickinson. Some are simply about her. Some are attempts to write in her unique style, like the poem by X. J. Kennedy which imagines Emily, tongue-in-cheek, with an answering machine. Other poets aim to amuse. Billy Collins writes a poem describing "Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes." Donald Hall's "The Impossible Marriage" imagines the wedding of Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Most are serious contemplations of Dickinson and her place in her world and ours. Some are quietly meditative. All recognize our debt to her. I think everyone who admires Dickinson's work would be enchanted by Visiting Emily. I know I'll continue to read it periodically.