The Great Poets - Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson is often imagined as a kind of rare, delicate porcelain creation, fragile to the point of untouchability: dressed all in white, fearful of strangers, almost as fearful of friends, living her life like a hermit, hermetically sealed in a New England house, her poems -- tiny, fragmentary -- being released like wisps of air from someone trying to hold their breath. In part, this image is wholly deserved -- she was indeed reclusive; she did dress all in white; she hid when someone she had corresponded with for years came to play the piano. She published almost no works during her life; and that life was essentially hidden from view. As a result, the ambiguity of her poetry is seen as a mirror of her enigmatic life, and the verses seen as gnomic, almost visionary. An enigmatic life is a positive boon to myth-making, of course; and ambiguous poetry maintains the need for critical re-evaluation. But Emily Dickinson's works have merited their 120 years of attention because of their idiosyncratic place in the history and development of American verse; and the expressive beauty of the poems themselves. This careful but imaginative selection shows the remarkable variety she produced despite the miniature nature of the medium. Though known principally as the miniaturist in American poetry, Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) produced a remarkably wide body of work -- some concentrating on acute observations and some on bons mots. Full of wit and sensitivity, she generally appears in anthologies but this generous collection shows that she is a poet to be taken seriously. Teresa Gallagher has performed in many leading roles in both plays and musicals across the country, form London's West End to Broadway. In addition, she is a well-known voice to listeners of BBC Radio Drama. Her work on film includes The Misadventures of Margaret and Mike Leigh's Topsy Turvy. For Naxos AudioBooks she has recorded the Biography of Jane Austen and selections from The Decameron by Boccaccio. She has also read Classic Women's Short Stories, Heidi, The Treasure Seekers, The Wouldbegoods, The Story of Jesus, Thailand From After the Quake and Little Lord Fauntleroy.