Dickinson Criticism 1960-1962

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Dickinson Criticism 1960-1962

Agrawal, Ishwar Nath. "Emily Dickinson: A Study of Diction." Literary Criterion 5 (1962): iii 95-100. Summary of recent Dickinson criticism.

Anderson, Charles R. Emily Dickinson's Poetry: Stairway of Surprise. New York: Holt, 1960. Selects 100 of ED's best poems and offers explication of each.

Banzer, Judith. "'Compound Manner': Emily Dickinson and the Metaphysical Poets." American Literature 32 (1961): 417-433. Repr. Cady & Budd. ED was familiar with a wide range of these poets, and is similar to Donne in style; she quotes, however, only Herbert and Vaughan. [Author later named Judith Farr.]

Blevins, Winfred. "Emily Dickinson, the critics, and approximate rhyme." M.A. thesis, Columbia University, 1962. Studies ED's rhyme-schemes and the reaction of 19th- and 20th-century critics.

Bogan, Louise. "A Mystical Poet." In Emily Dickinson: Three Views (Amherst 1960). Repr. Sewall. Connects ED with the English Romantics, especially Blake.

Cambon, Glauco. "Violence and Abstraction in Emily Dickinson." Sewanee Review 68 (1960): 450-464. Compares ED's poetic "White Heat" to the intensity of Valéry, Mallarmé, Ungaretti.

Frye, Northrop. "Emily Dickinson." In Fables of Identity (1962): 193-217. Introduction to ED's personae, rhetoric, and peculiarities.

MacLeish, Archibald. "The Private World: Poems of Emily Dickinson." In Poetry and Experience (Boston 1961). Repr. Sewall. Criticizes ED for employing abstractions concretely, but is rapturous about her incongruous tone.

Pearce, Roy Harvey. "Emily Dickinson." In The Continuity of American Poetry (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961): 174-186. Egotism and individualism characterized Dickinson's work; but unlike many of her American contemporaries, she lacked a political or aesthetic program.

Wheatcroft, John Stewart. "Emily Dickinson and the Orthodox Tradition." DA 21 (1960): 1186-1187. Connects Dickinson to the Puritan literary heritage of the Connecticut Valley.

Ward, Theodora. The Capsule of the Mind: Chapters in the Life of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge MA: Belknap Press, 1961. Six essays on Dickinson's life and friendships.

Wilbur, Richard. "Sumptuous Destitution." In Emily Dickinson: Three Views (Amherst 1960). Repr. Sewall. ED's private feelings and perceptions warred against her inherited Calvinist vocabulary. Defeat and repudiation inspire the great moments of her poetry.