UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA
PÓS-GRADUAÇÀO EM INGI .ÊS E UTERATURA CORRESPONDENI E
METALANGUAGE IN EMILY DICKINSON’S POEMS
POR
MÁRCLA. T. ZATHARIAM
Dis^rta^õ submetída à Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina para a obt^ção do
grati de Mestre em Letras.
FLORIANÓPOLIS
FEVEREIRO DE 1994
ü
Esta dissertação Toi julgada adequada e aprovada em sua forma fínal para a
obtenção do titulo de
MESTRE EM LETR4S
Opção Inglês e Literatura Correspondente.
Pror Dr" Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard
Coordenadora
Banca Examinadora:
P rof Dr. ‘$érgiwLuiz Prado Bellei
'Pr«ideníe
Pror Dr* Susana Bornéo Funck
Prof. Dr. José Roberto Basto O’Shea
Florianópolis, 23 de fevereiro de 1994.
UI
Para meu amor Christian, que sempre esteve
por perto trazendo alto astral
IV
AGR.4DECÏMENTOS
Agradeço aos meus pais;
Á Pirofessora Siisana Bom éo Funck;
À Ana Maria Cordeiro;
Ao Professor José Roberto Basfo O'Shea;
Agradeço, em especial, à minha irmã Jane, à amiga Mara e ao Pr«jfessor Sérgio
L uí2 Prado Bellei.
V
ABSTRACT
Language is a theme which has always puzzled scholars and poets due to its
complexity and its implications in human relationshiops. The belief on the effective
communication of the words, though» is not unanimous. Especially when areas of
knowledge other than the humanities start to retreat from the realm of verbal
communication and create their own code, language loses its aura and power of
conveyer of truth This dissertation is an attempt to analyse some of Emily Dickinson’s
poems on language and its impact on human lives. In Aiese poems, the poet hi^ili^ts
the paradox power/inefficiency of flie words, as well as flie si^ficance of silence
confronted
the void of language.
In the introductory diapter, I present my reading on some criticism of
Dickinson's poetry. Mudi of this criticism oriented my analysis of the poems
contributing largely to my understanding of them. In the next chapter, I discuss some
theoretical texts on language by Saussure. Wittgenstein and Geoi^e Steiner. The
analysis of the poems itself is in the third chapter, whidi is foUowed by the conclusion
of the dissertation as a whole. In general, I tried to read her poems closely, keeping
track of her paradoxical views on language, as somefliing that "fails, but entertains...*'
VI
RESUMO
Devido st sua complesidâde e às suas tremendas implicações nas relações
humanas, a linguagem sempre apresentou-se como um tema bastante intrigante para
os poéticos e teóricos. Não há unanimidade, porém, quanto à sua eficiência na
comunicação. Isso faz-se notar de forma particularmente clara quando as chamadas
ciências exatas abandonam a comunicação verbal e saem em busca de um código
próprio. A linguagem perde, então, o seu status do veículo da verdade. Esta dissertação
é uma tentativa de análise de alguns poemas de Emily Dickinson sobre a linguagem e
sua importância na vida humana. Nestes poemas, a poeta joga com o paradoxo
forçca/ineficiência das palavras, bem como a si^fícação do sUêncio comparado com o
vaiáo presmte na linguagem.
No capítulo introdutório, eu apresento alguns críticos da poesia de Emity
Dicldnson. Grande paríe desta crítica contribui muito para a análise e a compreensão
dos poemas. No próximo capítulo, eu faço uma breve leitura de alguns textos teóricos
de Saussure, Witígenstein e George Steiner sobre a linguagem. O terceiro capítulo
contém a análise dos poemas, o que é seguido pela conclusão da dissertação como um
todo. De modo geral, eu tento ler os poemas detalhadamente, trilhando as idéias
paradóxicas de Dickinsan sobre a linguagem, como algo ineficiente, mas necessário.
Vli
CONTENTS
AGRADECIMENTOS.................................... ................................................... iv
ABSTRACT................................................................................................... ...... v
RESUMO....................................................................................................... .......vi
CHAPTER I
: INTRODUCTION............................................................. .... 1
CHAPTER n
: ON LANGUAGE.................... ...............................................21
CHAPTER m : DICKINSON’S METALANGUAGE POEMS................ ..45
CHAPTER IV : CONCLUSION.....................................................................79
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................... ....... ..87
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
E m ily D i c k i n s o n
published
scarcely
d u r i n g her
lifetim eJ
C ha rle s A n d e r s o n onc e said t h a t she wrote "cut o f f from c o m m u n io n
with any but p o s t e r i t y - A s a m a t t e r of fact she even trie d to keep
some c o n ta c t w i t h the l i t e r a r y w orld th ro u g h Thom as H i g g i n s o n , and
they wrote one a n o t h e r for some time. She ended up se n d in g hi m some
o f her p o e m s , b u t the r e c e p t i o n is well know n. For H i g g i n s o n , who
may c e r t a i n l y s t a n d for the r e a d e r s at th at tim e, her style n e ed e d
"co rre ction s."
Though
the
originality
and
newness
of her
poetry;
c au gh t h im on th e sp ot, he did not see h e r work as po etry; he r a t h e r
d e sc r ib e d it as " b e a u t i f u l t h o u g h t s and w ord s," and t r ie d to s t e e r her
to w ards a m o re c o n v e n t i o n a l po e tr y .^ P e r h a p s f r u s t r a t e d w i t h this f i r s t
co n ta ct, she n e v e r t r i e d to m a k e h e r poetry pu b lic a gain . A f t e r her
2
de ath in 1886, her s i s t e r fou nd her m a n u s c r i p t s in one of her d r a w e r s ,
and fam ily and frien ds p u b l i s h e d some s e le c te d poe ms.^
Her early
e d it o r s even t r ie d to "make the m eter scan and the lines rh y m e." It was only in 1955 th a t T ho m as H. Jo h n son p u b l i s h e d her
c o m p l e t e po e m s a nd le tte r s. J o h n s o n 's work is ex tremely i m p o r t a n t not
only b e c a u s e o f the c o m p l e t e n e s s of his p u b l i c a t i o n s , but a ls o due to
his c a r e f u l e d i t i n g , w h i c h in c l u d e d a l is t o f m a n u s c r i p t v a r i a n t s ,
p r e v i o u s p u b l i c a t i o n d a t a , and e m e n d a t i o n s o f e a r l ie r e d i t o r s . ^
As soon as D i c k i n s o n 's poetry w a s r e v e a l e d , th e o r i g i n a l i t y
a nd s t r a n g e n e s s o f h e r style were i m m e d ia te l y n otic ed. A c c o r d i n g to
C h a r l e s A n d e r s o n , "she u se d w o rds as i f she were the f irst to do so,
with a joy
and
R e n a i s s a n c e . "*7
an awe
la r g e ly
lost to E n g l i s h p o etr y
since
the
She c h o se the hym n m eter as a p a t t e r n , w h i c h h a d not
b e e n d o ne by any o t h e r w r i t e r p r ev io u s ly . A l s o , she u se d a s s o n a n c e ,
consonance,
identical
an d
su s p e n d e d
rhymes,
that
had
not
been
e x p lo r e d in o r th o d o x E n g l i s h befo re, as the m a i n p a t t e r n o f r h y m in g . ^
F o r D a v i d P o r t e r , D i c k i n s o n 's n e w n e s s
lay in the fact ha t she w a s not
c o n c e r n e d w i t h the " r e v e l a t i o n of a l arg e and f a m i l i a r t r u t h but w i t h
the r e l e a s e o f a sm a ll d i s c o n c e r t i n g m y s t e r y r e d i s c o v e r e d . I n fact,
h e r p o e try has t h e ^ f a a g m e n t a r y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c w h i c h w ^ l d
be l a t e r
ex p lo r e d by the m o d e r n i s t s . And she is even c ited as a f o r e r u n n e r o f
m od ern po etry for u s i n g de vic es such as e ty m o log y , which se nds the
r e a d e r s back to root m e a n i n g s . ^ ^ F i n a l l y , some of her ideas on the
n a tu r e ofz the poet, h is t a s k s and p o w er, are " an im ate d by a s t r e n g th
of
fe e lin g
and
manner
of
articulation
without
precedent
in
our
lit e r a t u r e ." ^ 1
A c c o r d i n g to Ja m es W o o d re s s , c r i t i c i s m o f D i c k i n s o n 's work
can
be
d i v id e d
in to
the
p e ri o d
befo re
and
the
p e rio d
afte r
the
p u b l i c a t i o n o f J o h n s o n 's v a r i o r u m e d it i o n s . Before the p u b l i c a t i o n o f
J o h n s o n 's w o r k ,
some i m p o r t a n t a r t i c l e s
w ere p u b l i s h e d on E m ily
D i c k i n s o n 's po e try , su ch as t h o s e by C o n r a d A i k e n and A l l e n T ate, b u t
t h ere was a ls o m u c h s p e c u l a t i o n on the p o e t ’s life , w h i c h did l i t t l e for
the c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f th e a m p l i t u d e o f h e r work.
A fter J o h n s o n 's
e d i t i o n s , ho w e v er, D i c k i n s o n 's work c o uld be la r g e ly r e v i e w e d , and
c o m p r e h e n s iv e st u d i e s on her poetry came
a b o u t .
^2
W i t h i n this l arg e scop e o f c r i t i c i s m on D i c k i n s o n 's w o r k , we
have m any ch o ic es on a r t i c l e s a nd books by o u t s t a n d i n g c r i t i c s . Some
o f t h em can be c o n s i d e r e d q u ite i m p o r t a n t in t h a t they h e lpe d e s t a b l i s h
D i c k i n s o n 's r e p u t a t i o n . The a f o r e m e n t io n e d C o n r a d A i k e n a nd A l l e n
Tate are some o f t h e s e e x am p le s. In t h e i r a r t i c l e s , e q u a l ly n a m e d a fte r
"Emily D i c k i n s o n , " they w o r k w i t h p u r i t a n i s m , r e l i g i o n an d d e a t h in
4
her
p o e try ,
treating
th e i r
them es
by
r e s o r ti n g
to
her
biography
f req ue n tly.
Ivor W in t e r is one o f the early critic s of D i c k in s o n as well.
In "Emily D i c k i n s o n and the L im i ts of Ju d g e m e n t," m akes a n e g a t iv e
c r i t i c i s m o f her p o e m s , a r g u i n g th a t she was p r a i s e d for her w o r s t
m i s t a k e s and s t a t i n g t h a t h e r w r i t i n g was " u n p a r d o n a b le " d u e to its
o b s c u r i ty . He a n a l y s e s
some p o e m s a nd, fin ally , in spite o f some
r e s t r i c t i o n s , he r e c o g n i z e s t h a t "The l a s t n i g h t she lived" is g rea t
poetry.
S t i l l w i t h i n the c a t e g o r y of i m p o r t a n t e arly c r i t ic s , D o n a l d E.
Thackrey
a n d C h a r le s A n d e r s o n sh o uld be m e n tio n e d . T h a c k r e y , in
"The c o m m u n i c a t i o n o f the W o rds," w ork s w i t h Emily D i c k i n s o n 's
a t t i t u d e t o w a r d s l a n g u a g e and w o rd s , an d d i s c u s s e s her m e t h o d o f
c o m p o s i t i o n , as w e l l as t h e p o w e r o f the i n d i v i d u a l w o r d s in h e r
po em s.
He a n a l y s e s
poems
whose
central
theme
is
language
an d
e x p lo r e s th e p a r a d o x p o w e r / i n e f f i c i e n c y o f l a n g u a g e , and a ls o h e r
w o r s h i p f u l i d ea s t o w a r d s si l e n c e . A n d e r s o n 's bo o k, Emily D i c k i n s o n 's
Poetry: S t a ir w a y o f S u r p r i s e , w a s a ls o qu ite i m p o r t a n t , as it w a s "the
f irst c o m p r e h e n s i v e r e a d i n g o f all p oem s b a s e d on J o h n s o n 's t e x t . " ^ ^
The c r i t i c is c o n c e rn e d o n ly w i t h po e tr y as A rt a n d e x p lo r e s d i f f e r e n t
t h e m e s on. h e r poetry: "The p a r a d i s e o f Art," "The o u ter w o r l d , " "The
5
inner world," and "The other paradise." Like Thackrey, Anderson deals
w ith m etalanguage and metapoetry, and lays em p hasis on D ick in son 's
concern w ith expression.
After the establish m ent o f D ic k in so n 's work as part o f the
A m erican culture and literature, a great number o f academic criticism
on her poetry and letters was p u blish ed . We w ill deal here w ith some
exam ples o f this criticism on poetry o n ly, and it is quite important to
n otice the variety o f them es and approaches explored and v iew ed by
the authors in general.
Roy Harvey Pearce, in The C on tinuity o f Am erican Poetrv,
exam ines
the
them e
of
"achievement
of
status
through
crucial
experiences." For him , this achievem en t, or the attempt to a ch iev e
p sy c h o lo g ic a l status through exp erien ces o f lo v e, marriage, death,
faith , and p oetic ex p ressio n , pervades a ll the poet's works and is her
central concern. Hyatt H. W aggoner, on the other hand, in A m erican
Poets: From the Puritans to the P resent, works sp e c ific a lly w ith the
them e o f r e lig io n ,
considering D ic k in so n 's
v ie w not only from a
puritan p ersp ective, but through a transcendental one, and states that
the poet red efines faith in a more u n iv ersal manner.
T ouching the theme o f death, w e have D olores D. Lucas's
E m ily D ic k in so n and R id d le . D eath, according to the critic, is the
6
poet's major concern and presents an actual 'riddle' in her poetry. She
a n a ly ses D ick in so n 's experim ent o f the riddle, trying to exam ine her
idea o f death, and, consequ en tly, o f life and truth.
More recently, fem in ist critics have also contributed to the
critic ism on D ick in son 's work. Among many prominent authors, one
relevan t exam ple is Sandra Gilbert and Susan Oubar in The M adwom an
in the A ttic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary
Im a g in a tio n . In this study, the critics place Emily D ic k in so n among a
number o f w om en writers from the nineteenth-century. D e a lin g w ith
the them e o f en closu re and escap e in D ick in son 's work, they explore
"metaphors o f p h y sical discom fort m anifested by frozen land scapes
and fiery in teriors." '^ D ick in so n 's work is said to fo llo w the pattern
o f a fem ale literary tradition, and she h e r se lf is seen to embody the
character o f the "madwoman" o f many wom en writers's stories. V ivian
P oliak, in "Thirst and Starvation in Em ily D ickinson's Poetry." and
Margaret D ic k ie , in "D ickinson's D iscon tin u ou s Lyric S e l f ,” present
stu dies in w h ich they bring about different themes: Poliak lin k s thirst
and
starvation
rela tio n sh ip s.
to
Food
renunciation:
and drink
"lack
imagery
of
is
appetite"
also
for
human
examined.
D ic k ie
illu m in a tes the d iscon tin u ity o f the "lyric-self" in contrast to the
traditional m ale 'plot.'
7
In "The M aiden and the Muse: D ic k in s o n ’s Tropes o f Poetic
Creation," Rita Di G iuseppe brings up the paradoxical theme o f poet
vs. poetry, consid erin g D ickinson's struggle for creative autonomy and
for avoiding the bias o f being a woman writer. The creative power o f
the poet is compared to that o f Ood.
Em ily D ick in so n 's poetry is, then, a very rich universe
explored.
In
this
dissertation,
how ever,
I
w ill
be
to be
sp e c ific a lly
concerned w ith some poems w h ose central theme is language and its
im p lica tion . Surveying her poetry as a w h o le , I came across many
poem s about langu age and com m unication, as i s the case o f poem J.
1651:
A Word made F lesh is seldom
And trem blingly partook
Nor then perhaps reported
But have I not m istook
Each o f us has tasted
With e c sta sie s o f stealth
,,The very food debated
To our sp e c ific strength —
8
A Word that breathes d istin ctly
Has not the power to die
C oh esiv e as the Spirit
It may expire i f He —
"Made F lesh and dw elt among us"
Could c o n d e sc en sio n be
Like this consent o f Language
This lov ed P h ilo lo g y
Indeed, as Charles A nderson s u g g e s ts , the poet is "concerned
w ith e xp ressio n from her e arliest years."
And in many o f her poem s,
lik e in the poem above, D ic k in so n sees the word as a powerful entity
w h ic h has its own life and f u lf ills an em p tiness in human life (This
and other aspects in her poetry w ill be explored with more details in
chapter III.)
Some critics have dealt directly w ith language as a thème in
D ic k in so n 's poetry. John G ross, for exam p le, in "'Tell A ll the Truth
But
—
refers
u n w illin g n e s s
to
to
D ick in son 's
com m unicate.
'noncom m unication,'
For
him,
the
poet
that
is,
the
feared
the
"uncertainty o f an understanding reason," w h ich would prevent the
reader from gettin g w hat she means. He compares D ickinson to several
9
other nineteenth-century artiats who experienced the same fear for the
'com m unication o f the word.' A ccording to Gross, authors such as
Emerson, M e lv ille , Hawthorne, and Thoreau shared with D ick in son an
'obliquity' o f m ethod, w hich allow ed them to 'tell the truth ' slan tly, as
i f d isg u ise d by the fear o f being attacked by an audience w hich w as
not contemporary enough to understand them. Even in her prose,
D ic k in so n was indirect and, at tim es, she made no differen tiation
b etw een prose and poetry.
In " Em ily D ic k in so n , Emerson, and the Poet as Namer," John
S. Mann comparés D ick in so n to Em erson in that both were concerned
w ith the process o f nam ing th in gs. The poet as 'namer' is the one who
sees and feels nature se n sitiv e ly enough to create the names for its
e lem en ts.
For
Mann,
though,
D ick in son 's
attitude
differs
from
Em erson's, for she is c o n scio u s o f the dou b len ess o f things and o f the
lo ss and absence w h ich e x is ts is b etw een a thing and its name. He
h ig h lig h ts
D ick in son 's
sed u ction
for
nam es,
their
power
and
im p lication s. N am ing for the poet presents som ething o f an 'adamic'
quality, in that it is a way o f recreating what he s e e s , what he know s.
In this sen se, D ick in son 's poet is the namer and the creator o f the
w orld, that is , the poet " p o ssess[es] the world by naming it," what is
evid en ced
in
her
poetry
in
the
com plex
question
of
the
10
n a m in g /p o ssesa io n dilemma. Its com plexity ranges from the naming
and d efin in g o f h e r se lf — her inner action and em otion — to the
attempt to "define the indefinable," hence, the irony resu ltin g from
D ick in so n 's paradoxical poetry.
Many
of
D ick in son 's
poem s
on
language
are
e x p lic itly
concerned w ith the in e ffic ie n c y o f langu age in com m unicating. In lines
su ch as "If I could te ll how glad I w as / I should not be so glad," "I
can't te ll you - but you fe e l it —
d e fin itio n is none —
com m u n icab ility
lan gu age
in
we can see the poet's attitude towards the
o f langu age.
defining,
"The d efin itio n o f beauty is / That
But
te llin g
even
th in g s,
sh ow ing
D ic k in so n
the
'failure'
recog n izes
of
that
lan gu age has much impact on human rela tio n sh ip s, and the power and
ind ep en dence o f words are made e x p lic it by the poet in many poem s,
such as J.8:
There is a word
W hich bears a sword
Can pierce an armed man
It hurls its barbled sy lla b les
And it is mute again —
But where it fell
11
The saved w ill tell
On patriotic day.
Some epauletted Brother
Gave his breath away.
Wherever runs the breatheless sun —
Wherever roams the day —
There is its n o is e le s s onset —
There is its victory!
Behold the k een est marksman!
The m ost acco m p lish ed shot!
Time's su b lim est target
Is a soul "forgot!"
Charles Anderson, in Em ily D ick in son 's Poetry: Stairway o f
Surprise, show s that D ic k in so n is "explicitly concerned w ith the power
o f lan gu a ge." !^ For him , the poet is co n sc io u s o f the creative power o f
w ords, w h ich is capable o f "mov[ing] men's hearts." Poetry has its
own life and the "living word has re-creative p o w e r . " B y
word", she means the word that is uttered
"living
and used, not the one that
lie s inert in a dictionary. The poet, then, b e lie v e s in this higher power
12
o f words and o f eloquence itse lf, even w h ile recog n izin g the am biguity
w h ich can surround such a power. B ecau se o f this b e lie f, her language
i t s e l f is creative, and she can discover the "inner paradise o f art by the
la n g u age o f s u r p r i s e . " A n d e r s o n points out D ick in son 's
"oblique
approach" as her manner o f e x p r essin g , o f te llin g the truth 'slant.'
W ithin this ob liq u ity, her c o n sc io u sn e s s o f language in e ffic ie n c y in
d e a lin g w ith em otions is apparent. She fears language's dangerous
am b ig u ity , sin c e , once created, words have their own life and may
m ean different th in gs, w ith unexpected co n seq u en ces.
Another aspect raised
by the same
critic
is
D ickinson's
concern w ith craftsm anship and w ith the im portance o f the poet. The
poet's craft is view ed as creation o f beauty not in a heavenly mode, but
in a th eatrica l one. D ick in son 's poet is extrem ely human, private and
d evoid o f d ivinity.
A ls o em p hasizing D ick in so n 's b e lie f in the power
o f w ords,
D a vid Porter's "The P o etics o f Doubt" d is c u sse s the issu e o f the
a ffe c tiv e
power
co n co m ita n t." !^
o f poetry
in
Pof D ic k in s o n ,
w hich
"impact
langu age
and
caused
inn ovation
a shock
are
by the
"surprise o f discovery in the fam iliar i s s u e s ,"20 and the poet is the
one who has "supreme o b lig a tio n s and power" to reveal language's
13
surprises. Language assum es a powerful role in the revelation o f a
"large and fam iliar truth."
D ick in son 's attitude towards language seem s to be, therefore,
tw ofo ld . She sees in words an pow erful and creative power; at the
sam e tim e, she r ecog n izes their in e ffic ie n c y in com m unicating. In his
article "Sign and Process; The Concept o f Language in Emerson and
D ickinson," R oland Hagenbflchle confronts these two aspects. Stating
the differences betw een D ick in son 's and Emerson's assum ptions on the
nature o f lan gu ag e, he show s that, for D ick in son , words have som e
kind o f destru ctiven ess and their power is exp losive; the "dangerous
p oten tia l o f language"21 is explored by the poet through ind irection ,
w h ich b ecom es a strategy o f "self-defence." Emerson's primacy is laid
on 'the thing,' w h ile D ic k in so n p r iv ile g es 'the word.' HagenbOchle
bu ild s up a d ifferen tiation betw een the transcendental sig n and the
sym bol. The first presents a "subject-object relationship," w h ile the
second c a lls on the primacy o f langu age, based on an "awareness o f
the irreducibly lin g u is tic nature o f all kn ow led ge and, therefore, o f all
r e a lity ."22 The sig n s t ill keeps the 'autonomy' o f the object; the
sym bol ignores "extralinguistic reality." D ickinson's poetry brings out
the sym b ol, and she is aware o f the lack o f convention e x is tin g
betw een word and reality. M ean w hile, D ic k in so n is con sciou s o f the
14
inadequacy o f language. Perception o f the thing, for the poet, is not
exact;
conversely,
it
in v olv es
lo s s ,
but
even
recogn izin g
the
lim ita tio n s o f language in com m unicating, she works w ith it in selfnegation. Thus, D ickinson's poems "are often records o f
f a ilu r e ."23
Another critic who exam ines this double attitude o f the poet
before language is Murray Arndt in "Emily D ick in son and the Limits
o f Language," in w hich a p o sitiv e and a negative attitude towards
lan gu age are examined. W hile language has " resonances that range
beyond the lim its o f
l o g i c ,
"24 these same lim its can confine language
u n til it "no longer has the power to dom inate [D ickinson's]
v i s i o n .
"25
E ven recogn izin g the lim its o f w ords, she wants to break the lim its o f
grammar "push[ing] her poems beyond lo g ic a l lim its o f l a n g u a g e . "26
Faced, then, with this paradoxical v iew o f langu age, its
pow er and its in e ffic ie n c y , I decided to explore one sp e c ific question
1
concerning
language
in Em ily D ick in son 's
poetry.
If language
is
pow erful, but u se le ss in com m unicating, so why use language? What is
the
function o f language
in human relation sh ip s?
Here we must
exam ine some o f the criticism related to the problem.
B. J. R ogers, in "The Truth Told Slant: Emily D ick in so n 's
P o etic Mode," m entions the inab ility to grasp m eaning, p osin g that
"meaning does not lie in the world o f external reality, and the sen ses
)
15
are not to be trusted entirely, although they are all that can be relied
u p o n .
"27 That is, although the perception through w hich we try to
express things and fe e lin g s is inaccurate, and the way in w hich we
express these same fe e lin g s and thin gs is a lso inadequate, there is no
other way to do it. D ic k in so n , in a se n se , plays w ith language's
am bigu ity producing
a circu m feren cial movement around a center
w h ich is omitted. Her poetry m oves from the realm o f 'knowable'
th in g s, to the attempt to utter the 'unknowable.' She is, though, quite
c o n sc io u s'
of
the
im p o s s ib ility
to
present
truth
and
reality
straightforw ardly; som etim es lan gu age is even unable to reflect truth.
In Lyric Time. Sharon Cameron states that language "mourns
th« sp ace it must faith fu lly
r e c o r d " 2 S ^
and that D ick in son is con scio u s
o f th is m ourning that is langu age. The experien ces w h ich the speaker
tries
to
convey
are
separated
from
the
act
of
naming
by
the
interpretation o f that ex p erien ce, w h ich is not the event anymore, but
the representation o f it. But even i f the speaker is con scio u s o f this
failure o f langu age, the "necessity for names becom es apparent at
those m om ents when they fa il
u s .
"29 Frequently, we do not have words
for our m ental im ages and. so m etim es, "unable to say what we mean,
we also fa il to know it."^® D ic k in so n , in Cameron's v ie w , has a
unique attitude in relation to the com plex and d ia lec tic a l relationship
16
betw een
presence
and
representation.
D ickinson
tries
to
convey
presence into lan gu age, w hich acts as a theatrical "source o f hope." In
other w ords, langu age w ould be the theater through w hich what is lost,
the experience it s e lf , w ould be recovered. Would that be the function
o f language?
W ould
this
function,
o f recovering
the
e sse n c e
of
e x p erien ce, be important to human relation sh ip s?
F in ally, Jerome L oving, in Em ily D ickinson: The Poet on the
Second Story, is concerned w ith the "illusions o f language" w hich is
our only protection in a w ild ern ess o f natural facts." He show s the
relation la n g u a g e /iif e /lie in D ick in so n 's poetry. Language can turn life
into lie and, co n seq u en tly , distant from the
"terrible harmony o f
nature." Would the function o f language be, then, illusory? Would
language be the illu so r y so lu tio n in a cruel natural world?
H aving m ade th ese c on sid eration s, I want to reach a point in
w h ich
I w ill
report
my
questions
to
their
very
source
: Emily
D ick in son 's poetry. In other w ords, my purpose in this d issertation
w ill be to analyse som e o f D ick in son 's poem s w hich have language as
their m ain them e, trying to come to some c o n clu sio n about the function
o f langu age for the poet. I w ill try to v ie w several aspects in my
a n a ly s is , nam ely the p o w er /in efficien cy o f langu age, the importance o f
sile n c e — g iv en the n on com m u nicab ility o f words and the task o f the
17
poet as a namer. At the end o f the a n a ly sis, I w ill try to answer the
qu estion s I asked before; Why use language? Is it important for our
relation sh ip s?
Many o f D ick in son 's poems give a clue to the answer o f these
q u estion s and my hyp othesis is that, as a w h ole, they present language
as a n e cessa ry hope for human life even though it works in s e l f ­
negation.
In the
chapter that
fo llo w s,
I w ill
d iscu ss
som e
issu e s
concerning lan gu age and human com m unication. In that chapter, I w ill
d is c u s s briefly som e th eoretical texts w h ich may help illu m in ate my
reading o f-D ic k in so n 's poetry. Chapter 3 w ill contain the a n a ly s is o f
the poem s th e m se lv e s, and chapter 4 w ill present my c o n clu sio n s in
relation to the d isserta tio n as a w h ole and to my hypothesis.
18
NOTES - CHAPTER I
1 • See Karen Dandurand, "Publication o f D ick in son 's Poems
in Her Lifetim e," Legacy (Spring 19 84):7. According to the critic,
D ic k in s o n pu blish ed 10 poems during her life.
2 - Charles Anderson, Em ily D ick in son 's Poetry: Stairway o f
Surprise (N ew York : H olt, Rinehart and W inston, 1960) 62.
3 - M ordecai Marcus , Em ily D ickinson: S elected
Poems -
N otes (L incoln: C lif f N o tes, 1982) 10.
^ - James W oochess, "Emily Dickinson," Fifteen Am erican
Authors
before
1900
- B ib lio g ra p h ica l
E ssays
on
R esearch
and
C riticism , ed. Earl N. Harbert and Robert A. Rees (M adison: The
U n iversity o f W iscon sin P ress, 1984) 189.
5 - W oodress 188.
19
^ - W o o d re ss 1 90.
^ - Anderson 3.
® - Anderson 11.
^ - D a v i d P o r te r , "Emily D i c k i n s o n : The Poe tic s o f Doubt,"
E m e r s o n So c iety Q u a r te r l y 7 7 ( 1 9 7 4 ) : 89.
- Anderson 32.
11 - P o r te r 87.
12 - W oodress 197.
13 - W oodress 206.
14 - Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the
Attic:
The
Woman
Writer
and
the
N ineteenth-C enturv
Literary
Im agin ation (N ew Haven: Yale U p ,1984) 590.
15 - A n d e r s o n 36.
1^ - A nderson 30.
1*7 - Anderson 41.
1^ - Anderson 46.
19 - P o r t e r 89.
20 - P o r t e r 89.
21 - Roland Hagenbtlchle, "Sign and Process: The Concept o f
Language
in Emerson and D ickinson,"
2 5 (1 9 7 9 ): 140.
Em erson
Society Quarterly
20
22 . H a g c n b ttc h le 143.
23 . Hagenbtkchle 153.
24
- Murray Arndt, "Emily D ic k in so n and the Limits o f
Language," D ic k in so n Studies 57(19 86): 19.
25 - Arndt 2 1.
26 . Arndt 27.
27 - B. J. R ogers, "The Truth Told Slant: Emily D ic k in so n ’s
P oetic Mode," Texas Studies in Literature and Language 14(1972);
336.
28 . Sharon Cameron, Lyric Time - D ick in son and the Limits
o f Genre fBaltim ore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1 979) 137.
29 - Cameron 141.
30 - Cameron 145.
21
CHAPTER II
ON LANGUAGE
Language is
our v e h icle
to talk
o f language itse lf.
The
d e fin itio n may seem paradoxical at tim es, and this paradox has been a
c h a lle n g e for p h ilo sop h ers, p s y c h o lo g is ts , literary critics, lin g u ists,
and poets. Language is very com p lex, and it is through i t s e lf that w e
m ention its com p lexity.
This preoccupation w ith la n g u a g e, w ith words, w ith the poet
as the language*maker is a strong presen ce in D ickinson's poetry. And
22
th is se lf-r e fle c tiv ity o f language we name
m etalanguage, that is,
language about it s e lf, words on words, as we see on poem J.1261 ■
.
A word dropped careless on a page
May stim ulate an eye
When folded in perpetual seam
The Wrinkled Maker lie
In fection in the sentence breeds
We may inhale Despair
At distan ces o f Centuries
From the Malaria-
The poem above is not only about the word it s e lf, but about
the act o f creation
on w hich w riting, language co n sists. (This poem
w i l l be d isc u sse d in more details on the fo llo w in g chapter.)
As pointed out in the former chapter, I here intend to analyse
Em ily D ic k in s o n ’s poetry as language and m etalanguage.
about
langu age
in
D ick in son
is
reading
a
poet's
Reading
view point
on
langu age, on her ow n instrument o f working. But this chapter does not
aim to analyse her poem s on language; its intent is to d iscu ss other
2i
con sid eration s on the topic. In other w ords, I want to read other
v iew p o in ts on langu age, made by other people than the poet.
Language is a topic w hich has alw ays
puzzled
scholars.
Perhaps, Language's se lf-r efle x iv ity came about when the very first
'speakers' started com m unicating through words. That means to say,
langu age has alw ays been complex and paradoxical for p eop le, due to
its unlim ited realm o f p o s s ib ilit ie s , and, som etim es, blankness.
In th is chapter, I w ill briefly d iscu ss texts by Saussure,
Ludwig W ittg en stein , and George Steiner. I think it is a necessary step
before I go on w ith the an alysis o f D ick in son 's work, sin ce it may be
instrum ental for the understanding o f important aspects on language,
though this theoretical background w ill not 'guide' my analysis later
on, but help creating it. A lso , I think it is important to have different
v iew s on the them e, so that w e can o c c a sio n a lly compare them to
D ick in son 's own v ie w s and see how the poet's ideas on it can be
different or sim ilar to those o f the scholars.
Before going to the texts th e m se lv e s, I w ould lik e to raise an
issu e o f relevance for the work as a w hole. In the previous chapter, I
m entioned
the
in efficien cy
of
exp ressin g
fe e lin g s and em otions.
language
in
com m unicating,
Shifting the focus
in
now to the
th eoretician s, w e can surely find the same concern w ith the 'sayable'
24
and the 'unsayable.' This is probably the track I w ill follo w in the
chapter,
so that
qu estion s;
for
I can ach ieve
those
concerned
a reasonable
w ith
answer to my
whether
or
not
first
language
com m u nicates, langu age is som etim es a fa ilu re, som etim es su c c e s sfu l,
som etim es no better than silen ce .
The first important concept to be examined is Saussure's
d istin ctio n b etw een 'sign ifier' and 'sig n ifie d .' For the lin g u ist, the link
betw een the nam e and the thing it refers to
is not ph ysical; it is
arbitrary and m ental. Instead o f 'name' and 'thing,' Saussure u ses the
terms 'sound im age' and 'concept.' These tw o elem ents are united in a
p s y c h o lo g ic a l w a y , and one recalls the other. The sound im age is the
'sign ifier,' w h ich has a m aterial quality, as opposed to the concept,
w h ich is the 's ig n ifie d .' The two o f them make up the sign. The sig n
has an arbitrary nature, for it results from an arbitrary a ssocia tion ;
that is , the s ig n ifie r "actually has no natural connection w ith the
sig n ifie d ." !
In R eading Saussure. R. Harris d is c u s s e s
Saussure's Cours
de Linguistiqu^. presen tin g the lin g u istic sig n as being constituted by
m ental
elem en ts
rather than
by
p h ysical
ones.
The
sig n
is
the
com bination o f sig n ifie r and sig n ifie d , but it is ordinarily view ed as
the sound im age itse lf. A ccordin g to Haris, then, Saussure's merits lie
25
in d istin g u ish in g betw een "The 'sound' o f a word in the sense of its
image
acoustiqui
and
the
'sound'
of
the
associated
acoustic
phenomena. "2
Thus,
the
difference
between
the
sound
im age
and
its
asso cia ted ac o u stic phenomena relates to the lin g u istic sign being
"construed sim ply as a mental com bination o f a certain sound pattern
w ith
a certain
m e a n in g .C o n se q u e n tly
the
internal
relationship
betw een sig n ifier and sign ified is arbitrary. This is an important
p rincip le o f lin g u is t ic s as elucidated by Saussure. Arbitrariness o f
langu age how ever, has nothing to do w ith ind ividu al ch o ice , but with
langu age being a so c ia l institution w hich goes beyond all others and
has a unique character:
. ..la langu e, claim s Saussure, is arbitrary in a unique way.
The absen ce both of external and internal constraints on the
pairing s i g n i f i a n t s w ith particular s i g n if i é s means that for
any g iv e n language the choice o f actual sig n s( e.g. s o e u r )
from am ong the range o f p o ssib le sig n s( zo eur, soeuf,
p a t a p l u . . . ) is entirely unconstrained. This absolute freedom
to vary 'arbitrarily' is the fundamental reason Saussure w ill
adduce for the remarkable diversity o f human langu ages and
the no le s s remarkable su sc ep tib ility o f langu ages to quite
revolutionary structural changes. Other social in stitu tion s are
not free to vary in this way because changes in their case
(eco n o m ic, le g a l, p o litic a l, etc.) have im m ediate material
con seq u en ces for the members o f society. Thus although la
26
langue is a so c ia l institution • and in certain aspects the very
archetype o f a socia l institution - its arbitrariness gives it a
structural autonomy vis d vis so c iety w hich would be
unthinkable (and incom prehensible) in the case o f any other
esta b lish ed so c ia l in stitu tio n .4
Saussure
sh o w s, therefore, that
langu age
is
an arbitrary
entity w hich e x is ts "only through the a sso c ia tin g o f the sig n ifier with
the s i g n if i e d ."5 This process o f a sso ciation is how we 'name.' N am ing
is m en tal and arbitrary. Understanding is p o s s ib le because there is a
shared value w h ich is attributed to a sign. But sin ce language is an
abstraction, the identity and the values o f words can be confused.
Identity can be v iew ed as the word itse lf, but the value o f a word is
not w ith in the word itse lf. It has to do w ith what the word brings to
m ind,
the
realm
of
diversity
that
the
word
invokes
through
p sy c h o lo g ic a l fla sh e s and asso ciatio n s.
In short, language is a com plex system made up by the
o p p o sitio n o f concrete unions. The sig n ified and the sign ifier com pose
the sig n . The sig n , then, is the arbitrary name. Thus, language is an
attempt towards representing the world, representing elem ents w hich
lie o u tsid e the word.
Saussure sees it as "the most com plex and
u n iversa l o f a ll system s o f expression."^ And yet, this system o f
representation is arbitrary and pervaded by am biguity.
27
We have briefly examined the way a lin g u ist v iew s language.
In lin g u is t ic s , language is the object o f study, an articulated form o f
ex p r essin g m essa g e s. It is seen from a m aterial p ersp ective, taking
into account its parts and characteristics. It is an 'object.' How w ould
a ph ilosoph er v ie w language? First o f a ll, we must have in mind that
ph ilo so p h y studies reality as a w h o le, trying to apprehend the most o f
it in order to understand it better. Language is one part o f reality, one
o f the m ost important, we must say, but it is not reality itse lf.
L in gu istica works w ith language through a m eta lin g u istic d iscou rse,
w hereas ph ilosoph y does it through a p aralin g u istic one. That is to
say. L in g u istic s u ses language
to go after itse lf. It is langu age trying
to see how i t s e lf represents the world. It is language as se lf-r efle ctio n .
P h ilosop h y u ses language not to go after language it s e lf, but to go
beyond it and to apprehend the world, even though, as we w ill see
next, langu age's representation o f the world is lim ited.
Language is important to human life in that it directly affects
human relation sh ip s, and it is d efin itely resp o n sib le for the m oving o f
so c iety .
conveyed
Id eo lo g ies,
through
Com prehending
life ,
advertisem ents,
d isagreem en ts,
language
not
and,
therefore,
has
to
rarely,
do
w ith
even wars
because
of
are
it.
comprehending
la n g u a g e, e sp e cia lly because it is through language that we try to
28
express what w e see o f the world. C on seq u en tly, what comes to mind
is the question o f representation. If langu age is our principal means to
convey and represent reality, then our representation o f it is not
'reliable.' Ludwig W ittgen stein , in his Tractatus L o gico-P h ilosop h icu s,
states:
"What
represent
finds
its
reflection
. ” ^ Language is view ed
in la n g u age,
la:nguage can not
as a mirror, as an image o f
som ething e ls e , and here we must recall S au ssure’s statement o f the
word
being
the
sig n
for
som ething
w h ich
is
elsew here.
The
representation o f th is 'else' is distant from it. R eality is distant from
the proposition o f itse lf.
W ittg en stein d iscu sse s the difference between naming and
describ in g. The latter is a p o ssib le operation; the same can not be said
about
the
former.
D escrib in g
im p lies
taking
into
account
'how'
som ething is; nam ing, 'what' it is. In d escrib in g , we must point out
characteristics w h ich are present in the thing described, that is , we are
sending the m eaning towards other words that, in turn, try to com pose
the sig n ifica n t w h o le. N am ing is d efin itely more com plex, sin ce saying
what som ething 'is* means g ivin g it a nam e, that represents it. This
name is the arbitrary sig n stated by Saussure. As sign ifican t exam ples,
some p a ssa g e s o f the Tractatus are worth m entioning here;
29
The sig n through w hich we express the
thought I call the p rep osition al sign. And
the p roposition is the p roposition al sign in
its projective relation to the world.®
Here
the
philosopher
states
the
idea
of
language
as
representation. First, there is the thought, the mental concept, as put
by Saussure, w h ich is expressed by the sign. The sign, the "projective
relation to the world," is the representation o f the world. This is how
w e express our thoughts. Then, we have the acknow ledgem ent o f the
lim itatio n s o f such a representation;
O bjects I can only name. Signs represent
them. I can only speak o f them. I cannot
a s s e r t them. A proposition can only say how
a thing is, not w h at it is. ^
The gap betw een reality and the representation o f it becomes
clearer, in that the assertion o f it is im p o ssib le, given the fact that the
'What', the e sse n c e ,
can not be uttered.
The
'what'
lies
outside
language. We can 'name' things - that is the process explained by
Saussure, the sig n naming things through an arbitrary association o f
sig n ifie d and sig n ifier - but we can not 'assert' them .
30
A c le a r e r s t a t e m e n t o f the g a p r e p r e s e n t a t i o n / r e a lity can be
found in the f o l l o w i n g p a s s a g e by W it t g e n s t e i n :
P rop osition s can represent the w hole
reality, but they cannot represent what they
must have in common with reality ...
That w h ich mirrors i t s e lf in langu age,
language cannot represent. That w hich
ex p resses i t s e l f in language, we cannot
express by language.
The ph ilosoph er, th u s, gradually moves from the perspective that
language is the rep resen tation o f the world, to the fact that there is an
absolute
gap
b etw een
this
representation
and
the
world
itse lf.
Language is only a mirror for what it reflects. If we take this gap into
account,
the
q u estion
about
the ex isten ce
o f real
com m unication
arises. We must som ew h at digress in order to make clear what is
understood by com m unication.
C om m unication, in its primary se n se, in v o lv es b a sica lly two
or more elem ents and som ething to be said; receptor, sender, and
m essage. A w ish to understand and to be understood is also required,
wherein com es the need o f a shared kn ow ledge; in other w ords, the
tw o elem ents in the process must have a sim ilar experience concerning
what is being said. The problem lie s in this sim ila rity o f experience.
31
How can we measure experience? If experien ce
is
something one
acquires when one liv e s it, it is a private phenom enon. If each o f us
has her/his own experien ce,
that is,
if the ou tsid e world causes
different im p ression s on each person, experience is unique. Perhaps it
ifl about the u n iq u en ess o f private experience that W ittgenstein writes
w hen he m entions the 'unsayable.' M ystic experien ce is private and can
not be alw ays uttered. On that, wrote Werner Leinfellner:
It seem s that W ittgen stein , under the
in flu en ce Schopenhauer's role o f
contem p lation in Art, fo llo w s here h is early
m aster : There are, according to him , things
that can not be put into words. But they
make th em selv es m anifest. They are what is
m ystica l. 11
In sayin g that som e th in gs "can be said," it is understood that
there are thin gs that can be spoken o f better than others. W ittgen stein
g iv e s relevan ce to m etap hysics as being this asp ect o f liv in g w h ich is
more d iffic u lt, som etim es im p o ssib le, to talk about. M etaphysics goes
beyond p h y sic s, that is , beyond the elu cid ation o f phenomena w h ich
can be seen or reasoned m ateria listica lly . It deals w ith the realm o f
thin king im m ateriality, thin king the being;
32
The right method o f ph ilo sop h y would be
th is. To say nothing except what can be
said, i.e. the propositions o f natural
sc ien ce , i.e. som ething that has nothing to
do w ith philosophy; and then alw ays, when
som eone e ls e w ish ed to say som ething
m etap h ysical, to dem onstrate to him that he
had g iv e n no meaning to certain sign s in his
p rop osition s. 12
Here, W ittgen stein enters the realm o f the 'unsayable' and
differentiates th in gs that can be said from those that cannot. But what
can be made out o f what can not be said? Before going to the answer, I
would lik e to focu s attention on one more interesting proposition in
the T ractatus. H aving pointed out all the relativity o f language and
com m unication, all the p o s s ib ilit ie s ,
and, som etim es, the lack o f
p o s s ib ilitie s raised by langu age, the author questions absolute truth
itself;
W hatever we see could be other than it is.
W hatever we can describe at all could be
other than it is.^^
In this
se n s e , language im poses
diverse and personal that
severe
lim itations to reality,
so
no d escrip tion can ever be thought o f as a
mirror for it. In other words, lan gu age and reality, language and truth
33
im pose lim its on each other, since they are not compatible. Language
has becom e the m ain v e h icle for hum anity's com m unication, for each
one's reality; and yet, it cannot but distort reality.
N ow w e report back to the previous questions concerning
what can be made
out
o f what
can
not
be
said.
A ccording
to
W ittgen stein , sile n c e is the answer: "What we cannot speak about we
m ust pass over in silence."^^ In order to avoid tautology and u s e le ss
sp eech it is n ecessary to 'shut up.' Language goes only so far. Further
is silen ce.
In
c lo s in g
this
short
d is c u s s io n
on
W ittgenstein's
proposition s on lan gu age, it is worth quoting a sign ifica n t p a ssa ge o f
his work, in w h ich he makes a com parison between language and
dressing;
So m uch so, that from the external form o f
the clo th es one cannot infer the form o f the
thought they cloth e, because the external form
o f the c lo th es is constructed w ith quite
another object than to let the form o f the body
be recognized.
After h avin g examined som e ideas on language by Saussure
— language as representation o f the w orld — and by W ittgen stein —
34
the gap b e tw een representation o f the w o rld (la n g u age) and the word
i t s e l f — , we w ou ld like to d iscu ss som e ideas
brought up by George
Steiner in his book Language and S ile n c e . Steiner also evokes the
lim ita tio n s o f language and its failure to com m unicate, but presents
the pow er o f language and its im portance to humanity as w ell. He
d is c u s s e s
the role o f language in modern so ciety and
its c r isis,
h ig h lig h tin g important historical asp ects o f language and literature,
com m enting on the relations betw een la n g u a g e and humanity.
The author presents language in the period o f C hristianity as
being prim ord ial, as a powerful instrum ent on w h ich humans depended
entirely:
The prim acy o f the word, o f that w h ich can
be sp oken and communicated in d isco u rse, was
characteristic o f the Greek and Judaic genius
and carried over into C hristianity. The c la ssic
and the Christian sense o f the word strive to
order reality w ithin the governance o f
la n gu ag e. Literature, p h ilo so p h y , th eology ,
la w , the arts o f history, are endeavours to
e n c lo se w ithin the bounds o f rational discourse
the sum o f human experien ce, its recorded past,
its present condition and future
exp ectation s.
35
In the seventeenth-century, how ever, areas o f kn ow led ge other than the
hu m anities, such as m athem atics, start to "recede from the sphere o f
verbal s t a t e m e n t . " T h a t is to say, these areas begin to formulate
their own system s o f com m unication and verbal language is no longer
their v e h icle sin ce the kn ow led ge conveyed by them is not easily
translated into language. The grow ing o f autonomous and peculiar
codes for natural sc ien ce s fostered the apparition o f a long bridge
b etw een language and these new codes;
Where b io lo g y turns towards chem istry, and
biochem istry is at present the high ground
it tends to relin qu ish the descriptiv« for
the enum erative. It abandons the word for
the figure. 1*7
A s a resu lt, langu age lo se s its authority and its aura, and begins to be
seen from a new perspective; co n fid en ce on it declines;
This b e l ie f is no longer universal.
C onfidence in it declin es after the age
o f M ilton. The cause and history o f that
decline throw sharp lig h t on the
circum stances o f modern literature and
language.
36
L anguage is no longer the conveyer o f truth, but o f i t s e lf
only, w herein com es the d iv ision o f experience and perception o f
reality into different realm s, w hich are not equivalent.
The actual facts o f the case • the space
continuum o f relativity, the atom ic
structure o f all matter, the w av e-p article
state o f energy - are no longer a c c e s s ib le
through the word. It is no paradox to
assert that in cardinal resp ects reality
now b e g in s outside verbal la n gu age.
Steiner p o ses the dichotomy w o r d s /fe e lin g s , stating that it is
p o ssib le to put into words what one s e e s , but not what one fee ls. What
in fe lt
is
anterior to or outside
langu age,
And this
fact causes
tremendous reson ances on modern Art. As langu age is no longer at the
center o f l if e , reality has no e q u ivalen ce w ith words anymore. Art may
not be tran sp osed into language, but into Art itself:
B e ca u se the community o f traditional values
is sp lin tered , because words th e m se lv e s have
been tw iste d and cheapened, b ecau se the
c la s s ic forms o f statement and m etaphor are
y ie ld in g to com plex, tran sitional m odes, the
art o f reading, o f true literacy, m ust be
r ec o n stitu te d .20
37
M ean w h ile, and p aradoxically enough, Steiner stresses the
e s s e n t ia lly verbal character o f w estern
c iv iliz a tio n . Western thought
articulates i t s e l f verbally in many sig n ifica n t parts o f our lives:
We take this character for granted. It is
the root and bark o f our ex perien ce and we
can not readily transpose our im ages outside
it. We liv e in sid e the act o f d i s c o u r s e . 21
The power literature exerts over humanity is o f bou nd less
s ig n if ic a n c e , as the reader's c o n sc io u sn e s s is occu pied by great w aves
o f im p r essio n com ing from a great novel or poem. In this asp ect,
literature changes reality, 'literating' humans:
A great poem, a c la s s ic n o vel, press in upon
us; they a ssa il and occupy the strong p la ces
o f our c o n sc io u sn e ss. They ex ercise upon our
im agination and d e sir e s, upon our am bitions
and m ost covert dream s, a strange, bruisin g
m astery.22
And what power does th is literacy bring to humanity? What
does it m ean being able to sp eak or to write? Speech has taken us
aw ay from the natural w orld, from the company o f the anim als. In
38
being able to speak, we fictio n a lize our thou ghts, our fe e lin g s, and we
even come clo ser to divinity:
Man's control o f the word has a lso hammered
at the door o f gods. More than fire, w hose
power to illu m in e or to co n su m e, to spread
and to draw inward, it so strangely
r e se m b le s, speech is the core o f man's
m utinous relations to the g o d s . 23
Steiner
illu stra te s
this
pow er
o f language w ith practical
exam ples drawn out o f modern history, and points out the destructive
quality that langu age p o s s e s s e s i f used for n eg ativ e ends. The German
langu age, for him , not only happened to be the language o f nazism , but
it also helped m ake the war and the holocaust:
N ew lin g u is t s were at hand to make o f the German language a
p o litic a l w eapon more total and effe ctiv e than any history had
known, and to degrade the d ign ity o f human sp eech to the
le v e l o f bayin g w o l v e s . 2 4
Em ily D ic k in s o n , as we w ill se e, is lik ew ise aware o f the
power o f lan g u a g e, o f its use as a w eapon . In poem J .8, for exam ple,
she ca lls atten tion to this aspect:
39
There is a word
Which bears a sword
Can pierce an armed man —
It hurls its barbed syllab les
And is mute again —
But where it fell
The saved w i l l tell
On patriotic day.
Some epauletted Brother
Gave his breath, away.
(...)
Here w e see clearly that w ith her game o f words -— w ords/sw ord,
armed/barbed — the poet presents language as a w eapon w h ich can
"pierce an armed man." And, in fact, a weapon that can k ill. The
"epauletted Brother" who "gave his breath away" is not only the victim
o f a m etal sword, but rather
o f the word as a sword, as a dangerous
sw ord w hich can be used to k ill and be 'mute' again. Here w e have the
danger o f the words in use, o f language being able to destroy and fall
in to s ile n c e , alw ays ready to be spoken again.
40
And, then, we confront, once again, the power and void of
lan gu age.
related
The
question w hich
arises
to the attitude the writer
from Steiner's
takes
before
d isc u ssio n
is
such an unsolved
paradox. The title Language and S ilen ce m akes, then, se n se, in the
context o f D ick in son 's poetry: "Beyond the poems, alm ost s t r o n g e r
than
them ,
is
the
fact
of
renunciation,
the
chosen
s i l e n c e .
"25
C o n sc io u s o f the im mense void present in language, in spite o f its
pow er,
the
poet
e le cts
sile n c e
as
an
answer
the
lim itation s
of
lan g u a g e, not to say as a refuge for such. This 'retreat' from language
is
h is to r ic a lly
recent, given the
change
o f values
in relation
to
lan gu age.
The poet has become an am biguous being who, concom itantly,
p lays the role o f master o f langu age, and escap es from it. As the one
who creates w ords, who renews them, and keeps them a liv e , the poet
can be com pared to god. R eca llin g D ick in so n 's poem J.569, w e have a
hierarchy b etw een poet, sun, summer, and heaven:
I reckon — when I count at all —
First — Poets — Then the Sun —
Then Summer — Then the Heaven o f God —
And then — the List is done —
41
But, loo k in g back — the First so seems
To Comprehend the W hole —
The Others look a n e e d less Show -—
So I w r i t e — Po e ts — All
(...)
The poet is the Ood o f w ords. It is he who comprehends nature — sun,
sum m er — and even the m ystical — heaven. He is the first o f the lis t,
and the others are even 'need less' when compared to him. But, anyway,
and probably because he knows the destructive power he has in hands,
he se ek s refuge in silen ce . As Steiner remarks.
This revaluation o f sile n c e — in the
e p iste m o lo g y o f W ittgen stein , in the
aesthetics o f Weber and Cage, in the poetics of Beckett — is
one o f the m ost o rig in a l, characteristic acts o f the modern
spirit. The con ceit o f the word unspoken, o f the m usic
unheard and therefore is in Keats, a local paradox, a neoPlatonic ornament. In much modern poetry silen ce represents
the claim s o f the i d e a l . ..26
42
In the next chapter, we w ill see how Em ily D ickinson writes
about sile n c e as one p o ssib le
language and its paradoxes.
solu tion to the poet involved w ith
43
NOTES - CHAPTER II
Ferdinand de Saussure, "Course in General Linguistics,"
Contemporary Literary C riticism , eds. Robert C. D avis and Ronald
S c h le ife r (N ew York: Longman, 1989) 160.
2 - Roy Harris, R eading Saussure (London: Duckworth, 1987)
59.
5 - Harris 64.
^ - Harris 69.
5 . Saussure 160.
6 - Saussure 161.
- Ludwig W ittgen stein , Tractatus L ogico- P hilosophicus
(London: R outledge & Kegan Paul, 1951)
8 . W ittgenstein 45.
9 - W ittgenstein 49.
- W ittgenstein 79.
189.
44
tran scen d en talism
Werner
-
Kant,
L ein fellner,
Schopenhauer
and
"The
development
W ittgenstein,"
W ittg en stein - A esth etics And Transcendental P h ilo so p hy
eds. K jell
S. J oh an n essen & Tore N ordestam (Vienna: H ölder-Pichler-Tem psky,
1981) 64.
12 . W ittgen stein 189.
13 - W ittgen stein 69.
14 - W ittgen stein 63.
1^ - George Steiner, Language and Silen ce (London: Penguin
B o o k s, 1 9 6 9 ) 32.
1^ - Steiner 36.
1*7 - Steiner 36.
1^ - Steiner 33.
19 . Steiner 37.
20 . Steiner 30.
21 - Steiner 31.
22 - Steiner 29
23 . Steiner 58.
24 - Steiner 140.
25 - Steiner 41.
26 . Steiner 70.
45
CHAPTER III
DICKINSON'S METALANGUAGE POEMS
Up to th is poin t, we have seen how scholars view lan gu age
and its paradoxes. We have briefly related their ideas to D ic k in so n 's
poetry. In this chapter, w e w ill deal e x c lu s iv e ly w ith her poem s. In
many o f them , w e see the con flict betw een elem ents o f power and
w eak n ess in la n g u a g e, as in the follow in g:
J.1261
A Word dropped careless on a Page
May stim ulate an eye
46
When folded in perpetual seam
The Wrinkled Maker lie
Infection in the sentence breeds
We may inhale D espair
At distances o f Centuries
From the Malaria —
There are several elem ents in the poem w hich imply power —
"perpetual seam", "Infection", "distances o f Centuries", "Malaria*. The
words together make up a story o f long la stin g power and influence.
The in flu en ce o f the "wrinkld Maker" over the "eye". That is to say,
the reader being influenced by the original author; the influence o f
artistic creation. The wordly e ffe ct, w hich is "folded in perpetual
seam," stays in the 'seam' for cen tu ries. The reader is even able to
inh ale the despair from 'malaria.' This is a poem about the power and
independence o f language, about the long distance in time and space
transposed by the text.
A lso , two important elem en ts here are not in o p p osition but
rather in complicity: the 'eye' and the 'wrinkled maker.' The word
c a r e le ssly dropped by the 'Maker' — the poet — stim ulates the 'eye' —
47
the reader. And there is the link between them — the infection. What
w ould M alaria stand for? Would literature be lik e an infection 'locked'
in books? If so, the sim p le reading o f any poem w ou ld 'spread' it. The
e x p r essio n
'perpetual
seam'
is
quite
strong
and
suggests
the
independent life o f the word. Here we recall another poem (J.12 12),
w h o se theme is sim ilar:
A word is dead
When it is said.
Some say.
I say it just
B e g in s to live
That day.
In th is poem , D ic k in so n states her b e l ie f in the power o f the
s in g le word is stated. Once a word is used, it "Begins to live." This is
a very d ick in so n ia n thought - v iew in g the word as a live and pow erful
entity. Some o f her poem s even look lik e lis ts o f words, as i f in an
attem pt to show the ind ividu al life and su g g e s tiv e force of each o f
them.
48
J.1332
Pink — sm all — and punctual
Arom atic — low —
Covert — in A pril —
Candid — in May —
Dear to the M oss —
Known to the K noll N ext to the R obin
In every human sou l
B old little Beauty
B edecked w ith thee
Nature forswears
A ntiquity —
Each word here seem s to a ssum e a definite and separate role,
a role that is stressed by punctuation. The subject o f the poem —
Nature — com es only at the end. F irstly we have a ll the words and
exp ression s that 'qualify' it — each quality, each descrip tion w ith a
freight o f its ow n, as i f in a gam e o f w ords, describ in g a unique
elem ent w ith m ultiple ch aracteristics, m ultiple words. And each o f
49
these words seem s to be lying alone on the page
bringing forth its
own life , as Roland HagenbOchle remarks:
E m ily D ick in son , too, was concerned w ith the
renew al o f language, but for her the
em p hasis lay always on the word as
s u c h .(...)
H ow important the sin g le word is to her may
be gathered from her strategy o f
foregrounding words through it a lic s , capital
lette rs, and the hyphen. ^
John S. Mann also c a lls attention to this aspect in her poetry;
S in g le words can 'glow' in her s e n s ib ility
w ith a royal, a created life o f their own,
once they have been 'named* by the poet.
N o th in g seemed fin ally more important to
her than this released power o f the s in g le
w o r d .2
In another poem, she recognizes the pow erful impact o f words
on human life:
50
J.1 409
Could mortal lip divine
The undeveloped Freight
O f a delivered syllab le
'Twould crumble w ith the w eight.
There are several su g g e s tiv e figures in the poem, indicating the speaker's
lack o f c o n sc io u sn e ss o f the power o f language. The very first verse,
"could mortal lip divine", takes for granted the human u n co n scio u sn ess
in relatio n to som ething. The next two lin es present a playful op p osition
o f the figures "undeveloped F reigh t/d elivered syllable."
The sy lla b le,
the word being d elivered , n e c essa rily leads to the developm ent o f the
"Freight." What w ould Freight here mean? The value o f the sylla b le? Or
the m eaning o f it? In the last lin e, the words "crumble" and "weight"
su g g e s t the p ow erfulness o f this "Freight." Speakers, therefore, are not
c o n sc io u s o f the impact that the spoken word has on reality. In the words
o f W ittg en stein ,
Man p o s s e s s e s the Capacity o f constructing
lan gu a ges, in w h ich every sen se can be
expressed, w ithou t having an idea how and what
means — ju s t as one speaks w ithout knowing how
the sin g le sounds are p r o d u c e d . ^
51
S till
concerned
with
the
pow erful
aspect
of
language,
D ic k in so n makes a meaningful com parison betw een a frigate and a
book;
J.1263
There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
O f prancing Poetry —
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress o f Toll —
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul.
Book, page — language — have here the iam e ehafacteristic movement
o f a frigate, o f a courser. The word poetry even receives the adjective,
prancing, w h ich gives it movem ent, life . Literature has the power to
take readers on a trip; n on eth eless, we are tempted to say that the poet
is w ritin g about an interior trip, one that does not imply the "oppress
52
o f Toll," and that "bears the Human Soul." But though interior, this
trip is no le ss important, since it "take(s) us Lands away."
The
same
force
through
distan ce,
through
"Lands
away"
presented in the poem above is also shown in relation to tim e. We
have already seen this aspect in the beginn in g o f this chapter, w hen,
in the poem J .1 2 6 1 , the poet m entions "distances o f Centuries." In the
fo llo w in g poem , D ick in so n g iv es the word an idea o f perpetual youth,
p r o fessin g her faith in the eternal eloq uence o f language:
J.1 467
A little ov erflow in g word
That any, hearing, had inferred
For Ardor or for Tears,
Though Generations pass away.
Traditions ripen and decay.
As eloquent appears —
In
the
little /o v e r flo w in g
su g g e s tiv e
in
in itia l
of
terms
the
verse,
word.
we
have
The
o f om nipresence
the
opposing
q u alities
second
adjective
is
—
perhaps
not
quite
a p h ysica l
53
p resen ce, but a temporal one. A lso , the terms Ardor and Tears carry
their share o f importance in that they bring about opposing fe e lin g s o f
ha p p in ess and sadness w h ich can be strongly recalled by w ords. In the
v erses "Though Generations pass aw ay,/ Traditions ripen and decay,"
the poet e sta b lish es the value o f the word as being above that o f time
and tradition. A lthou gh it is through words that humanity transm it its
v a lu e s, k n o w led g e, u s a g e s , thoughts, and though these a sp ec ts change
from gen eration to generation, the word i t s e lf does not change; it stays
eloq uent. Thoughts and ideas grow old; words remain im pervious to
tim e.
In
con sid erin g
the
power
of
words,
D ick in son
is
also
concerned w ith the ones who work them. In some poem s, she writes
d irectly about poets and their craft, as in J.448:
This w as a Poet — It is that
D i s t i l ls am azing sense
From ordinary M eanings —
And Attar so im m ense
From the fam iliar sp ecies
That perished by the Door
-
54
We wonder it w as not O urselves
Arrested it — before —
O f P ictu res, the D isc lo se r The Poet — it is He —
E n titles U s — by Contrast
To c e a s e le s s Poverty —
In the first stan za, the poet's craft is already defined, the
d is tilla tio n o f "amazing sense/F rom ordinary M ea n in gs” — that is ,
ren ew in g langu age, i f not creating it. The poet is the one who makes
fam ilia rity unfam iliar and, m ean w h ile, makes the reader also a part in
the crea tive act — "We wonder it was not O urselves/A rrested it —
b e f o r e — ." N e v e r th e le ss , in the third stanza, the poet's superiority is
evid en t w hen w e — the readers — are entitled to "poverty." C ertainly,
his superiority is related to his power o f creating and renew ing w ords,
o f d is c lo s in g "Pictures — " and this image may w e ll mean that the poet
is able to d is c lo s e , to d escrib e reality w ith more Art. The last verses
restate the tim eless Fortune w h ic h the poet p o s se ss e s — the a b ility to
deal w ith words.
55
A lso ,
in
poem
J.56 9,
D ic k in so n
endows
the
poet
superior a b ilitie s , d isp la y in g him among several other elements;
I reckon — when I count at all —
First — Poets — Then the Sun —
Then Summer — Then the Heaven o f God
And th en — the List is done —
But, lo o k in g back — the First so seems
To Comprehend the W hole —
The Others look a n e e d le ss Show —
So I w rite — Poets — A ll —
Their Summer —^lasts a Solid Year They can afford a Sun
The E ast— w ould deem extravagant
And i f the Further Heaven —
Be B e a u tifu l as they prepare
For Those who worship Them
It is too d ifficu lt a Grace —
with
56
To ju stify the Dream —
The poet comes before Sun, Summer and heaven. Why is he
the first? The answer comes in the second stanza: the poet is able to
"comprehend" the other elem ents. He is in sid e Nature, but, m eanw hile,
he p o s s e s s e s it, in that he can understand it. More than th is, the Poet
"afford[s]" nature, creating it w ith words. The "Heaven" they [the
P o ets] "prepare" — that is, the fictio n a l heaven they create w ith words
— Poetry — is a "Grace." The poet, in this poem, is compared to God.
He is superior, he has worshipers, and he also prepares a heaven. In
the last stanza,
however, we have a hint ["It is too d ifficu lt a Grace
— ”] that his divin ity is not e a sily understood, the "Dream" is not
alw ay s ju s tifie d . Is the "Dream" o f language more d ifficu lt to be
attained? Why is the P oet’s craft "too d iffic u lt a G r a c e — / To ju stify
the
Dream
— "? These
questions
lead
us
to
another
aspect
of
D ic k in so n 's considerations on lan gu age.
Up to this point we have seen how D ickinbson ack n ow led ges
the
su g g e s tiv e
power language
p ossesses.
In most
o f the
poems
d is c u s s e d , she declares language's su rvivin g power through tim e and
its strong im pact on human r e la tio n sh ip s. We have a lso seen the
im portance o f the poet as the one who deals w ith such an important
57
artifice. A lthough in these poem s Dickinson shows how powerful
language can be, in none o f them she mentions real com m unication o f
fe e lin g s and ideas. Our next step w ill be the reading o f som e poem s in
w hich the poet shows her m istrust o f language as a means o f e ffectiv e
comm unication.
J.581
I found the words to every thought
I ever had — but One —
And that — d e fies me —
As a Hand did try to chalk the Sun
To Races — nurtured in the Dark
How would your own — begin?
Can Blaze be shown in Cochineal
Or N oon — in Mazarin?
The poem above is about the difficulty o f putting
thoughts
into words. The image used, the "Hand [that tries] to chalk the Sun"
im plies huge d ifficu lty, or rather, im p ossib ility. The second stanza
presents two very improbable ideas: Blaze — C ochineal / N oon —
58
Mazarin.
There
are,
indeed,
words
for
many
thoughts,
but
this
p o s sib ility goes only to one point. There is "One" which "defies" the
poet. What kind o f thought would that be? Here we must also recall
poem J.1668:
I f I could tell how glad I was
I should not be so glad —
But when I cannot make the Force,
Nor m ould it into Word,
I know it is a sign
That new Dilem m a be
From m athem atics further o ff
Than from Eternity.
The first two lin es o f the poem already come up w ith the
d ifficu lty o f com m unicating glad n ess. She names this d ifficu lty after
"Dilemma," w h ich is more related to "Eternity" than to "mathematics."
Here w e have two key elem ents in o p p osition , w hich are e sse n tia l for
the reading
o f the
poem.
"Mathematics"
w ould
surely
stand
for
p recision , w hich is a quality we do not usu ally connect to f e e lin g s ,
such as glad n ess. C onversely, "Eternity" can bring to the reader's mind
59
a more generalized idea, absolutely unprecise. Since D ickinson cannot
•ft
define "how glad" she fe e ls, she does not go on trying to define, but
works with o p p o sitio n s w hich in a way g iv e s us a vague idea o f her
fe e lin g s. Her g lad n ess w ould be much more related to "Eternity" than
precise.
Roland H agenbfichle has accurately described D ick in son 's
strategy in producing definition:
K now ledge for her cannot be fixed in term s o f some definite
truth. This w ou ld be an in a d m issib le act o f hyp ostatization or
reific a tio n , e sp e c ia lly where r elig io u s concepts are concerned
w ith their intim ation s o f an ob jectiv e supernatural world.
Therefore, her d efin itio n s are dynamic and open-ended
explorations rather than assertion s. In contrast to the Bible's
apod ictic "Center," D ickinson's poetry — to use her own term
— is a poetry o f "Circumference" (L. 950); it pursues the
m ovem ent o f the spirit in the very process o f k n o w in g, a
process w h ich is inseparably bound up to the m ovem ent o f
la n g u a g e .“^
As an exam p le o f D ickinson's
"Circumference" in poetry,
poem J.300 presents an attempt to define "morning:"
"Morning" — means "Milking" — to the Farmer
Dawn — to the Teneriffe —
60
D ice — to the Maid —
M orning means just Risk — to the Lover
Just revelation — to the B eloved —
Epicures — date a Breakfast — by it
Brides — an A pocalypse —
Worlds — a Flood —
F a in t-g oin g Lives — Their Lapse from Sighing
Faith — The Experiment o f Our Lord —
< Starting w ith the sin g le word, the poet builds a whole u n iverse o f
m ean ings, bringing to the poem relations betw een "Morning" and other
words. Probably, she tries to show the nonrigidity o f m eaning that
words have; rather, they have relative m eanings according to relative
situation s. As HagenbOchle points
out, the poet works w ith
"the
movement o f l a n g u a g e , m o v i n g from point to point, from word to
word, trying to 'overmean' the word "Morning." The very structure o f
the poem su g g e s ts the infinitude o f m eanings "Morning" can have. In
the first verse, she presents the word to be defined. In each o f the
other v erses, she presents one different m eanings for one different
61
situ ation . The list could continue for much longer, given the infinite
quality o f metaphors. As W ittgen stein would put it.
What the axiom o f in fin ity is intended to say w ould express
i t s e lf in language through the existen ce o f in fin itely many
names w ith different m eanings.^
O f course, these "infinitely many names" m entioned by the
p h ilo so p h er can be put in o p p o sitio n through metaphors, so that the
p o s s ib ilit ie s o f m eanings w ould be infinite. P recisen ess in d e fin itio n
b ecom es a com plex question, a lso mentioned by D ickinson;
J 988
The D e fin itio n o f Beauty is
That D e fin itio n is none —
O f Heaven, e a sin g A n a ly sis,
Since H eaven and He are one.
The exp ression s "Definition o f Beauty / D e fin itio n is none" oppose
each other alm ost w ith m athem atical precision.
The word
"none"
reduces the two verses to alm ost nothing, and g iv es the poem an idea
o f u s e le s s n e s s . Yet the other two lin es rescue the act o f d efin in g by
62
bringing to the scenery a metaphor — "Heaven and He," — That does
not solve, but postpones the problem.
The im p o ssib ility o f nam ing certain feelin gs is, thus, a great
p o e tica l concern for D ickinson:
J.1382
In many and reportless places
We fee l the Joy —:
R ep ortless, a lso , but sincere as Nature
Or D eity —
It com es, w ithout a consternation —
D is s o lv e s — the same —
But leav es a sumptuous D estitu tio n —
Without a Nam e —
Profaned it by a search -— we cannot
It has no home —
Nor we who having once inhaled it is
Thereafter roam.
63
Here she tries to report the "reportless"
— reportless place» —
reportless joy. And even comparing this fe e lin g to Nature or God, she
cannot name it. What w ou ld , then, "sumptuous Destitution" refer to?
The em ptiness caused by such a joy or the im p o ssib ility o f naming it?
John S. Mann, in "Emily D ic k in so n , Emerson, and the Poet as Namcr,"
d is c u s s e s this point:
For Em ily D ic k in s o n found in nam ing an activity
that could
release the m a g ic a l, Adamic power o f language, allo w in g her
to recreate her w orld, and som ehow p o sse ss its disparate
m aterials. N am ing could help fu lfill her passion to know.^
Indeed, in poem
J. 1452,
D ick in so n
makes
an interesting
consid eration about words and thoughts:
Your thou ghts don't have words every day
They come a sin g le time
Like sig n a l eso teric sips
O f the com m union Wine
Which w h ile you taste so native seem s
So easy to be
You cannot comprehend its price
^
64
Nor its infrequency
The p roblem atics o f know ing/n am in g is clear. The first verse already
states the separation betw een thoughts and words. What fo llo w s is an
e xp lan ation o f how d ifficu lt it is to comprehend, or even, apprehend
thou ghts or k n ow led ge. The poet even m y stifies the question by calling
up a com parison w ith the "communion wine," w h ich can taste so
n a tiv e, but w h ic h lik e thoughts th e m se lv e s, is incom prehensible. The
term 'words', as seen , is m entioned only once. What the rest o f the
poem is about is the com plexity o f understanding human thoughts.
Would th is d istan ce betw een words and thoughts make the latter more
incom p reh en sib le? W ould thoughts 'which have words' be easier to
understand? Or w ould they rarely have words? What sort o f thoughts
can really be uttered? Two p a ssa g e s by W ittgen stein lead us in the
way o f an answer:
The correct method in ph iloso p h y would really be the
fo llo w in g : to say nothing except what can be sa id , i.e .,
p rop osition s o f natural scien ce — i.e. som ething that has
nothing to do w ith ph ilosophy — and then, whenever som eone
e ls e wanted to say som ething m etap h ysical, to dem onstrate to
him that he had failed to g iv e a m eaning to certain sign s in
h is p rop osition s.
65
W hereof we cannot speak, thereof one must be
silent.^
S ilen ce ,
w ou ld ,
therefore,
be
an
alternative
for
the
unutterable thoughts. A ccordin g to W ittgenstein, the only alternative.
In many o f D ickinson's poem s, w e can also see the apology o f silen ce.
The poet states that sile n c e is a superior langu age, som etim es more
pow erful to com m unicate than language itself:
J.989
Gratitude - is not the m ention
O f a T enderness,
But its still appreciation
Out o f a Plumb o f Speech.
When the Sea return no A nsw er
By the Line and Lead
Proves it there's no Sea, or rather
A remoter bed?
The very first word o f the poem — "Gratitude" — represents a
fe e lin g and it is soon d isso cia te d
from sp eak ing —
"is not the
mention." The "still appreciation" w ould be a much more adequate
66
means to express gratitude than the "mention." In the second stanza,
she m en tions the sea p la y fu lly as an elem ent o f great power, but also
0
'an sw erless.' The lack o f an answ er does not render the sea weaker,
but "remoter."
In the next poem , she a lso points out the superiority o f
s ile n c e , or even o f other m eans o f com m unication over language:
J.97
The rainbow never te lls me
That gust and storm are by.
Yet is she more convincin g
Than P h ilo so p h y .
(•■)
In many other p o em s, the poet sh ow s the importance o f
s ile n c e as w ell:
J.1004
There is no S ilen ce in the Earth — so silen t
As that endured
67
W hich uttered, would discourage Nature
And haunt the World.
J.1251
S ilen ce is all we dread.
There's Ransom in a Voice
But S ilen ce is Infinity.
H im s e lf have not a face.
D ick in so n 's strong respect for s ile n c e parallels her m istru st
of
the
power
of
com m unication
presented
by
language.
In
the
b egin n in g o f this chapter, we read some poems in w hich she praises
the power o f in d iv id u a l words. The contradiction shows i t s e l f w hen
she declares her aw aren ess in relation to things w e can 'not' utter and
her
worship
for
sile n c e .
If,
how ever,
we
take
words
and
com m unication as tw o separate and d efin ite th in g s, the con trad iction
is made less strong. D ic k in so n never takes for granted that lan gu age
could
com m unicate
fe e lin g s ,
abstractions.
A ccording
to
Sharon
Cameron, the poet w as c o n sc io u s o f the lack langu age represents.
O utside o f tem porality, or outside o f the realm in w h ich time
and space diverge from each other, c o n sc io u sn e ss is a noon
68
BO d az z lin g that its rays make o f the mirror a mere glare. So
language
sin gs
inadequacy.
So
light's
the
praises
thing
itse lf,
by
asserting
w ithout
its
own
representation,
negates the world o f imperfection from w hich representation
arises. So language mourns the space it must faithfully
record.^
Aware o f language's lim itation s, D ic k in so n acknow ledged the
importance o f sile n c e . But in order to express silen ce 's importance,
sh e, paradoxically enough, u ses words. Why?
J.1681
Speech is one symptom o f A ffectio n
And S ilen ce one —
The perfectest comm unication
Is heard o f none —
E xists and its indorsement
Is had w ith in —
B eh o ld , said the A p ostle,
Yet had not seen!
69
Naturally this is a poem about the superiority o f s ile n c e as a
form o f com m unication. The real com m unication is somewhat interior
— "heard o f none/had w ith in — ." But the first line o f the poem
m entions "Affection." A lthou gh not being e ffe c tiv e , language is, in a
se n se, important to humans affectively:
J.1700
To t e ll the Beauty w ould decrease
To state the Spell dem ean —
There is a s y lla b le -le ss Sea
O f w h ich it is the sig n —
My w ill endeavors for its word
And f a ils , but entertains
A Rapture as o f L ega cies —
O f introspective M ines —
The lack o f faith in langu age as a means o f com m unicating is promptly
stated. At once, the verbs 'tell' and 'state' are d isq u a lifie d , or, at lea st
— i f this term here sounds too strong — not b elieved . T ellin g the
Beauty decreases it. A e sth etics has much more to do w ith fe e lin g ,
se ein g , p erceiv in g th in g s. Would aesthetic appreciation have ainything
70
to do with t e llin g how beautiful one object is? And a lso , stating
"demean(s)" the Spell; that is to say, utters what can only be felt. The
word that attem pts to utter reality is just a (weak) reflection o f it.
"There is a sy lla b le — le ss S ea/O f w h ich it is the sign — ." The word
Sea here im p lie s the im m ensity and com p lexity o f what is reflected in
the " sign ,” in la n gu ag e, in the arbitrary code theorized by Saussure.
In another poem , D ic k in so n explores the problem o f te llin g
the truth:
J.1129
T ell a ll the Truth but te ll it slant
S u ccess in Circuit lie s
Too bright for our infirm D eligh t
The Truth's superb surprise
A s Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must d a zzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
71
The poet states her fear in relation to 'tellin g the truth,' as it may not
be directly told. T e llin g "slant" is her su g g e s tio n , sin ce, otherw ise,
truth can 'blind'.
Would her su g gestion for ind irectness have any
con n ection w ith her fear o f the void in com m unication in language? In
other w ords, w ould truth be distorted by language's lack o f preciseness
and in e ffic ie n c y ?
At any account, referring back to poem J .1 7 0 0 , we perceive
that D ic k in so n 's u n fa ith fu ln ess to 'telling' and 'stating' is clear. And
she ia even c o n sc io u s o f her failure; "My w ill endeavors for its word /
And fa ils..."
H agenbtlchle says that her poem s are often records o f
failu re and [that] she works in se lf-n eg a tio n ." !^ As a poet, she is
aware that her 'w ill' fa ils . But the fo llo w in g words make the poem
problem atic; "And f a ils , but entertains." This verse could sound like;
'I know la n g u a g e is a failu re, but 1 like to w rite, to speak, to hear the
sound o f w o rd s, to have the illu sio n o f real com m unication. After a ll,
is it not th is fe e lin g o f com m unicating that keeps us together?' At this
p oin t, it m ight be in terestin g to recall the use o f the term "affection"
in poem J. 1681. W ould language not be one affection ate link betw een
j" '
us?
S t ill fo c u sin g on this affectionate link, we return now to a
poem we saw in the introductory, chapter o f this dissertation:
72
J.1651
A Word made F lesh is seldom
And trem blingly partook
Nor then perhaps reported
But have I not m istook
Each one o f us has tasted
With e c sta s ie s o f stealth
The very food debated
To our sp e c ific strength —
A Word that breathes distin ctly
Has not the power to die
C oh esive as the spirit
It may expire i f He —
"Made F lesh and dw elt among us'
Could con d e sc en sio n be
Like th is consent o f Language
This loved P hilology.
73
In the first stanza, there is the "Word" w hich is
"made
Flesh." Would that be the act o f speaking? The word in its m aterial
realization when delivered through human's lips? But, i f so, the act o f
sp eak ing is unique and alm ost always solitary —
"seldom / And
trem blingly partook." A ls o , it is not "reported." Would that stand for
the idea o f the act o f speaking being ind ivid u al and im p o ssib le to
exp lain , to report? That means to say that words are not able to report
th e m se lv e s, or to report how they happen to be. In the fo llo w in g verses
o f the stanza, how ever, we see the idea o f w ords in u se, h elp in g
humans to fu lf ill a need. Words becom e, then, "The very food d e b a te d ”
w hich sa tiates our "strength." And this is a fact that briiags "ecstasies
o f stealth," that is , the act o f speaking f a n fail in not being able to be
"Partook" but fu lf ills a human need for strength, and, in d eed , brings
"ecstasies o f ste a lth .” And here again we have the idea o f the act o f
speaking being ind ividu al and even secret,
in the word
'stealth.'
Speaking w ould bring, thus, som e inner sa tisfa c tio n . Its im pact i n the
outer world can be fa lse , but it fu lfills inner needs.
In the next stanza, the im m ortality o f the word is asserted
and the word is even compared to Jesus. P h ilo lo g y is view ed rather in
a r e lig io u s se n se , in w h ich the word is the im m ortal god. Like a god.
74
the word is view ed as som ething cannot understand, but on which we
have some faith.
Poem J .1 5 8 7 a lso compares language and religion;
He ate and drank the precious Words
H is Spirit grew robust —
He knew no more that he was poor.
Nor that his Frame was Dust —
He danced along the dingy Days
And th is B equest o f W ings
Was b u t ^ Book — What Liberty
A lo o sen ed spirit brings —
Words are v iew ed as food and drink — the bread and the w ine that fed
not only the body, but rather the spirit. A s in the aforem entioned poem
(J .1 6 5 1 ) words f u lf ill an inner hunger, and in the poem above, even
more ob v io u sly , they make the spirit "robust." "He," be it Jesus or
sim ply any character, is made strong through w ords, and in a way, is
perpetuated through them. This we can infer from the im age "frame
was Dust-."
After havin g drunk and eaten the words, "He" knows no
75
more that "his frame was Dust." The "frame," his im age, w ill not
van ish like "Dust" anymore, or at le a st, the words made him b elieve
so. Words made him forget his poverty and mortality.
The secon d stanza brings, thus, the statement that his joy was
caused by words. The "Book" is compared to a "Bequest o f Wings" that
loo sen s the spirit. The power o f w ords, then, is like the power o f God
who also gave Jesus r e lie f and freedom. The poem brings this power
into a human le v e l, though. Words are earthly, they are m ade up by
humans and can affect humans by g iv in g them freedom and hope.
1 w ould lik e here to reread the poem with w h ich w e have
started our d is c u s s io n in this chapter;
J.1261
A Word dropped c a re le ss on a Page
M ay stim ulate an eye
W hen folded in perpetual seam
The Wrinkled Maker lie
In fection in the sentence breeds
We may inhale D esp air
At distan ces o f Centuries
76
From the M alaria -
At a first glan ce, we may have taken this poem as an apology
for the word as a tim e le ss and pow erful elem ent. We view ed the term
"infection" as a sig n for the word a b ility for spreading i t s e lf through
cen tu ries.
If now we
connect
in fe ctio n to
despair,
in fection
can
probably be view ed as a desire for com m unication, the affection ate
role that language has in our relation s causin g despair for its own
void. But hum anity does not e a s ily g iv e it up. The "infection" can last
for cen tu ries. Language, ind eed, is a m eans o f keeping us connected to
past and future. Our k n ow led ge and history, although so many tim es
slan tly or even 'badly' told , came to us through language.
W ould language not be one o f the few things humans can
offer each other?
J.26
It's a ll I have to bring today
T his, and my heart b esid e —
T his, and my heart, and a ll the field s
And all the m eadows w id e —
Be sure you count — should I forget
77
Some one the sum could tell
This, and my heart, and all the B ees
Which in the Clover dw ell.
By u sing words the poet brings us lan g u age and her heart,
la n g u age and affection.
78
NOTES - CHAPTER III
^ - R oland H agenbtichle, "Sign and Process: The Concept o f
Language
in Em erson and D ickinson,"
Emerson
Society
Quarterly
2 5 (1 9 7 9 ): 139.
2
- John S. M ann, "Emily D ic k in so n , Emerson, and the Poet
as Namer," N ew England Quarterly 5 U 1 978'): 469.
5 - L udw ig W ittg en stein ,
Tractatus Logico
P h ilo so p h icu s
(London: R b utled ge & Kegan P aul, 1971) 63.
^ - Hagenbtkchle 139.
5 - H agenbtichle 198.
6 - W ittg en stein 99.
^ - M ann 485.
8 - W ittg en stein 189.
^ - Sharon Cameron, Lyric Time - D ickinson and The Lim its
o f Genre (Baltim ore: John Hopkins UP, 1984) 194.
. HagenbOchle 149.
79
CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
J.26
It's a ll I have to bring today —
T h is, and my heart b esid e —
T h is, and my heart, and all the field s
And all the meadows w id e —
Be sure you count — Should I forget
Some one the sum could tell —
T h is, and my heart, and all thé B ees
W hich in the Clover dw ell.
80
The poem is all the poet has "to bring today." Literature,
langu age
—"
is what the poet can offer us
Language
and heart, language
and
"This, and my heart beside
'affection,'
language
and
entertainm ent, poetry.
During this dissertation we have asked som e questions in
relation to language and literature, in relation to D ick in so n 's "This,
and my heart beside". We have tried to h ig h lig h t several asp ects o f
lan gu age and literature. Why us^ langu age, why be a poet, why try to
utter, th in gs that are so d ifficu lt to utter? In the former chapter we
have seen some hints w hich led us to some c o n clu sio n s towards
D ic k in so n 's complex ideas on human language and com m unication,
and,
consequ en tly,
on
human
r ela tio n sh ip s.
In
some
of
them,
D ic k in s o n shows langu age as in e ffic ie n t; in others, as pow erful. In
others s t i l l, she p rofesses her faith on words as "affection."
In this
chapter w e w ill review some o f the m ain poin ts that were brought up
and e sta b lish a relationship betw een them.
As we have seen in the introdu ction, through some important
critic a l tex ts, many aspects o f her poetry became clearer to me. In
other
c a s e s , the points
h ig h lig h te d
served
as
a bridge
to
other
important a sp ects, such as the role o f the poet as the language-m aker
81
— the god o f the words, language as r e lig io n , and language aa a
pow erful weapon. These asp ects, naturally, are a ll im plicated in the
paradox in v o lv in g language in e ffic ie n c y and pow er, a paradox that this
d isser ta tio n tried to analyse in readings o f sp e c ific poems.
Many
D ic k in s o n ’s
pointed
critics
poetry,
have
dealt
through
out the power
w ith
different
o f words
the
them e
o f language
approaches.
for her;
som e
Some
in
o f them
h igh ligh ted
their
in e ffic ie n c y . Some worked w ith both a sp ects. After having read her
poetry e x te n s iv e ly , and after having read som e o f that criticism , I
d ecid ed
to pursue the question
o f the p o s s ib le
reason
for using
la n g u a g e, even though it is in e ffic ie n t. I ain c o n sc io u s, though, that
this
asp ect
how ever,
has
was
been
explored
by
other
to present my reading
critics.
o f this
What
aspect
I wanted,
in
such
an
in trigu in g poetry.
H aving, then, introduced my them atic concern, I proceeded to
make
som e considerations
on language
as
a topic.
I made some
com m ents on texts by W ittgen stein , Saussure and George Steiner, the
three o f them being quite different in their approaches. Saussure has
helped me understand better the idea o f langu age as a system , the
p h y sic a l characteristics o f words and the m aking o f language. A ls o , he
m akes clear the arbitrary character presented by words. W ittgen stein ,
82
in turn, a lso works w ith the arbitrariness o f language, but he stresses
the inadequacy o f language in relation to m etap hysics and m ystica l
ex p e rien ce s. Like D ick in son , he a lso sees sile n c e as an alternative.
F in a lly ,
George
h isto r ica l
and
Steiner
p o litic a l
directs
sense.
his
He
d is c u ssio n
sum m arizes
to
language
important
in
a
aspects
rela tin g to lan gu age and life , and sh ow s us the distan ce b etw een truth
and w ords, reality and language. He a lso brings the poet as a s ile n c e
chooser.
In general, these texts helped me have a better idea o f
lianguage as a m eans o f human com m u nication or, som etim es, o f n on ­
com m u nication .
After h avin g discussed th ese th eoretical texts on lan gu age, I
w ent back
to D ickinson's poems and I read some o f them in their
rela tio n to language. I pointed to in te re stin g aspects in relation to
words
in
her
poetry.
Like
Saussure,
W ittg en stein ,
and
Steiner,
D ic k in s o n is c o n sc io u s o f language's inadequacy and arbitrariness:
The sig n ifie r actually has no natural
con n ection w ith the sig n ified . ^
That w h ich mirrors it s e lf in la n g u a g e,
lan gu ag e cannot represent.2
83
It is no paradox to assert that in cardinal
respects reality now begins o utsid e verbal
language.^
J.1700
To te ll the Beauty w ould decrease
To state the Spell demean —
There is a s y lla b le -le ss Sea
O f w hich it is the sig n is —
(•••)
As
a poet,
though,
she
s till
u ses
langu age
to
express
its
own
inadequacy, and even to express s ile n c e as an alternative.
My h yp oth esis, in the begin n in g
o f this
work, was. that
lan gu age in D ickinson's poetry, although in e ffic ie n t and inferior to
s ile n c e , is very important to human r ela tio n sh ip s. Reading her poetry
w as not an easy task, due to the idiosyn crasy o f her sty le, but in som e
o f my read in gs, I was able to perceive that D ic k in so n v iew s language
and words are important for us in terms o f
"affection," or because it
•^entertains," although it often "fails."
In D ic k in so n , the idea o f langu age as a rtificial and fake
becom es clear, but it is s till a joy;
84
J.1639
A Letter is a jo y o f Earth
It is denied the Oods —
L an guage for her is a human lin k , a human attempt to come together.
Perhaps it derives this fake, fictio n a l character from human nature
it s e lf . Perhaps it is a reflec tio n o f o u r se lv es, and like us, cannot be
e a s ily understood.
In c lo s in g th is chapter, and my d issertatio n , I w ould like to
say h o w intrigued I becam e by Em ily D ic k in so n 's work. The originality
o f her poetry fascin a ted me from the b eg in n in g . And I am sure many
other subjects and them es may be analysed and pursued
not only in
her poetry, but a lso in her letters.
As an open end for my d is c u ssio n , I w ould like to quote
another one o f D ick in so n 's poem s in w h ich she states her b e l ie f that
literatu re, her "letter to the World," w ill keep her in contact w ith other
p e o p le , even though only through words;
J.441
This is my letter to the World
85
That never wrote to Me —
The sim ple N ew s that Nature told
With tender Majesty
Her M essage is com m itted
To Hands I cannot see —
For love o f Her — Sw eet — countrymen
Judge tenderly — o f Me
86
NOTES - CHAPTER IV
1 - Ferdinand de Saussure, "Course in General Linguistics,"
Contemporary Literary C riticism , eds. Robert C. D avis and Ronald
S ch leifer (N ew York: Longman, 1989) 160.
2 - Ludwig W ittgen stein . Tratactus L o g ico P h ilo so p h ic u s.
London; R ou tledge & Kegan Paul, 1971, 79.
5 - George Steiner. Language and S ile n c e . London: Penguin
B o o k s, 1 9 6 9 . 37.
87
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