Contemporary Poetry

Public Hermits

The writer in seclusion is a convention that universally characterizes literary composers . To withdraw from the world and conjure a cosmos of his own making - this for the writer is unearthly bliss , if not a source of power

There is something in solitude that disturbs the writer 's imagination to shake up and spill mysteries over . There is something in reclusion that draws him closer to the human heartbeat and to nature 's persistent howls and chirps and rustles and . silence

In privacy , the writer is a hermit madly

waging warfare against emotions and images while , at the same time , courting the apparition of fancy metaphors and personifications

Emily Dickinson is an obvious example . Her life , not just her poetry breathed secrecy and privacy . Dickinson was an unknown and obscure character in her lifetime . Most biographies would describe her stay in her hometown Amherst as uneventful and quiet for the most part . And though she had friends and acquaintances , the level of her social involvement with them were generally confined to lengthy correspondences

Dickinson 's poems are characterized by a wit and boldness that seem to contrast sharply with the recluse that she was . And in a more paradoxical nature , they may talk about suppression of bottled up thoughts and feelings expressed in an outburst of inescapable imagery and language

In I Have Not Told My Garden Yet , Dickinson 's lonesome and held back demeanor is evident

I have not told my garden yet

Lest that should conquer me

I have not quite the strength now

To break it to the bee I will not name it in the street

For shops would stare , that I

So shy , so very ignorant

Should have the face to die

The hillsides must not know it

Where I have rambled so

Nor tell the loving forests

The day that I shall go

Nor lisp it at the table

Nor heedless by the way

Hint that within the riddle

One will walk to-day

The shy ' and ignorant ' Dickinson who wrote this poem eloquently illustrates her comfort in quietness but at the same time reveals a strong desire to break free and openly express her feelings . She did not have quite the strength ' to break her silence for fear of social stigma

Privacy in this sense is explored as a defense mechanism employed to protect oneself from society 's all-seeing eye . Dickinson implies that society 's discovery of an individual can inhibit one from growing and traveling free . In this poem , Dickinson confronts prejudice as a pursuer that should be evaded I will not name it in the street

For shops would stare , that I

So shy , so very ignorant

Should have the face to die

It must be remembered that Dickinson 's works were composed in the privacy of her abode . This further establishes the nature of her poems The very conditions in which they were crafted props up the mood and emotion she usually conveys

Privacy is a being mythologized in art circles . It is venerated as a vow . Artists would testify that it is in the privacy of their laboratories where they are able to flesh out the finest ideas for if in case , they commit a mistake , no person would be around to scoff or ridicule . In I Have Not Told My Garden Yet , Dickinson shares the sentiment . A poet - or perhaps any person for that matter - would rather withdraw from the crowd and err in privacy than be exposed to public shame

Perhaps it was this thinking that led Dickinson 's works to not see publication until a few years after her death . The misgivings that held her back were palpable . She was a woman tossed in a fast-changing world coerced to hide in private living . Dickinson describes this experience in As If Some Little Arctic Flower

As if some little arctic flower

Upon the polar hem

Went wandering down the latitudes

Until it puzzled came

To continents of summer

To firmaments of sun

To strange , bright crowds of flowers

And birds of foreign tongue

I say , as if this little flower

To Eden wandered in--

What then ? Why , nothing , only

Your inference therefrom The strange ' and foreign ' experience of public exposure is established by associating an arctic flower ' to fragility and defenselessness . Dickinson exploits the arctic coldness of seclusion by exposing it to and contrasting it with the summer warmth of public association . In moments like these , Dickinson attests that a person - or perhaps a woman in particular - is left with no tools or weapons for herself but her thoughts . her inference

I say , as if this little flower

To Eden wandered in--

What then ? Why , nothing , only

Your inference therefrom

It is ironic that despite exposure to a warm social ' environment the arctic flower ' remains alone , wandering , with nothing but itself to confront and comfort itself

In many ways , Dickinson 's chosen medium , poetry itself , of expressing her thoughts and sentiments is , by nature , of the reclusive kind . Poetry is a secret master . It promises expression in rhythm and rhyme but refuses to be unlocked and discovered . Poetry is privacy itself . It denies to be undressed by just about everyone . It is selective . It chooses to be revealed only to a few souls steadfast enough to endure such arduous and laborious task

The descriptive give-aways of fiction stories are not typical of poems If poetry had an adversary , it must be fiction . If fiction were an entity , it would be a public celebrity

Stephen Crane scandalized society with his novels that grotesquely publicized ugly private lives . Like most fiction narratives , Crane fearlessly exposed what should have been private . He slapped the public cheek with blunt hands stained with red ink . Crane was a journalist and unlike Dickinson , his life had considerable social exposure . Moreover he was a male in a male 's world . He did not fear prejudice or scandal

Crane 's novella , Maggie : A Girl of the Streets ' takes readers to the voyeuristic publicity of domestic violence and sexual disturbance , New York style The four enter one of the "gruesome buildings " and climb the stairs They enter a room "in which a large woman was rampant " She screams at Jimmie for fighting again . He hides behind the other children and bruises his shins against the table leg in doing so . She "heaves with anger " and picks Jimmie up by the neck and shoulder and shakes him . He screams and tries to get away . The baby sits on the floor watching in terror . The father sits in a chair with a pipe in his mouth . He yells at his wife to leave Jimmie alone so he can have some peace . He complains that she is always "poundin ' a kid " She beats Jimmie even more furiously . Then she tosses him into a corner where he lies down weeping and cursing

Images of a baby gripped with terror and a wife battered to death set in an urban slum area erratically disturbs and drags what should have been private and domestic to public consumption and alarm . Crane writes with nightmarish detail , demanding attention . Dickinson expresses with disquieting silence , unsure about attracting attention Poetry tends to hide meaning more than fiction does . Crane and Dickinson stand in great contrast against each other in this respect The solitude of Dickinson the poet and the noise of Crane the fictionist demonstrate the glaring difference between the genres

There is always a sense of hesitation to social and public exposure among people . Even Crane realized this in the 16th chapter of Maggie A Girl of the Streets

Maggie stands outside for a moment and then begins to wander aimlessly down the streets . She notices that men look at her with interest when she looks like she has no where to go , so she tries to appear as if she is in a rush . After wandering the streets for a long time , she notices a clergyman . She decides to go over and asks him for help . She has heard about "the Grace of God " When he sees her , however , he steps to the side to avoid her in an effort to save his respectability "He did not risk it to save a soul . For how was he to know that there was a soul before him that needed saving

A publicly outed prostitute is shunned even by a dispenser of grace and forgiveness . The fear to go public , as Dickenson expressed , is a universal experience that is accompanied by fear of prejudice and social stigma

Is this why our poetries seal meaning in words whose chains bind them with unbreakable privacy ? The poet must be a hermit , then . A hermit locked up in fear who chooses to be snobbish and ungenerous with meaning

Fiction is usually generous with detail and explication . So is it bolder than poetry ? Perhaps bolder , but not necessarily less private The multiplicity of characters and diversity of moods and themes and settings make fiction an easy tool for the author to create a universe in which he cannot be easily found

The dearest ones of time , the strongest friends of the soul - BOOKS -Emily Dickinson

Bibliography

The Hutchinson Encyclopedia (2000 . Emily Dickinson . Retrieved February 19 , 2007 from : http /www .helicon .co .uk

New Millennium Encyclopedia (2000 . Stephen Crane . Retrieved February 19 , 2007 from : http /www .simonandschuster .com ...