10 - Concluding Reflections

Summary

And now, among Circumference —

Her steady Boat be seen —

At home — among the Billows — As

The Bough where she was born —

(Fr853; J798)

EMILY DICKINSON, LIKE OTHER MAJOR AUTHORS, produced a body of work that has commanded many critical approaches and has inspired creative artists the world over. With its seemingly unfathomable riches, this body of work constitutes a “compound vision” of philosophical, spiritual, psychological, historical, and aesthetic power — or simply “poetic” power, as I think Emily Dickinson conceived of that word. The themes and critical or artistic perspectives I have brought into focus by way of an examination of the work of dozens of exemplary Dickinson scholars may not quite form a coherent vision of the poet's life and work, but they do illuminate, through their various critical lenses, the many facets of her genius. Moreover, having these diverse critical and artistic voices gathered together under one tent should facilitate in-depth study of the poet by students, professional scholars, and literary enthusiasts alike. Scrutinizing Dickinson through different critical approaches should prove rewarding for several reasons:

• The greater the diversity of opinion, the richer the artistic experience. Necessary though it may be for a critic regardless of “school” to regard his or her approach (think “paradigm”) as the most useful for fully understanding the author's intentions — similar to Thomas Kuhn's premise in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1970) that scientific work can advance only if one assumes the operational paradigm to be true (or at least beyond question for the moment).