| Description |
This discussion explores the meanings of Dickinson's concepts, "Snow" and "Circumference." The poems containing these words, and other relevant metaphors, are analyzed by means of: word etymology; similar concepts in poetry by Frost, Emerson, Whitman and Bishop; and through cross referencing Dickinson's poems, as they tend to define each other. "Snow" is the force that stimulates the figuring out of experience into poems. Dickinson elaborates on this concept in many poems that discuss the satisfying aspects of composing poetry, while at the same time showing how "Snow" and the poems it contains are merely products of the poet's mind. In this way, "Snow" is both constructive and destructive. "Circumference" poses similar paradoxes. It is a line signifying the limit around the poet's subjective and temporal consciousness. While it disallows total understanding of experience, because it is a point of view restricted to the poet, "Circumference" also provides the only position from which to advance knowledge. The poet is ultimately the mediator of her experience, and therefore creates her consciousness. The reader is able to experience Dickinson's deep pathways to truth, and in turn form a consciousness equally subjective, but based on the poet's perception. In this way the poet lives forever in the frozen passages of the poem. |
