Emily Dickinson Garden Tour, Amherst, MA – 17 AUG 2013

I returned to the Emily Dickinson Museum to take the “Grounds of Memory” landscape audio tour. Here are some of the images I captured along with excerpts from several of her poems.

"Because the Bee may blameless hum 

 For Thee a Bee do I become 

 List even onto Me."

"I tend my flowers for thee—

  Bright Absentee!"

"My Fuchsia's Coral Seams

  Rip while the Sower dreams"

"As if some little Arctic flower

  Upon the polar hem—"

"The Veins of other Flowers

  The Scarlet Flowers are

Till Nature leisure has for Terms 

As 'Branch,' and 'Jugular.'"

"There came a Day at Summer's full,

  Entirely for me—

I thought that such were for the Saints

Where Resurrections—be—"

"A Burdock—clawed my Gown—  

 Not Burdock's—blame—
 But mine—
 Who went too near
 The Burdock's Den—"

"I robbed the Woods—

  The trusting Woods. 
 The unsuspecting Trees 
 Brought out their Burs and mosses 
 My fantasy to please. 

What will the solemn Hemlock—

What will the Oak tree say?"

"The Trees like Tassels—hit—and swung—

 There seemed to rise a Tune 

 From the Miniature Creatures 

 Accompanying the Sun"

And I made a new Friend:

West Cemetery, Amherst, MA - 18 MAY 2013

A Death blow is a Life blow to Some
Who till they died, did not alive become—
Who had they lived, had died but when
They died, Vitality begun. 

       —Emily Dickinson—

   

I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

    —Emily Dickinson—

Emily Dickinson’s Home, Amherst, MA – 18 MAY 2013

Her home was built by her grandfather in 1813. This Federal style house is believed to be the first brick house in Amherst.

Emily was born here and spent most of her life in this house. She had only two siblings, an older brother who ended up living next door and a younger brother who died in his youth.

Brothers House

The Emily Dickinson Museum was created in 2003 when the two houses were merged under the ownership of Amherst College.

Garage Wind Vane

Originally the property was 15 acres but is now only 2 acres.

The most intense hurricane to make landfall in the US and the Atlantic Basin in recorded history, hit this area in 1935; this tree in her back yard, is believed to be the only large tree to survive that storm.

She is buried in the family plot in the small local cemetery (West Cemetery).

The original tombstone simply had her initials, “EED” inscribed on it. The headstone was later replaced by her niece who included Emily’s birth and death dates as well as the phrase “Called Back.”

They were the only words in her last known letter written to a cousin. It may have been a reference to a popular novella (Called Back) which Emily said was, “a haunting story…greatly impressive to me.”

I was told people often leave things at her grave.

“No major poet is more dense, more compressed, more elliptical, more elusive… so far ahead of her time, it seems like we are only now learning how to read her.” – Dean Rader

“She is now almost universally considered to be one of the most important American poets.” –Harold Bloom

At one corner of the plot, was this small crude door which held a zip lock bad filled with notes.

Teenage Emily Daguerreotype

“She is known for her poignant, compressed, and deeply charged poems, which have profoundly influenced the direction of 20th-century poetry, and gained her an almost cult following among some.” –Biography.com

Tinky Winky went along for the tour, but was not able to sneak into any exhibits as no photos were allowed inside the house.