Patterning Imagination, Creative Underpinnings and Juxtapositions of Voice in Dickinson’s Poetry.

Catherine Walsh, Ireland.

The focus of this year’s conference with its interest in Emily Dickinson’s relationships to the world, and its to her work, caught my attention. It resonates with ways I have been reading her work and, almost as a surprise to myself, have been writing about it. This talk will mention how I came to Emily Dickinson’s work and why I want to tell you that.

It will try to briefly point towards and explicate a couple of the ideas I’ve been writing through in the book ‘Barbaric Tales’ over the last two years or so, specifically in this case considering Emily Dickinson’s poetic and its creative underpinnings, its sceptical and imaginative discourse.
It will talk more abstractly about her patterning of her imaginative discourse, as this type of argument, or if you like, generalisation, seems fitting to acknowledge the breadth of vision she strove for in her poetic; aspects of which still show themselves to be evolutionary, how that is an actual revolution in such poetry writing. Doing so, I will comment briefly on changes in the Arts and Humanities, including use of technologies, and point up some notions on possible interim outcomes, pluses and minuses.

I am concerned with manifestations of some primary impacts of intention, imagination and creativity of voice in language across a range of what could be termed poetic practices in ‘Barbaric Tales’, and will be framing questions and ideas in these areas around discussion of Emily’s work in those contexts mentioned. I will endeavour to be clear in the manner I do this but may not always succeed as some of my thinking, talking, will be spontaneous to the situation. I am interested in facilitating conversations during these kinds of situations, so promulgating Dickinson’s aspiration to a less bounded poetic discourse.