Dickinson and Howe

After reading the second part of Howe’s “My Emily Dickinson,” and Harris’s section “Countering,” I saw that Howe was using Harris’s countering strategy throughout her book. She said at the beginning that scholars’ views Dickinson were not entirely correct. She then used her own ideas to prove that her reading of Dickinson was a fuller, more accurate reading. In Howe’s “The Nonconformist’s Memorial” she writes very abstract poems, not even sticking to the conventional method of having straight lines that are parallel to each other. It seemed like Howe somehow took the Bible verses at the beginning page and incorporated them into her own poems. Was she trying to make some sort of comment on religion and modernism by doing this? Howe mentions that if Emily Dickinson would have changed her style, she could have become a well-read poetess. Why did Dickinson chose to write her poems in private, sending only a few into the outside world, when she could have gained much more recognition? This reminded me of Benjamin’s cult and exhibition value. To the scholars Howe mentions at the beginning, Dickinson’s poems are framed by the life of a woman who shut herself off from the world in her house. To Howe, Dickinson’s poems are framed by religious influences and a rebellious spirit. The poems maybe had more meaning to Dickinson if she kept them inside with her.