Harris' "Countering" and Howe

After reading this week's chapter of Rewriting, Susan Howe's writing in My Emily Dickinson seemed so much clearer. While I was reading the Introduction, Part 1, and Part 2, I found the way she wrote intriguing, but I didn't fully understand what she was trying to communicate through her poetic way of writing a scholarly essay. After reading "Countering," I realized that Howe was demonstrating how Dickinson has influenced her, becoming Howe's "My Emily Dickinson," through her poetic style. After reading an excerpt from Howe's The Non-Conformist's Memorial, it is clear enough to see that Howe was inspired by Dickinson's dashes, which where innovative. Howe plays with the format of her poems, making them nicer to look at than read in some cases. I wonder it enlightening how Howe highlighted Dickinson's skill at revealing and concealing in her poem. "My Life had stood- a Loaded Gun" is an example of that skill, as Howe points out with her list of the different meanings of what "My Life" can mean.