by Virginie
Twitter: @provencenewyork
My Emily
Source: Artist John Morse from Stardogstudio
PREVIOUS LACK OF COLOR
“Writing about Emily Dickinson, one cannot possibly hope to please every reader.”
Martha Nell Smith - author of Open Me Carefully
Recently, a fellow Dickinson fan on Twitter kindly sent me the following article: Emily Dickinson's Legacy is Incomplete without Discussing Trauma and asked if I could share my thoughts on it. My first impression was to recognize the academic research its author put into it as I have a lot of admiration for such writings, whether I agree with the theories they put forward or not. Isabel Legarda's theory is one that describes Emily Dickinson as a "trauma survivor", and more specifically as a victim of "sexual assault".
As we are talking about Emily Dickinson here, I need to share what this article made me feel, what emotions came out of it - and I doubt my answer is what anyone would expect considering its dark topic. Well, Isabel’s post made me think of COLORS. It reminded me of the LOVE, the PASSION I feel from Emily’s writing, of her knowledge of NATURE, her WIT and her sense of HUMOR.
I understand that the author of the article feels a different way considering her profession (both her LinkedIn profile and her article say she is a Physician). But by writing that “Emily’s truth matters”, I actually think that the author of the post is writing about her own truth. I understand that one associates their own life experiences and the way they see the world with what poetry makes them feel - I am about to do the same myself in this post.
In A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn writes that Emily Dickinson was not "just one more madwoman in the attic", but rather a "messianic modernist, a performance artist, a seductress, and a woman maddened with rage — against a culture that had no place for a woman with her own fiercely independent mind and will.” Dickinson reinvented the language and rules of poetry, coined her own words and referenced her Lexicon. She would write with an "omitted center" in mind, assuming that her other correspondents, familiar with her style, would understand the obvious hidden behind her private riddles, clues, symbolism and meaning. Correspondents like Susan Gilbert Dickinson, her brother Austin and her close friends such as Otis Lord and Benjamin Newton. She didn't think about publishing her writing, therefore this way of communicating through private messages with missing keys for everyone, past and present - except for the correspondents/readers she had in mind - sounds and feels elusive and hard to grasp since we are outside of that private and familiar sphere.
With this in mind and remembering the context of her life, I would understand the frustration, the fear, the stress, the anger, the unfairness, the hopelessness, the battle a smart and highly educated woman in the 19th century went through. In her analysis, Isabel Legarda quotes some of Emily Dickinson's letters to support her theory of trauma and sexual assault, such as:
"In 1862, Emily wrote to her friend and mentor Thomas Wentworth Higginson: “I had a terror since September, I could tell to none; and so I sing, as the boy does by the burying ground, because I am afraid.” The Emily Dickinson Museum website avers, “The cause of that terror is unknown”";
We know that Emily was deeply affected by the Civil War (who wouldn't be?) and I think Legarda is being too clinical in her diagnosis with Emily's letters. Another example is the analysis of the poem below:
The first Day’s Night had come — And grateful that a thing So terrible — had been endured — I told my Soul to sing — She said her Strings were snapt — Her Bow — to Atoms blown…
Legarda continues: "I read this poem with a sense of worry. A secret terror traumatic enough to destroy her “Soul?” I searched for signs of trauma in her writings, reading through a collection of her almost 1,800 poems, examining letters and biographies. I found dozens of trauma poems that appear to encode experiences of being violated, and I felt compelled to consider that she might have endured sexual assault and been silenced not only in her own time but also by generations of scholars afterward who could not or would not recognize such a possibility".
Again, we cannot forget Emily's "omitted center": this omitted center is her way for everyone, anyone, to find themselves in her poetry and get their own meaning from her works. Additionally, we cannot assume how the pronoun "I" would not necessarily refer to her, the poet, but to a different narrator - any narrator. The genius in her poems made them broad enough, yet specific enough for any reader to interpret them based on who they are and what their life experiences are. And Legarda does exactly that with her interpretation.
Another classic poem presents a snake as "a narrow Fellow in the grass". Some academics analyzed this as "an encounter with a snake to explore the nature of fear and anxiety—especially the fear of deceit. Like the proverbial "snake in the grass," this snake is a creature of secretive, treacherous menace". I suggest we focus on the Biblical reference of the snake as being the treacherous being who tempted Eve, ultimately erasing Eve's equality with Adam. Emily used Biblical references repeatedly in both her poems and letters. Consistently, she struggled to find her own view of the world matching the 19th century era and traditional organized Religion - as she found her own religion in Nature.
This is just one of the many examples that we can take out of the trauma theory and "re-analyze" our own way. Line by line. Referencing scholars and academics to support our analysis, as Legarda did:
"I Googled “Emily Dickinson and trauma / sexual assault / PTSD.” I found scholarly works by other doctors with similar suspicions and by authors who saw what many readers seem unwilling to see."
But this is not the main topic of my own article. Working on a counter-theory for this specific theme would call for an entire book. What I want to stress after reading her work is how it made me feel. How I realized that I feel the complete opposite of what Isabel Legarda sees in Dickinson's poems and letters, and what they make her feel. Emily once wrote:
"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain."
Dickinson wrote with so much passion, so much love, humor, genius and wit. To me, she is Energy, Passion, Intensity, Volcanos, Vibrant Colors. She is Stubborn, Blunt, True, Cathartic. She makes my heart triple in size (yes, quoting The Grinch here to illustrate my point).
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXelalkv0ic
But then again, I might see Emily Dickinson that way because she is a sort of touchstone to every reader. Her "omitted center" allows the reader to identify with whatever they feel, whoever they are, whatever experiences they have had. The literal definition of a touchstone is as follows:
"A touchstone is a figurative standard of value or quality against which something is measured. The word comes from ancient times when a special stone was used to guard against counterfeit money. The gold or silver content of coins wasn’t well governed, so phony money was often mixed with other metals and passed off as authentic. Merchants tested the purity of coins by rubbing them on a hard black stone. The color of the streak left on the “touchstone” disclosed the coins’ “true value”.
In its figurative meaning, an example in literature can be found in Shakespeare, one of Emily's favorite author:
"The character of Touchstone in Shakespeare's As You Like It, described as a wise fool who acts as a kind of guide or point of reference throughout the play, putting everyone, including himself, to the comic test".
Emily's art is a touchstone. It reveals all kinds of emotions, feelings, thoughts. I am therefore grateful for Sara, my fellow Dickinson fan, who shared this analysis with me and asked to read my thoughts on it, making me realize and express who Dickinson is for me. I am also grateful for my Twitter friend Dani, whom I have never met in person, but who keeps asking one of the most important questions in my recent journey with Emily:
“What does Emily Dickinson make you feel?”
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Analysis of the Daguerreotypes
I am aware of a century of stereotypes and misinformation written about Emily, so I always try to focus on what Dickinson’s writing - her poems, letters and letter-poems - make me feel, try to read and analyze inspiring books that shed light on a new understanding of Emily like Open Me Carefully by Martha Nell Smith, or academic resources and articles about America's greatest poet that I read on the internet. More specifically, I believe studying her letters, more than her poems, can reveal a lot more about her personality, the people and the events that impacted her life. I like to read her letters as her diary, especially the letters she sent to Susan Gilbert Dickinson as they were the most genuine, casual, comfortable and loving ones.
A recent daguerreotype was found in Ohio in 1997, which many consider the second of the only two pictures we have of Emily - and the first as an adult. That daguerreotype shows the evidence of the friendship between Dickinson and Kate Turner (regardless of its nature) and proves the misperception that Emily never left her house, when she was actually quite social in her youth. This image of the poet contrasts with the first daguerreotype taken of her in her teenage years, the only confirmed picture we have of her thus far. Some say she looks fragile, frail, sick as a 16 year-old girl, but we should keep in mind that in the 19th century, people would usually not smile when their picture was taken. I would also emphasize the fact that this daguerreotype was taken at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, where Emily spent a whole year away from home for the first time. Although I did read about how the Head Mistress, Mary Lyon, who believed that women were capable of learning for themselves and was a pioneer in using lab experiments in her class, we do know that she is also the person who tried to make Emily Dickinson profess her faith and ended up saying she was “hopeless”. Although I don’t see Emily overly excited in this first picture - I do not see her frail and sickly either.
Another nice contrast of the first daguerreotype we have of Emily is a portrait I found on display at the Jones Library, by artist Guillermo Cuellar. This painting is a replica of the daguerreotype but shows Emily in colors, especially her red hair. This image breathes warmth and even puts an emphasis on the subtle smirk of Emily’s right corner lip.
One of my favorite paintings, based on the original daguerrotype, but in "her true colors"
Source: The Jones Library in Amherst, artist Guillermo Cuéllar
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Reinforcement of Misconception through Misinformation
Mabel Loomis Todd (1856-1932)
Source: Emily Dickinson Museum
So many people worked hard on finding proves that would reinforce their theory of Emily Dickinson as being a sad, lonely and recluse woman for so long - people referring to what Mabel Loomis Todd initiated through her censorship, rumors and attempts to modify Emily’s poems and letters to conform to the social norm of her era and benefit from their publication. Mable even refused to use Susan’s obituary to open the 1890 publication of the poems - which is what Colonel Thomas Higginson had recommended instead. The introduction Mabel Loomis Todd chose instead was three paragraphs written by Higginson which said that Emily “was a recluse by temperament and habit” but after stating that even though Emily kept her own company, “she was not disappointed with the world.” Oh and did I also mention that Mabel probably never met Emily Dickinson in person?
I don’t blame these people (too much), considering the amount of information one can find on the internet and in academic writings that can reinforce such a theory. Once convinced that Emily was that sad woman, even a picture of a sixteen year-old taken at a Female Seminary whose Head Mistress dubbed Emily as "hopeless" seems like good evidence to reinforce such a belief. That said, I am surprised to see that there were still many people who did not think about seeking elsewhere, thinking differently and questioning such a widespread interpretation - especially when the invention of the internet brought all the libraries in the world, and more, at their fingertip.
Fortunately for us (and Humanity), one of my favorite books, Open Me Carefully, is doing the opposite and finally shedding light on a different understanding of Emily Dickinson. Its author, Martha Nell Smith, states that Emily did not start isolating herself until the last years of her adult life, when she experienced tremendous loss, starting with the death of her nephew Gib, Susan and Austin’s third child. Susan did spend an entire year grieving for the child and went into seclusion as well. Martha Bianchi Dickinson, Susan’s daughter, "made it clear that Emily’s total seclusion occurs AFTER - not before - Gib’s death" according to Martha Nell Smith. Gib died in 1883 - that is three years before Emily Dickinson passed away, people. Three years that would sadly translate into more than a hundred years of misconception, with some help from Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter Millicent, along with scholars who followed them blindly, in my opinion.
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A NEW UNDERSTANDING - EMILY IN HER TRUE COLORS
One of my favorite books, Open Me Carefully by Martha Nell Smith
I believe times are changing and that we are entering a new "Dickinson" era. I believe that with researchers and authors like Martha Nell Smith, shows like Dickinson and movies like Wild Nights with Emily (for which Martha was a consultant), with new generations of passionate, open-minded and curious minds not confined to the borders of the United States anymore but who study Dickinson from other countries, often on their own, and leveraging the internet - a new understanding of America’s greatest poet is unveiling (quoting Martha here). It is now time to focus on this new understanding of the poet.
Martha Nell Smith is one of the Dickinson scholars I admire the most for that. She dedicated more than 35 years of her life studying Emily Dickinson and shedding light on a different representation of the poet, mainly by focusing on her correspondence with the person who knew her the best: Susan Gilbert Dickinson. I like to compare Martha to Galileo, who tried to prove the World the (now) obvious - that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the other way around. We don’t have as much scientific evidence to use in literature and the study of Dickinson’s letters and life as we did to corroborate Galileo’s theory, but by spreading counter-theories of what most people have seen and heard to this day about a sad, depressed and recluse Emily, I believe this is a good step towards seeing Dickinson in vibrant colors - and as Susan describes Emily in her last sentence of the obituary she wrote for Emily’s funeral:
[she was] “a soul of fire, in a shell of pearl”.
Pearls, unlike diamonds or other precious stones, are perfect the way they are. They are usually mounted on jewelry as they come, in their purest and untouched form. This definition of Emily Dickinson is the one that resonates with me, especially knowing that it comes from her soulmate, Susan.
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A PALETTE IN DICKINSON'S POETRY
Colors references through her poems
Emily Dickinson referred to around 70 shades of color in her poetry (...). Color was important to her" according to a study by Carol Hurst Haenni. Colors characteristics reflect the author’s perception of the world and their interest in conveying a specific feeling, emotion, meaning. Emily Dickinson lived in a rural area and was inspired by Nature. If we comb through her writing, we will notice how often she uses colors and gems to accentuate meaning and feelings in her poems and letters. I don't want to state that the use of the word “yellow” automatically symbolizes optimism or represents the sun because each reference of a specific color (or even a specific word) in Dickinson’s writing can have a very different meaning - or sometimes be an antonym even - from one poem to another, one sentence to another. A good example is the word “candid”, whose first meaning comes from the Latin “candidus”, meaning “white” - which Dickinson uses in several poems. In the 19th century and according to her dictionary, candid being used to define the color white was common. The word lost this meaning in today's usage, as it now primarily means honest and truthful.
In the same way, the use of gems/stones/colors like Alabaster, Opal, Amethyst, Silver or Gold can have different meaning and symbolism for Dickinson. Such an analysis would require going through every poem and trying to find the right definition/meaning based on Emily’s Lexicon and the context of the poem or the letter. So I will focus on listing the colors, gems and their variations outside of their context for now. For example, I will count Alabaster as a variation of white, Ophir as a variation of gold.
With this in mind, I would still like to ask you the following:
→ In your opinion, what are the TOP 2 color words Emily mentions in her poems? ←
Source: Shuttersock - FWStudio
Based on my research, the second most used color is purple, while gold and its variations hold the first place. I guessed right myself because of how many times I remember reading the words gold/golden/mines/Ophir in her writing. As for purple, it is my favorite color, I am from the land of the lavender fields (Provence, south of France) and coming across purple variations in Dickinson’s letters to Sue had a special impact on me. I also guessed purple because of Emily’s love for describing sunsets, sunrises among other natural events.
In her poems, according to this study, Emily Dickinson used the color purple 34 times and gold 36 times. Although the author of this post separates purple from violet, I would count them together, knowing that violets in the plural would usually refer to the flowers. What I like is that the occurrences of blue and red are almost similar (31 versus 32), which shows the balance between these two opposite colors and what they represent or make us feel. I was pleased to see that Emily rarely uses the word black (this is me trying to prove my colorful theory again) as opposed to white. As we know, she does talk about Death and other concepts we would usually depict as dark, but the complexity and creativity of Emily relies on other words and colors to convey meaning in her own idiosyncratic way.
"Hills take off their purple frocks, and dress in long white nightgowns".
This is Dickinson talking about the change of seasons, using colors in a personification of the hills, getting undressed, and then dressing up with nightgowns of snow.
Below is another example of a poem about sunsets with occurrences of both gold and purple that I find mesmerizing:
Blazing in Gold and quenching in Purple
Leaping like Leopards to the Sky
Then at the feet of the old Horizon
Laying her spotted Face to die
Stooping as low as the Otter's Window
Touching the Roof and tinting the Barn
Kissing her Bonnet to the Meadow
And the Juggler of Day is gone
In the following poem, we find both purple and gold to describe rank, authority and wealth once again:
The Color of a Queen, is this—
The Color of a Sun
At setting—this and Amber—
Beryl—and this, at Noon—
And when at night—Auroran widths
Fling suddenly on men—
'Tis this—and Witchcraft—nature keeps
A Rank—for Iodine—
Iodine is originally composed of black crystals, but they volatilize into a purple dust, or vapor. This is what Dickinson may refer to every time she uses the word iodine.
March appears to be the purple month as she describes early spring with the color purple in two poems:
We like March
His Shoes are Purple -
He is new and high -
But March, forgive me - and
All those Hills you left for me to Hue -
There was no Purple suitable -
You took it all with you -
Purple is sometimes associated with Heaven as well and divine love. This poem is an example of how the poet associates a violet with Heaven and divine love:
To this World she returned.
But with a tinge of that —
A Compound manner,
As a Sod
Espoused a Violet,
That chiefer to the Skies
Than to himself, allied,
Dwelt hesitating, half of Dust,
And half of Day, the Bride.
Again, in Carol Hurst Haenni' study, purple often appears to be "associated with status but it also consistently connotes eroticism in many other poems". Haenni focuses on purple and white in her study, which I find fascinated, but which I was only able to get the first 22 pages of the entire essay (as of Jan 2022). She uses a term I like when referring to Emily's views (note the plural) on concepts like death: "multiferious", meaning "many and of various types.
I haven't seen white being one of the most used colors (white is not a color but you get my point). Richard Chase wrote that Dickinson "was stirred more profoundly by whiteness than by any other color". I assume the reason behind that is that Emily could describe whiteness (or any other concept) so perfectly and implicitly without even using the word white. This is, to me, one of her biggest strength and wit prowess. A typical example is the poem below, where she describes snow without even using the word snow or the color white once (she uses the word alabaster instead among other variations of whiteness):
It sifts from leaden sieves, It powders all the wood, It fills with alabaster wool The wrinkles of the road.
It makes an even face Of mountain and of plain, — Unbroken forehead from the east Unto the east again.
It reaches to the fence, It wraps it, rail by rail, Till it is lost in fleeces; It flings a crystal veil
On stump and stack and stem, — The summer’s empty room, Acres of seams where harvests were, Recordless, but for them.
It ruffles wrists of posts,
As ankles of a queen, —
Then stills its artisans like ghosts,
Denying they have been.
According to Haenni's study:
Purple appears more than any other single color (53 times) and its variations have about 100 images more (including amethyst, red clover, Tyrian, violet, lilac, iodine)
The gold range (including yellow, golden, amber) has 108 images in Dickinson's poems
The red color range (scarlet, carmine, cochineal, vermilion, crimson, ruby and pink) has 90 occurrences
The green range (emerald, beryl, chrysolite) has 36 images
White has only 27 images
Brown only appears 9 times
Black only appears 8 times
The word white appears in images of the snow, the daisy, the bride, ermine, lilies, alabaster, marble and if we count all these variations, it adds up to over 180 images. Dickinson used over 500 color references in her poetry according to Haenni, so I am not understanding why this is a topic that has been set aside by so many as it clearly had a high significance for the poet.
Haenni will explain in the rest of her study that there are purely descriptive uses of the colors while there are also a "few consistent symbolic uses of these colors". She illustrates this statement with red, while sometimes indicating the vitality of life in contrast with the stillness of death, it can also be associated with pain and suffering. Blue can be happiness and melancholy, but usually describes the sky. Haenni continues by contrasting the use of purple and white in "symbolic ways and consequently enriches her poetry". In her opinion, these are the two most symbolic colors (she agrees that white is more complex to analyze for the reasons I just mentioned).
Charles Anderson summarizes what I feel about Emily Dickinson's use of colors when he notes that "to pin down the exact significance of "white" for Dickinson is impossible. It permeates her writings, with many shades of meaning. (...) That she chose to dress in white exclusively for the last fifteen or twenty years of her life (...) offers a fascinating field for conjecture. But she never gave an explanation for it". Emily never gave an explanation for anything at all, which is why we are all here trying to obsessively trying to analyze what she may have thought, felt, said, done, meant...
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COLOR REFERENCES IN "OPEN ME CAREFULLY" - LETTERS AND LETTER-POEMS
Although I didn’t go through all 1,800 poems to count all color references, I did comb through the 300 pages of Open Me Carefully to count them in Emily’s letters and letter-poems to Sue (yes, it took me a few hours to do that but “when one loves, one does not count”, as we say in French). That said, the book does not contain all the letters Emily sent to Susan, as I believe Martha's editor thought it would make it too long if she included them all (it would not have been long enough for me!).
I decided to focus on Martha N. Smith’s book because I believe that Emily’s letters and letter-poems to Susan hold more truth and reveal more about Emily’s feelings and life than her poems. As Martha explains:
“Emily wrote to Susan on different types of paper (graph, scrap, and formal embossed paper of all sizes), while with other correspondents, she almost always used more formal, gilt-trimmed stationery, in effect dressing her texts like a gift edition of poetry or a deluxe edition of biblical scripture. Sending writings in one's casual script (as Emily does to Susan), in the handwriting more similar to one’s private notes for developing expression, Is an act that speaks of trust, familiarity, routine. Using less formal stationery for those writings - scraps of paper lacking gilt edges or elegant embossments - likewise signals the intimacy of comfortable everyday exchange, a correspondence not bound by special occasions, but an everyday writing habit that takes as its subject any element of life, from the monumental death of a loved one to the negligible nuisance of indigestion.”
The result of the two top colors used by Dickinson in Open Me Carefully is as follows. Each section represents a specific time period of Emily’s life:
A few thoughts here. First, studying colors is tricky. Their symbolism and meaning vary based on the reader's culture, life experiences, personality. Unless Emily specifically stated that she had a favorite color, and she used it in a specific poem to describe a certain feeling or imagery, all we can do is interpret the use of these colors the way we can, want and feel in our idiosyncratic way.
With this in mind and by looking at the above results, it looks like the most prolific periods of Emily’s life hold the biggest number of references to colors, whereas the last decade shows the lowest number. Gold is still Emily’s most used color/mineral (she uses gold, golden, mines, Ophir and other variations). What is also interesting is another difference between her letters and her poems: Yellow is frequent in poems, but not in her letters. That is, if I choose to see yellow as different from gold. That being said, I recently read that Open Me Carefully does not gather all letters and letter-poems sent to Sue, as Martha's publisher may have thought the book would have ended up bing too long. I hope Martha ends up publishing everything so I can update this study at some point.
When it comes to the first decade of Emily's life, it has blue as the second most used color, whereas the third decade prefers red. In between these two periods, from her 20s to her 30s, purple (combination of blue and red) is used as the second top color of her choice, as well as violets (the flowers). She mentioned the color purple in her poems 54 times in 54 poems apparently. Purple can symbolize a mix of red (warmest color) and blue (coolest color), a certain balance between two opposite colors. It is also a symbol for royalty, nobility, luxury; wisdom, creativity, mystery in Occidental cultures. Purple dye was produced by ancient civilizations using shellfish from the Mediterranean sea. They needed so many of these shellfish to produce a small amount of that dye, that it was expensive to purchase. It was therefore a color only the wealthy could afford to wear. Purple also represents the after life as well, life after death. People who consider themselves different and unconventional would use purple throughout History. As detailed in this essay:
“For Dickinson purple is a divine and mystic color of her imagination and spirituality. She often relates the color with precious things in her world to represent nobility and dignity, things that provide her with spiritual relief and that connect her deeply with her spiritual realms. It is an introspective color, allowing her to get in touch with her deeper thoughts.“
Although I am not sure purple was Dickinson’s favorite color as stated above (did she say that herself, somewhere in her letters?), I do agree that she associates it with precious things in her world, like violets, light, sunrises, sunsets - and Susan. In her letter to her friend Mrs. Holland (August 1876), Emily asks: “how nature would look in other than standard colors” after seeing that the green grass had turned brown after the rain. When writing to Samuel Bowls after Christmas 1869, she describes green and gold as immortal, eternal colors: “Why did you bind it in green and gold? The immortal colors.“. In a letter to her friend Colonel Thomas Higginson in 1874, she mentions the colors she likes: “perhaps I love the azure and gold myself” but then adds: “perhaps we should learn to love and cultivate these ruddy hues of life”.
Perhaps the best supported analysis of the color purple is still in Haenni's study. She goes through the explanation of the color referring to royalty, rank and authority in 17 poems at least, but emphasizes the use of its variations like amethyst, Tyrian, violet, lilac , iodine and red clover "to support erotic imagery". The most explicit one according to her is in poems that contain bees and clover. This actually reminds me of the hummingbird, which II would associate with bees sipping on the nectar of flowers. One of the best examples, picked by Haenni, is the following:
The Sunrise runs for Both —
The East — Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill —
The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two —
Remotest — still —
Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each — to set —
Wicks wide away —
The North — Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine —
Till Both — can see —
The Midnight's Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so
Upon Her Bosom — One —
And One upon Her Hem —
Both lie —
The words in bold contribute to the sensual image of the poem. I didn't find this poem in Open Me Carefully, I am not sure this one was sent to Susan. That being said, I found several letters and letter-poems with the words violet(s), iodine, purple, amethyst, bees, gold, gems, Royalty, Queen and much more. Below a few examples from Open Me Carefully:
From a long letter to Susan in April 1852 - p22
I write from the Land of Violets, and from the Land of Spring
Imagery of bees, flowers, Seraph, angels. Vevay is a luxurious city in Switzerland; Pigmy has a figurative meaning of floral, blossoming and a metaphor for butterflies (according to Dickinson's Lexicon); Coterie is a circle of persons distinguished from “outsiders.”; Damasc is silk; Briar is a thorn, rose plant - p72
Pigmy seraphs—gone astray—
Velvet people from Vevay—
Belles from some lost summer day—
Bees exclusive Coterie—
Paris could not lay the fold
Belted down with Emerald—
Venice could not show a check
Of a tint so lustrous meek—
Never such an ambuscade
As of briar and leaf displayed
For my little damask maid—
I had rather wear her grace
Than an Earl's distinguished face—
I had rather dwell like her
Than be "Duke of Exeter"—
Royalty enough for me
To subdue the Bumblebee.
An example of a reference to the Violets in One Sister have I in our house - p30. Emily mentions Violets and Crocus flowers a lot in her correspondence with Susan. These are sapphic flowers:
Still in her eye, the violets lie
Amethyst as a variation of purple - p91
As Watchers hang upon the East
As that same watcher, when the East
Opens the lid of Amethyst
And lets the morning go —
This poem shows so much about Sue being Emily's Queen - p105
Your Riches — taught me — Poverty.
Myself — a Millionaire
In little Wealths, as Girls could boast
Till broad as Buenos Ayre —
You drifted your Dominions —
A Different Peru —
And I esteemed All Poverty
For Life's Estate with you —
Of Mines, I little know — myself —
But just the names, of Gems —
The Colors of the Commonest —
And scarce of Diadems —
So much, that did I meet the Queen —
Her Glory I should know —
But this, must be a different Wealth —
To miss it — beggars so —
I'm sure 'tis India — all Day —
To those who look on You —
Without a stint — without a blame,
Might I — but be the Jew —
I'm sure it is Golconda —
Beyond my power to deem —
To have a smile for Mine — each Day,
How better, than a Gem!
At least, it solaces to know
That there exists — a Gold —
Altho' I prove it, just in time
Its distance — to behold —
Its far — far Treasure to surmise —
And estimate the Pearl —
That slipped my simple fingers through —
While just a Girl at School.
Dear Sue -
You see, I remember -
Emily.
One of the "Dollies" letters (Emily would call Susan "Dollie") - p124
Excuse me – Dollie –
The Love a Child can
show – below –
Is but a Filament – I
know –
Of that Diviner – Thing –
That faints opon the face
(Emily liked to write "upon" as "opon", this is not a typo)
of Noon –
And smites the Tinder
in the Sun –
And hinders – Gabriel's Wing!
'Tis this – in Music –
hints – and sways –
And far abroad on
Summer Days –
Distils – uncertain – pain –
'Tis This – afflicts us
in the East –
And tints the Transit
in the West –
With Harrowing – Iodine!
'Tis this – invites – appalls –
Endows –
Flits – glimmers – proves –
dissolves –
Returns – suggests – convicts –
Enchants –
Then – flings in Paradise!
Emily
The last decade and especially the last few years of Emily’s life, marked by deaths of loved ones and dearest friends as well as sickness, contains the lowest number of references to colors in the letters and poems sent to Sue. But, I do want to be careful with falling into a sort of biographical interpretation of color usage as Emily Dickinson was far more intricate.
Another reason is that there is a difference between scanning through all Emily's writing, counting all occurrences of a certain color - yet again, some studies gather some colors together in a certain way, along with gems. An example is whether or not to count gold and yellow as the same image, or red with purple, which Emily sometimes associates with blood.
Dickinson's color system cannot be interpreted as linear and consistent: it evolves with time, from one poem to another, from one correspondent to another, based on the meaning she wants to give the color in a specific line. I believe it also changes based on whether it is in a poem or a letter.
In a study written by Marina Mosolkova, we can see the differences between the colors used in the letters versus the ones used in her poems:
Source: Color Palette of Emily Dickinson Worldview: Linguistic and Literary Approach; Kazan Federal University, Institute of Management, Economics and Finance in Kazan, Russia.
Gold is still the top color in both letters and poems, as well as in her letters to Sue. Blue is the second one in her letters, whereas I found purple being the second most used color in her letters to Susan. Both red and blue are second colors depending on the time period Emily wrote her letters to Susan in my own study.
I will end this section with an extract of one of my favorite letters to Sue:
“And thank you for my dear letter, which came on Saturday night, when all the world was still; thank you for the love it bore me, and for it’s golden thoughts and feelings so like gems, that I was sure I gathered them in whole baskets of pearls!“
Open Me Carefully by Martha N. Smith, p15
Another interesting study I want to mention is Rebecca Patterson's from her book Emily Dickinson's Imagery where she lists the occurrences of colors in the poems, and provides her own analysis:
Here is a summary of her chapter on colors:
1) Higginson didn't know Emily and her poetry well
This is a euphemism, as Patterson is being blunt here when she opens this chapter by insisting on the fact that Higginson, after writing to Emily about a painting of field lilies in yellow and scarlet, states that these were not her favorite colors nor were his, but that perhaps they should try to cultivate these "ruddy hues of life". According to Patterson, this statement clearly shows that Higginson "knew nothing about [Dickinson's] real tastes and attitudes [as shown in table 3]". This table reveals the emphasis on the use of the color red and its different shades, like purple, which she sometimes associated with blood.
2) A Kaleidoscope impression on the reader's mind
Patterson insists that the way to know Emily Dickinson would have been through her poetry, but that many of her earlier critics barely read her work - except from a few stanzas here and there and that all of them missed her "absorbing interest in colors". This is a big miss as Dickinson "attached symbolic and emotional values" to particular hues. One of Patterson's ways of highlighting this important part of Dickinson's writing is summarized in one the lines that stuck with me the most:
"Even a casual reading of her work makes a kaleidoscopic impression on the mind of the reader".
"Letters as well as poems give evidence of a marked responsiveness to color and of a synesthesia (...)". Synesthesia is the way one can experience one of their senses through another one, for example: when one hears a word and sees a color. Dickinson talked of hearing or even tasting colors. Patterson illustrates this with the passing of a circus on Main Street, which Emily witnessed and said that she had "tasted life" and could still "feel the red" in her mind although the drums were "out" (L318). She also found in another letter that the world "usually so red" turned into a "russet tinge" when Lavinia got sick (L207).
3) The poet as a Painter
Patterson goes on by showing how Dickinson talked about "artists", "tint", "easel" (110), "paints", "brush", "picture" and "canvas" (451), of "Autumn's pencils" (163), famous painters such as Domenichino, Titian, , Guido, and Van Dyck or even God being compared as an artist who "drew" the poet (155). Dickinson knew that a "poet handled color words as a painter handled colors".
4) Use of colors through the years
According to Rebecca Patterson, the use of colors was scarce in the earliest years of the poet's life. When she did use them, it was in a more "stereotyped" way. She states that no friends of Emily's remembered her interested in poetry or any poem she wrote at that time.
Then in 1850, the sun "flew in splendor and glory out of its purple nest" and this is the year when the poet was born, according to Patterson (L31). To her, Emilly Dickinson was therefore trying to see her world "in the emotional tone of its colors. It is a way of seeing that has nothing to do with (...) stereotypes or with simple color identifiers".
During the next years to come, Patterson sees evidences of Dickinson striving to become a poet and her vocabulary becoming more and more colorful. She illustrates her idea through a poem written in 1851, where Emily describes the northern lights as a "beautiful crimson sky and rays of gold-pink shooting out of a sunlike center and other phrases demonstrated her lively new delight in verbal splashes of color." In a letter to Austin (L53), Emily talks about her brother's privilege as a male via a metaphor of "birthright of purple grapes", and wishes that Kings' robes were "a tint more royal" than the fruit - hence emphasizing her brother's patriarchy even more.
The more prolific use of colors was in 1851, 1852 and 1853 according to Patterson's tables. These coincide with the most prolific years in the poet's life, not surprisingly.
From 1856 to 1858, no letters survived, and Patterson states that probably a few were even written. This is when, years later, Dickinson mentions a possible depression in her early twenties when she was unable to write poetry. Patterson proves this statement in the number of letters written (or found) and the decline in color usage that goes with it.
After this period, around mid-1858, she came back with her color distribution from 1859 and afterwards is analyzed as being different from the years 1850 to 1856: the reds had a significant importance before and remained equally predominant afterwards. The blues and purples increased after 1858, as she associated them with freedom, status, successful love and happiness according to Patterson. The blacks and cool colors declined, and to Patterson, their appearance or non appearance has a lot of meaning since these are colors that are heavily emotional.
To Patterson, Dickinson emerged from her difficult mid twenties development and might have been influenced by the discovery of a new poet, such as Elizabeth Browning. She suggests that the reading of Aurora Leigh may have been decisive in the poet's mind - Aurora Leigh was able to become a great poet and "establish the worth of women as artists".
5) Dickinson's color system influenced by the heavenly city of Revelation
Emily Dickinson's Imagery suggests that Emily probably read a borrowed copy of Aurora Leigh from Susan Dickinson. The book emphasizes heavenly jewels as color words and Browning's disciples will reference this jewel imagery in the next several years. Among these color words, borrowed from the foundations New Jerusalem, Emily seems to be using the following ones for the first time in 1858: jasper, emerald, topaz and amethyst. Other ones appeared soon, like azure, amber, cochineal, damask, Tyrian (synonym of purple) and alban and snow for the color white. To Patterson, Emily would have read about these color words (except for alban and cochineal) in Aurora Leigh, Revelation and Men and Women (by Robert Browning), as well as in the poems of Keats and Ruskin (where she would have found all her color words), in Emerson and Shakespeare, Pope, and Milton.
in 1860, she borrowed sapphire and beryl from the New Jerusalem, added ruby, russet, ebon and dun.
In 1861: rouge, daffodil and bronze
In 1862: mazarine and gamboge; garnet, coral, Parian, argent, tawny and livid. Blood is mentioned as a color word that year as well, as she wrote that the hue of Autumn is Blood (656) and a sunset is described as "solid Blood" (658). Patterson thinks that phosphor and phosphorus are not color words, as Emily associates them to fire (422) and in 1863 with the color red (689) but that it may mean a light rather than a color, to which she added the notion of heat.
In 1863: hazel was added to describe her own eyes. The popular iodine (rich violet shade) and blonde (which became one of her Death colors according to Patterson). Iodine is mentioned in four poems from 1863 to 1864 and vanishes after that. Blonde reappears twenty years later in a new poem or an old one "copied into 1884 handwriting" (1624).
In 1864: umber.
Her color peak was definitely 1862 according to the tables. Then it declines in the next two years, and falls drastically in 1865 and 1866. No color words can be found in the poems in 1867-1868 and the letters were just as colorless. This is a period similar to her mid twenties depression from "which she never really emerged" according to Patterson - which she tries to prove through her study of the color palette.
6) The meaning attached to the color words
Half of the different meanings Dickinson used was in a "natural" way to describe "sunrises, sunsets, flowers, birds, the coming of spring or a summer's day" for example. "Purple ships on the coming of spring" (265); "sunset washes the banks of a yellow sea" (266); "the morning sky hurries into ruby trousers" (204); "the feminine day, undressing, pulls off gold garters and a petticoat of purple" (716).
7) Analysis of a few main color words
A) Green
For many people and especially poets, according to Patterson, green is the color or hope, new life, and in the negative way: of jealousy and unripe judgement. For Dickinson: the "color of the grave" (411). The green hills of Yorkshire are associated with Charlotte Brontë's death (148). The death of her aunt Norcross is "in the Green of the year" (995). Some exceptions are three jewel greens: beryl, chrysoprase and crysolite.
The most striking exception is emerald, which appears at least ten times in her poetry based on Patterson's study. It is an ebullient green, full of energy: a sunset spreads the east with "duds of Emerald" (219), the pine bough is an "Emerald Nest" (161), the wild rose is belted with emerald (138) and "the wings of a triumphant hummingbird are resonant with emerald" (1463) but Patterson also states that Dickinson can switch easily to the macabre and use the color in a different, opposite meaning: during a storm, the poet closes the windows and doors against an "Emerald Ghost" (1593); there is a reference to the"Emerald seams" of graveyard grass (1183) and in a letter, the grave is depicted as an "emerald recess" (L952).
Dickinson repeatedly associates the color green with Susan. In a letter from 1852, she wants to send Sue, who is away, some of the new green grass growing beside the doorstep where they "used to sit, and have long fancies" (L85). She also pictures herself walking through the "green lane" to meet Sue (L94) and Sue tripping on the "green grass" toward her (L96).
After a disagreement with her beloved Susan, Emily feels cold as a stone and silent as a block that was once a "warm and green" tree with birds dancing in its branches (L172).
In January 1855, she remembers that their love for each other started "on a step at the front door, and under the Evergreens" (L177). When she learns that Sue is coming a few weeks later that same spring, it "makes the grass spring" in Emily's heart (L178).
In April 1856, before the marriage of her brother Austin with Susan, Emily writes to her cousin John Graves (who stayed at the Homestead in April 1854 with Sue and Emily to protect the two women while the rest of the family was away) of a world of crumbling "evergreens - and other crumbling things" (L184). This letter doesn't show any happiness and emphasizes a context of death.
From 1850 to 1856: the tables show an abundance of the use of the color green (usually associated with hope and life). Patterson finds that the color will never again be so commonly used or so hopeful in letters and poems (counting about 9 greens for the rest of her life in her letters). She states that it is obvious that the greens decline later on and tend to refer to the graveyard if we compare it to her biography: "these are signs of waning hope and of frustrated life (...). There is some evidence that at this time she thought herself neglected by Sue".
In 1862, a poem begs a dying beloved to send for the poet, who will make sure that the "Jealous Grass" grow greenest and fondest over the beloved body (648). And when her last day comes, the poet will journey toward her lover dressed in a "Sod Gown" (665).
B) Blue
To Patterson, there is no other image more "obvious yet subtle, more complex yet simple, that in the color word blue". To the author, blue is a personal color for Emily and although Dickinson never said it was her favorite color (at least I haven't read anything about it yet), Patterson justifies her idea by quoting a letter sent to Susan where the poet is trying to decide which dress she should be wearing to welcome Susan back from Baltimore, MA: her fawn-colored or her blue dress (she ends up picking the blue one) in letter L96.
Blue is also the color a a loved one. In letter L69, the poet/narrator pictures herself paddling down the "blue Susquehanna" to meet a girl friend and in poem 162, she desires to be absorbed into the Blue Sea of another woman.
In 1851, she associates blue with the hills she can see from the South windows of her bedroom, hence giving the color a sense of distance, mystery and unapproachableness according to Patterson (722). These hills are feminine, as they wear "blue mantillas".
Later, in 1856, Dickinson ties the color blue to Italy and its sky (L184), still related to Mrs. Browning's Aurora Leigh.
The color blue is most often associated with the sky (in variations such as azure, mazarine, sapphire, or plain blue). If the poem has a feeling of happiness and positivity, blue is warmth, freedom, boundlessness, unlimited power. On the other hand, it has a feeling of death, cold, fear.
An example of the contrast can be seen in L80, where she writes to Austin "on a glorious afternoon (...) the sky is blue and warm" and the sunshine makes "gold look dim (...) it is a day made for Susie and them". In another letter to Sue (L77), she is sorry that she has no "sweet sunshine to gild" her pages, "nor any bay so blue". She also begs Susan a few weeks later to put the violets she sent her in an envelope under her pillow and to dream of "blue-skies, and home" (L94). In 1853, Sue is "all my blue sky" and "sweetest sunshine" (L102) when she is far from Emily and not answering her letters:
"Dear Susie, you are gone - One would hardly think I had lost you to hear this revelry, but your absence insanes me so - I do not feel so peaceful, when you are gone from me - All life looks differently, and the faces of my fellows are not the same they wear when you are with me. I think it is this, dear Susie; you sketch my pictures for me, and 'tis at their sweet colorings, rather than this dim real that I am used, so you see when you go away, the world looks staringly, and I find I need more vail - Frank Peirce thinks I mean berage vail, and makes a sprightly plan to import the "article," but dear Susie knows what I mean." (L107)
By contrast, the color is used in a different way after Sue and Austin get married. Patterson sees a shift in the poet's mood, which reflects sadness and unhappiness. In letter 118, she tells Austin that Sue was reading one of his letters and looking up now and then at the "blue, blue home beyond". Patterson states that we don't know if these were sue's words but that they are definitely Emily's in her letter to her brother. Emily then writes less often to her brother, being afraid of sounding "rather bluer" than he would like (L123). She doesn't know if her brother even wants to hear from her in letter L128 and says that things still "look blue".
After 1862, the blues are cold, unpleasant, unlike the joyful ones from 1859-1860. The fly that comes when the narrator is dying comes "With Blue — uncertain stumbling Buzz —" (465). In "The Brain — is wider than the Sky —" (632), her brain has the infinite quality of the sky and is deeper than the sea.
In early 1863, poem 737 shows blue as the loss of a beloved friend, one that cannot be reached, unattainable like the sky. Similarly, in poem 629, the moon has drifted so far from the poet that she cannot see her "superior road" anymore or its " advantage - Blue". In "I found the words to every thought" (581), there may be one thought she cannot describe (is it Love?) and asks if "Blaze" can be described through the deepest red, the "cochineal" pigment and "Noon" (usually a symbol of Love) through the deepest blue, the "Mazarin" pigment? Patterson translates it as "to someone who has never known Love, can the intensest blue properly symbolize it?".
The other blues of 1862-1863 are associated with a lost love. In poem 756, the poet sadly remembers a time when "Heaven below" obscured the one with a "ruddier Blue". Here, Patterson says that Emily Dickinson's first editor (that is to say, Mabel Loomis Todd of course), wrongly changed the sentence to "ruddier hues" and by doing so, missed "entirely the symbolism of the paradisal blue of happiness suffused with he warmth of life's blood". About a poem from the same year, Patterson says that "the lovers are united by a noon blue that unwinds from east to west until it covers them both like a warm blue blanket". In 1862, she mentions the Blue peninsula of Italy (405). An Italy she longs for, just like the beloved she misses or she lost.
Patterson finishes her analysis of the color Blue with a specific poem and theory that was one of her strongest: Dickinson's love for Kate Turner. She states that one poem mentioning the color blue can be dated with certainty between 1865 and the summer of 1877 (written around 1872). The poem shows how much Dickinson loves the month of March (according to Patterson, her favorite month). The poet assigns a "British Sky" in which "Blue Birds" are exercising (1213) to the month of March.
Rebecca Patterson thinks that a possible reason for this liking is that Kate Turner was born in March and was in England in 1872 and again in 1873. She continues saying that 1877 was the year of Kate's visit to Amherst and that blue birds and blue poems originated from that year. In August 1877, Dickinson sent a letter to Higginson where she describes a blue bird to come in March and a model of "Integrity" (1395). Patterson mentions a few other poems and letters bearing the words Peninsula and Blue birds as a striking uniqueness in Emily's writing of the year 1877. That year is also, according to her, the richest color year in Dickinson's poetry.
After that, the rich palette is "reduced to a ghostly "pallid" and "snow"" as described by Patterson.
C) Yellow
To Patterson, yellow is Dickinson's ordinary color and used 17 times to describe the sunlight. She separates yellow from gold and golden, stating that it has no aura of value like they both do. It does not reflect delicateness, preciousness or a sense of shining like Amber does, or does not have any sense of sacrifice like gilt or gilded do.
Yellow is used in a fun way as in the sunset's "yellow play" (496), "the yellow boys and girls" climbing the purple stile if the evening (318), the daffodil's "yellow bonnet" (134) or "yellow gown" (348).
Yellow can sometimes be too stimulating (in a painful way) and too bright, probably when the poet had to spend several months in Boston because of her neurotic eye problem (1864/1865). Patterson argues that it may have left her sensitive to bright light. She also states that Dickinson may have anticipated her eye problem years before it happened. In a poem from 1861 (236), the poet describes a lost love as "Blindness". A year after that, she remembers happy times before she got her "eye put out" (327).
About this time, she describes looking into the face of a cannon with its "yellow eye" with a glare of death looking back at her (590). In "a Loaded Gun" (754), the poet is herself the gun with the "Yellow Eye".
Around 1864, the year of her first eye treatment, the poet asks the sun not to "interrupt this Ground" with any "yellow noise" (829). This is an example of her synesthesia, where she converts intrusive light into intrusive noise. In another poem, the sun takes its "yellow whip" to chase the fog away (1190). Dickinson talks about lightning with "yellow feet" (630), "yellow beak" (824).
To Patterson, there is no other color in Dickinson's palette with such connotations of fear, violence and cruelty than yellow.
Let's not forget Emily Dickinson's own take on the color Yellow (F1086B):
Nature rarer uses Yellow Than another Hue - Saves she all of that for Sunsets Prodigal of Blue Spending Scarlet, like a Woman Yellow she affords Only scantly and selectly Like a Lover's Words -
D) Gilded/Gilt - Gold/Golden
Gild, as per Emily's Lexicon, means "covered in gold leaf". It is therefore different than gold. To Patterson, it is associated with pain or with the effort to hide it. Its earliest instance is in 1861 in poem 287: a clock stopped and its "Gilded pointers" indicate a "cool - concernless No" to anyone who bothers it. In 1862, a lip is "gilded" with a smile to hide its pain (353). Another clock in poem 635 has its "Gilded Hands" tormented with anticipation of a joy that that will not last long. In 1863, a balloon is described as being tortured, depicted as a "Gilded Creature" that tries desperately to fly but rips apart on a tree and ends up in the ocean (700).
Patterson continues with the "yellows of all shades" that are too brilliant to be good colors for the grave. The yellow sun is asked to stay away in the same fashion.
Gold/Golden
Emily associates the color gold with heavenly thoughts, with the world beyond. The color and its variants has more value than gilt and gilded. She speaks of the "golden wings of angels" when Sue comes back from Baltimore (L96). She looks towards the "golden gateway beneath the golden trees" (the direction from where Sue would come to the Homestead on Pleasant street). A few months later, she is even more explicit: looking towards the West, the poet calls it the "golden West"and speak of the "silent Eternity for ever folded there", which will, according to Patterson, "open its "everlasting arms" and "gather Sue and Emily in" (L103).
In a 1854 poem sent to Susan, the "more golden light" is the light of Heaven (5). The "golden floor" of poem 117 is associated with the heavenly city.
Gold/Golden/Amber are the shades "most in esteem for their preciousness", and applied to love, the beloved or an admired friend. The lost "guinea golden" (a coin) may be Sue according to Patterson (23, in 1858) or some other girl friend who is urged to answer the letter (but Patterson says this is less probable and believes Sue is the subject of this poem).
Amber is associated with he thought of a love that must be sought in the afterworld (703). Amber also shifts to the sky from the mountains to "regain the lost delight in heaven" in Patterson's words (572).
Gold and amber are associated with the sun-lover (Patterson's description) but it is also the color of the moon as the loved one. The moon controls the sea with "Amber hands" just like the lover's "Amber hands" control the poet (429). In another poem from 1862, the moon is once again the beloved and continues its way through the sky until it is "cut away by slashing clouds" (504). In poem 629, the moon slides away in "independent Amber" like a guillotined head or a "Stemless flower". In 1863, a poem (737) seems to identify the moon with a specific person (I will need to check if there is any hint at Susan here!). A few nights ago, the moon "with a chin of Gold" now turns a "perfect face" on the world below. If its "lips of Amber" should ever part, the moon would show such a wonderful smile to the poet who craves the privileged of being the "remotest star" taking its way past the "moon's Palace door.
In 1861, the poet's lamp "burns golden" even when it runs out of oil, symbolizing the everlasting love after the other beloved's love ended (233).
In a poem sent to Samuel Bowles in late 1861, Patterson says that the subject is Love, and that "if Bowles, who was pretty well informed, had been urging her to take her women friends less seriously, this is her answer". Patterson explains that the poem is erotic, the "Eagle's Golden Breakfast" that "dazzles" the poet is suggestively erotic "on the oral level so common in her work". The poet says she is neither an eagle nor attracted to eagles (the bird is said to be a male symbol in her poetry). The poet is a "robin" instead, with a little mouth that is better suited to eat the little crumbs or cherries. She is far from having any desire to eat the Eagle's breakfast and Patterson states that in another version of her poem (revised later), she says it "strangles" small-mouthed creatures like her (690). In "the Malay took the pearl" (452), she fails at diving for the pearl she thinks is too precious for a "Vest of Amber". Although in another poem of the same period, she dives without fear to retrieve her pearl and hopes that the next dive will be "the golden touch" that gets it (427).
In a poem from 1866 where the poet describes a farewell of a "retreating" person, she says that the "perished sun" lasts twice as long as all the "Golden presence" (1083). Patterson says this is another poem linking the sun to a beloved person, especially the setting sun. I don't agree with her when she states that there are no other poems after that one that link "any shade of yellow with any cherished person". To me, a perished sun is not yellow, but amber, golden or even reddish.
E) Purple
Purple takes the form of other variants like amethyst, Tyrian, violet, lilac and iodine. Patterson states that the color word is more important as a symbol than an epithet. She highlights that it is also the case for authors who may have influenced Dickinson, such as Keats, Elizabeth Browning and Milton.
Iodine is an exception, as no other predecessors or successors of Emily's has used this color word before. Dickinson's dictionary states that its "vapors is a beautiful violet" and that the name comes from the Greek and means "violet" (Emily would read etymologies as explained by Patterson).
Purple is defined here again as an admired color worn by Roman emperors and associated with imperial government. The color purple is secreted by certain shell-fish which the Phoenicians (now modern Lebanon) used to create the Tyrian dye. It took tens of thousands of sea snails to produce a small amount of Tyrian dye, hence its value and price at the time - which only the rich could afford and therefore wear. To Patterson, it is obvious that Emily Dickinson studied color words, etymology, definitions and coined new words. She also knew "something about the theory of colors too". Patterson mentions a book that Emily would have studied at Mount Holyoke: Denison Olmsted's "Compendium of Natural History". In this book, she would have learned about optical properties and the nature of prism. As an example, Patterson illustrates her argument by quoting poem #611 where Emily writes that the love of the other is a "Prism" (prismatic color?) "Excelling Violet".
But as we all know by now, even if we find associations of the color purple with love, happiness, dignity and imperial state, Dickinson also contrasted it with death. The poet may also have known that the pall thrown over a coffin or a tomb in funerals was purple velvet instead of black (Patterson's theory). Poem #98 shows that a funeral ceremony is a "purple", a "Crown" that no one can evade. Another poem (171) a "Democrat" now lies in a state of "Full royal" and "purple". In poem #1558, death is a brook that must be leaped to secure the "Flower Hesperian" or "Purple Flower", which Patterson ties to Shakespeare's "little western flower...purple with love's wound".
According to Patterson's research, purple is not frequently used as a color word for flowers but gives the following examples: poem #380 shows the clover blossom as "Purple Democrat" and therefore an intended oxymoron; Poem #342 says that the lilacs sway with "purple load". But the most important instance is the "Purple Creature" in poem #442 from 1862, where the poet mentions a gentian, which, after having tried to be a rose all summer-long in a humiliating way, is brought to "Tyrian" perfection by the frost. Patterson thinks that the gentian is a personal symbol probably referring to her belated love affair (not sure if she is referring to Sue or Kate here although her love affair with Sue started as young girls) or the "dramatic efflorescence of her talent under the sharp stimulus of personal tragedy".
In two poems, purple means blood. The "purple brook" in the breast (122) and the "purple" in her veins, which she would give every drop to be able to live one particular hour again with her beloved (663).
In Poem #247, she wants to buy an hour of her lover's face with "Purple" from "Peru", which is a symbol of high value coming from the wealth brought by the Conquistadores. In poem #137, the butterflies of "St Domingo" are cruising a "purple line" and may be nothing more, according to Patterson, than the deep violet of a summer day. That being said, the butterfly is a symbol of the lovers in other poems, and St. Domingo is one of the many exotic places symbolizing the "South of erotic happiness" and freedom. Hence Patterson explains that the butterflies could possibly just be butterflies flying across the summer sky at noon and St. Domingo a way to suggest warmth in the summer - but Emily Dickinson could not write this poem without being "aware of the possibilities of symbolism".
Purple is also associated with sunrises and sunsets, as well as hills, the four cardinal points, the sun, noon, autumn, spring and especially the month of March. To Patterson, most of these poems make the reader feel like they are reading about much more than just landscapes and natural phenomena. An example is poem #980, which states that purple is "fashionable twice", meaning at this season of the year and in "this season of the year" and "when a soul perceives itself to be an Emperor". Patterson interprets this poem as follows: to be an emperor is to be loved" since Dickinson also states in a letter (L185) that she would rather "be loved than to be called a King in earth or a Lord in Heaven".
Still associating purple with love, poem #839 shows that a lover is unique, as on the "Purple Programme" of the East every dawn is the first one. In "Some say goodnight — at night —" (#1739), the absence of her beloved is like the night, her presence is like dawn and the same presence, through another metaphor, is "purple on the hight", which is the morning. In this poem, the lover is associated with hills, purple and morning. When the lover is leaving at night, she is associated with the setting sun and its purple color. In 1861, she writes that the poet is now an "Eastern exile", who tries to climb a "purple moat" in vain, which used to lead her over the "Amber line" into the "drenched West of love (262). In poem 710, the East" keeps her "purple Troth" with the "Hill" and at night time, the North notifies the lovers who parted by raising in iodine, "displaying violet auroral light" in Patterson's words.
In 1861, Dickinson sent "Like her the Saints retire" to Susan but Patterson suggests it could be about Sue or about "some new woman friend" (she clearly alludes to Kate Turner here as she was a strong advocate for Kate and Emily's love affair). In this poem, Dickinson describes her "friend"'s recent departure as an evening stealing "Purple and Cochineal" after the day (#60). In another love poem of the same year, the poet uses a personal symbol, the Daisy, to steal the "Amethyst" from the sun "parting West" (106).
In "I held a Jewel in my fingers —"(245), she lost a "gem" and is left only with its "Amethyst remembrance".
After 1861, Patterson notices a drop in the use of purples or maybe less "obviously concerned with a specific person or real situation". The exception is poem #663, where the poet offers the purple in her veins to get one remembered hour of love. To Patterson, after 2865, the purples are less "urgent, immediate and painful".
F) Red
Patterson finds that the reds of the letters from 1850 to 1856 are "less important" than the yellows, the greens and the blues, she explains that Emily was already using color words such as crimson, red, rose, ruddy, scarlet and pink. In addition, she added carmine (1858), cochineal, vermilion and damask (1859), ruby (1860), rouge (1861) and garnet, coral and blood (1862). She also added hyacinth in 1864 and a possible cardinal red in 1882.
The importance of the color red, according to Patterson, is linked to vitality, blood, the heart and other vital organs. It is not surprising then that the color is not associated with the graveyard. Poem #115 actually highlight that no "ruddy fires" are present on the the Hearth of a curious "inn". That said, after her the person with which the poet wishes to spend eternity dies early and leaves her anxious in poem 611, the grave actually turns ruddy. She can see this beloved better in the dark, through time and especially in the grave. The "little Panels" of the grave are "ruddy with the Light", which Patterson associates with the lamp of Love that the poet has been holding high all these years.
As for cochineal, it seems to be associated with a certain person (#60). She chooses for her "Knitting" work a cochineal color that "resembles Thee" and a "Dusker" (word created by Dickinson, from "dusk") border that represents her "dimmer self" as put by Patterson (#748).
By contrast, in poem "All the letters I can write" (#334), the poet compares herself to a "Ruby" flower just like she does in poem 404 where she is the "Flowers" that waste their "Scarlet Freight" in isolation.
According to Patterson and her analysis, red is Emily Dickinson's color. The poet is red, carmine, scarlet, vermilion whether it is with happiness or in intense loss and pain - at least until 1865 when she notices that the reds fade away and white starts appearing more. Patterson even associates the fading reds to occurrences of pink instead. The earliest red appears in poem from the summer of 1859, "If this is "fading" " (#120). If this is "fading" therefore she wants to fade and if this is "dying", she wants to be buried in "such a shroud of red" (the definition of "to die" here with Emily's own quotation marks may suggest her Webster's (1847) definition for the word as "to languish with pleasure or tenderness"). In poem 208, the "Rose" leaps on her lover's cheek.
In 1862 where the poet lost happiness, she remembers that she used to tell it "Red" in the color of her own cheek (#430). The same year she takes care of her flowers in memory of the person she misses, her "Bright Absentee" and sadly says that they bear no more "Crimson" (#339). In poem #470 from 1862, which Patterson identifies as a Declaration of Love, "Carmine" tingles at the poet's fingertips.
In early 1863, the "Zeroes" (possibly symbolizing emptiness, a void or as Patterson sees it as the poet's "unloved life") teach the narrator that there must be a "phosphorus" (Dickinson's Lexicon associates the word with fire, flame, heat) and that if there is "White" it must be "Red" instead (#470). In poem 756, she remembers the "ruddier Blue" of a one-time "Heaven below". Pushed away by "Morning" and condemned to "Midnight", she asks if she can at least look towards the "Red" East (#425).
In 1864, the "Crumb" that used to be enough for the little robin is now "the Crumb of Blood" that relieves her tiger-self for a moment (#872). In "It bloomed and dropt, a Single Noon —" (978), the poet talks about a "Single Noon" (usually the symbol of the zenith of Love) which used to bloom in the past, and associates it with a flower "distinct and Red". She didn't value this flower the way she should have at the time, and it is now too late and she realizes that this flower was the one and only intended for her. Her lover is commonly identified with the rose and the color red is logically associated with it.
Patterson goes on and summarizes that red is life, vitality, erotic ecstasy. She emphasizes that Dickinson may have most certainly read Milton where his character Raphael praises a sexual activity among the angels and blushes "Celestial rosie red, Love's proper hue".
But red is also associated with pain and suffering in Dickinson's writing, even early in her life to describe the pain of separation with her loved ones. In the spring of 1860, a wounded deer is said to leap higher and cheeks are reddest when they sting (#165). in poem (#236), she compares herself as her lover's little spaniel whose life is "leaking red". To Patterson, this image was inspired by Helena, who begs a cold-hearted lover in A Midsummer Night's Dream:
"I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel—spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me. Only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you."
In 1861, Dickinson writes that if we could foresee the end of pain, if the depth of the bleeding and the "drops of vital scarlet" were limited, then pain would be bearable (#269). In poem 250, she compares says she will keep singing like the robin and will travel south with her "Rhymes" and her "Redbreast" (suggesting her emotional pain). In late 1861, She sends Kate Turner autumn leaves, and Patterson sees a unique use of the word "rouge". To Rebecca Patterson, there is no other explanation to Dickinson using this word other than Kate mastering the French language and enjoying showing it. The poet says that the leaves are red, but that the color doesn't mean "Summer" (with her own quotation marks, suggesting it is a symbol) and with the typical Dickinson long dash (suggesting a catch of the breath). It is also too early for "Spring" (another symbol) and she must first cross that "long town of White". The red cannot be dying as it is "too Rouge" and the "Dead shall go in White" anyway. Patterson analyzes it as the red leaves not being associated with the summer of love, long gone, neither with the resurrection of love after the grave - and that they are too red for the stage in-between (the process of dying)), then their deep red color should refer to pain and not love.
Similarly, in 1862, the poet choses the "Scarlet way" of suffering and renunciation (#527). Another poem that same year states that the symbolic white is the incandescence of the passionate red (#365).
As early as 1860, Dickinson starts "associating her inner turmoil with a volcano" in Patterson's words. In poem #175, "I have never seen "Volcanoes" —", the poet compares happiness to a vineyard in the shadow of a menacing volcano overwhelming Pompeii. In 1861, she then compares the ordinary individual's life of steady, subdued warmth to hers, whcih has heat and the violence of the "Popocatapel" (her spelling of the Popocatepetl) or "Etna's Scarlets" (#422). Patterson indicates that the cataclysm has occurred, starting with one of the Master's letters (L233) and through the increase of violence in her metaphors.
Another volcano poem is #601 where Emily Dickinson describes how passionless innocents "cannot detect" or understand her "Solemn-Torrid-Symbol", the "still - Volcano" of suffering that has opened the "hissing Corals" of its lips and destroyed her "Cities". In poem 1146, Naples is scared of a basking and purring "Etna" even more than one that"Shows her Garnet Tooth". In a poem transcript made by Susan Dickinson, a volcano sounds like the other ones and she observes that it is now covered in grass and looks like a "meditative spot" but that the fire is rocking "red" below (#1677).
Rebecca Patterson ends her analysis of what she calls "Dickinson red period" with a poem that might be the saddest ("Sang from the Heart, Sire,". The poet sung from her heart like a bird, dipped her beak in it to help her song out and offered her death as her only wealth. If the tune seems too "Red", she begs her former lover to forgive her "Cochineal", accept the "Vermilion" suspend "Liturgies and "Chorals" while she repeats that lover's "Hallowed name" (#1059). Patterson dates this poem around the year 1865.
After that, Patterson focuses on the dulling and fading of Dickinson's palette after 1865, which she sees as the most curious aspect of her color system. Before that, she used an unusual amount of vivid colors like "saturated reds, sky blues, rich golds, imperial purples" in Patterson's words. The browns are usually warm and comfortable, but few. The achromatic whites, grays and blacks - apparently making up to 50% of the color words used by other poets - represent just a bit more than 20% in Emily Dickinson's poetry. Patterson goes on with saying that there is a "disturbing impression of intense, restless color in a period of raging creativity and a powerful emotional tension", with recurring images of erupting volcanoes and blazing fires.
But by 1865, Patterson notices that the fire is almost extinguished. "Ashes" instead of "fire" and the poet's respect for its "grayest Pile" in memory of what it symbolizes (#1063). In 1866, there is no red and no color at all in 1867-1868. During 1869-1870, there are a few reds reappearing but Patterson thinks that some or all of them must have originated during her red period (as Dickinson would re-write her existing poems and therefore making it difficult to date them with certainty).
To highlight this idea, Patterson mentions Higginson's reaction when he first saw Emily Dickinson and was apparently "struck by her pallor" and the white dress she was wearing. She mentions Dickinson's friend Helen Hunt Jackson's letter as well, where she says that her friend looks sick, living out of the sunlight ("so white and mothlike"). To Patterson, these statements resembles Dickinson's "bleaching of her once vital red". She compares the earliest letters with one instance of the color word pink, versus four for the letters between 1858-1866 (all of them names or descriptions of flowers). In the 1870s, the reds fade into pinks, and the browns become more common. Patterson demonstrates this idea through poem #1310, where she thinks the poet begs her own heart to put up its "Hoary work" and take a "Rosy Chair". In the letters written between 1869 and 1886, she counts a dozen pinks to fourteen vivid reds, with the poems of the same period counting ten pinks to sixteen vivid reds.
Patterson emphasizes that we must pay attention to the context in which the pinks are also used, which become highly symbolic to her. Shame is a "shawl of Pink" and the "tint divine" (#1412). The flesh becomes "that Pink stranger" in poem 1527. In letters 654 and 845, Hearts are now pink. In letter L723, Cupid drives a "Pink Coupe" (a horse-drawn carriage) and in a letter during the final weeks of her life, she writes that the idea of her "stirring as the arbutus does, a pink and russet hope" (Russet is a reddish brown color) (L1034).
Patterson finishes her analysis by stating that there is a "peculiar flatness and lack of color in the poetry written during Judge Lord's courtship of the next several years". She even supports her apparent dislike for Jude Lord's interest in Dickinson by showing that after his death, "surprisingly, the old brilliant colors, the old symbols, made a last flickering appearance in letters and poems" (I personally love this view myself, but do not agree with her last sentence in this chapter: "And then she too died, having locked up her life in transparent image and symbol").
COMING SOON: Color Aesthetics in Dickinson, the AppleTV show
Below are two of the best articles I’ve read so far about what the show is, its creative goals and impact on depicting Emily Dickinson as the opposite of the recluse and sad girl misconception we mentioned previously.
AppleTV series Dickinson follows a young Emily Dickinson who uses her “outsider's perspective to explore the constraints of society, gender and family in the 19th century”. The show stars talented actresses Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson and Ella Hunt as Susan Gilbert.
Although Producer Alena Smith researched Dickinson for several years and came up with such a masterpiece that does include multiple scenes inspired by historical facts, capturing “Emily Dickinson's creative spirit was more important than nailing the historical details”.
As such, the set of Dickinson “is an Ultra-Colorful Version of the Poet's Home” and “a microcosm that transcends time, thanks to modern-feeling visual elements like saturated hues”. Hailee Steinfeld, its lead actress, goes even further in its description:
“When people think about a period piece, it can come across as drab and dry and boring in a sense. You think of a period piece and your head sometimes goes to black and white. What’s so special about the wallpaper on the walls in the Dickinson home is that it is incredibly accurate. There were these bright, interesting, psychedelic patterns that catch people by surprise. It feels very now.”
Over three seasons, the team re-contextualized Emily Dickinson’s reputation “as an avatar for creative recluses, asking how a woman who so vividly captured the spectrum of human emotion with her words came to be known only as a depressed shut-in”.
“Dickinson did more than just include modern-day language in its dialogue and Mitski in its soundtrack. The show frequently traveled outside of time and space altogether by venturing into Emily’s imagination to bring her words to life. Sometimes, her ingenuity took her far from home and into, say, her own version of Dante’s Inferno–inspired hell, while lines from her poems flashed across the screen; her thoughts seemed to burst from her head and sear the very air around her. Concepts she personified in her work, such as “Death” and “Nobody,” became characters themselves. Her poems imply a romantic relationship with Sue (Ella Hunt), her brother’s wife, but the show made their affair explicit; in the series, Sue was both Emily’s love interest and Emily’s foil, a woman leading a version of a life—as a wife and a mother—that could have been Emily’s had her brain not been so ignited by poetry. Some historians have characterized Emily Dickinson as a mere eccentric, but Dickinson didn’t diminish her. It daringly envisioned how her mind may have worked, zealously melding reality with fantasy and inviting its audience to partake in that journey.
Dickinson expanded upon Emily’s legacy by focusing on her struggle to understand herself. Each season treated her personal dilemmas—whether she should be a poet, whether she should claim ownership of her art, what kind of impact she hoped her work would make—with the same importance as, say, the conflicts that come with running a country. And by taking care to incorporate history even as it toyed with time, the show grasped that although Emily Dickinson was ahead of her time, the time in which she lived informed who she became.
In the end, the series wasn't just a gimmicky take on the life of the poet Emily Dickinson. It questioned why she became a myth—why even modern-day audiences, who live in a time that’s more accepting and more progressive, can still lack imagination like her peers did. Yet the show also wasn’t bleak; its flights of fancy, evoking the same intensity of feeling as her poetry does, breathed life and beauty into the series. Dickinson was a writer who validated the force of every feeling, but she was rarely validated in turn by the era in which she lived“
Below is my interpretation of color aesthetics in the show, taking into consideration the storyline, actual Dickinson facts and artistic clues.
COMING SOON: Color Aesthetics in Dickinson, the AppleTV show
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