My Dickinson Pilgrimage in Amherst #2

Feb 8, 20225 min read

PART 2

by Virginie - @provencenewyork (Twitter)

February 2022

See My Dickinson Pilgrimage Part 1 here

The way Hope builds his House It is not with a sill – Nor Rafter – has that Edifice But only Pinnacle –

Abode in as supreme This superficies As if it were of Ledges smit Or mortised with the Laws –

I drove back to Amherst the first week of February 2022 (the coldest month in the Northeast part of the US). This time, I decided to stay at the inn which is right in front of the Homestead on Main Street and spent two days focusing on my research and finding more about Dickinson. This house was built in 1870 according to Anne, who is managing the quaint little inn and its guests. This means that Emily was forty years old when the house was built in front of the Homestead (I couldn't help but imagine her living across the street and looking at the house I was staying at).

I knew the inn had several bedrooms but didn't know much more than that. When I arrived, Anne took me upstairs and gave me the key to my bedroom. I looked at the door and realized I was staying in their "Emily Dickinson" room! I told her she had no idea how much this meant to me and she answered: "I guess it was meant to be!".

The windows of the bedroom open up to a view of the Homestead. I could see Emily's room from mine, and that night, I felt like I was sleeping as close as one could be from Emily Dickinson's room (I barely slept to be honest, I had too much on my mind).

I kept looking at the Homestead at night and could not close the curtains. The first thing I did in the morning was to get up and look at it again. I had so many poems dancing in my head when I saw the little light coming from the house at night, and the sunlight in the morning hitting the windows where I tried to picture Emily in my mind.

I could even see the Evergreens to the left (this was taken zooming in)

Throughout the house, there are beautiful posters and paintings of Emily

There was a poem and a couple of books in my room

Another room facing mine had this incredible wallpaper that reminded me of Dickinson's bedroom in a way. Anne decorated all the rooms and even created the wallpapers and curtains. We had an interesting conversation about colors here

Downstairs, there is a lounge room decorated with paintings of famous buildings in Amherst

If you make it to Amherst one day, I highly recommend staying at the inn on Main Street. It was such a delightful and impactful experience for me. I met interesting people at breakfast in one of their common rooms downstairs and Anne is a fantastic host.

On this second trip, I couldn't help but go back to the cemeteries to bring something to Emily and Susan. Although the West Cemetery (where the Dickinson plot is) is safe and in the middle of Amherst, the Wildwood Cemetery is up on a hill and isolated. Please do not go there alone.

West Cemetery

I brought Emily white Hyacinths. I originally wanted to bring white lilies as they had a special meaning for the poet but it was the middle of February and I couldn't find any. With the flowers, I brought two poems:

One from Susan, who wrote it after Emily's death. I felt like I needed to read these lines out loud to Emily, which I did that day: "I'm waiting but she comes not back"

The second one is a poem a Dickinson fan sent me when we both talked about how Emily Dickinson's writing makes us feel and what her art means to us. I actually shared this poem on this blog here if you want to read it in both English and Portuguese (the author's native language). I absolutely love it. The little purple flower on the left is from the Houghton Library at Harvard (gift from Christine Jacobson, who kindly showed me their ED room)

I also noticed the gifts I brought on my first trip was still there (and frozen)...

It was a beautiful (FREEZING) day in February and the Dickinson plot looked sacred under this mazarin sky (borrowing Emily's color word here to describe the scene)

I also noticed the little door knob this time, on the iron door at the entrance of the plot. It looked like a daisy to me (another flower mentioned multiple times in Dickinson's poetry)

This is the entire walk from the parking lot, passing the mural on the left and all the way to reach the Dickinson plot:

And this is my selfie with Emily, looking like an Eskimo and right before (almost) ending up on the floor - that's how frozen everything was (including my hands from all the pictures I was taking)

Wildwood Cemetery

This is where Susan, her three children and Austin (as well as Mabel) are buried. See my first article/trip for more details.

This is driving from the street where the West Cemetery is to Wildwood

Here you can park to the right of the entrance of the cemetery and walk to the graves

Take the road on the right (there are two paths from the entrance, take the one closer to the parking space. Only three cars fit on this parking space by the way, it is a tiny lot). Once you reach this big cluster of trees on the left, look to the right, down the hill until you see the following cluster of evergreen trees on the left of the same path:

Almost at the same level on the right, you will see a small path that goes down the hill. Follow that path for a few seconds. You will see a big rock with a green plaque on the left: this is Austin's rock (I believe Susan had it installed).

Past Austin's rock, you will see the four graves starting with Ned's, then Mattie's, Gib's (the smallest) and finally Sue's.

Sue's grave still had what I brought on my first trip. It was covered with ice and snow.

On my second trip, I brought a preserved rose (Emily would often associate Sue with the rose). I also brought the following letter-poem, "the world hath not known her". Emily wrote it for Susan and it is pretty self explanatory. My favorite part of the letter-poem is

The tie between us is very fine, but a Hair never dissolves

The ED International Society

The house is closed in the winter, but on my second visit, the Director or the Archives at the Jones Library took me next door and kindly showed me the White Dress. This is the original Dickinson dress, and it is in this old house next to the Jones Library in downtown Amherst - along with a collection of items that belonged to Mabel Loomis Todd and her daughter Millicent.

Just imagine getting in this room (which, ironically, is called the Mabel Todd room...) and seeing this? That's how close I could ever get to Dickinson... Let me also tell you what an amazing job the team from the AppleTV show Dickinson did with their reproduction of Emily's white dress. The scene where Hailee Steinfeld gets in the creative process of designing the dress is priceless.