On Possibility in Emily Dickinson’s “I dwell in Possibility”

On "Possibility" in Emily Dickinson’s “I dwell in Possibility”

Начало формы

ModPo quizzes will typically have two purposes. One is to help you comprehend what was discussed in the current week's videos - to help remind you of key concepts and terminology used during the conversation. A second purpose is to encourage you to go further into very close readings of lines and phrases and words - and even punctuation - in the poems. If you have questions about the quiz, or would like to discuss the issues it raises, please post a comment in the discussion forum.

Question 1

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

In this difficult poem, Dickinson sets up an implicit ratio. She seems to set up “Possibility” as opposed to “Prose.” Yet the opposite of “Prose” in this poem seems obviously to be verse (or poetry) itself. Or: an instance of what is the opposite of "Prose" is this poem itself!

So if we straighten this out logically, we realize we know 3 of the 4 terms in a ratio. We have: (1) "Prose" (explicitly); (2) poetry (implicitly); (3) "Possibility" (explicitly); and (4)....what? We don't quite know what the fourth term is. So let us spell out the ratio: Poetry is to prose as possibility is to X.

We're left to figure out what the opposite of "Possibility" is, and we know it's a general term that functions that way prose functions when compared to poetry. And we know that X is something Dickinson doesn't "dwell" in; she prefers to dwell in the house of poetry and possibility. So what do you think X is? In other words: What does Dickinson seem to suggest is the opposite of “Possibility”? What term or concept has a relationship with possibility that matches the relationship of prose to poetry?

dwelling

probability or reality

impossibility

In accordance with the Honor Code, I certify that my answers here are my own work.

On the dash in Emily Dickinson’s “I dwell in Possibility”

Начало формы

ModPo quizzes will typically have two purposes. One is to help you comprehend what was discussed in the current week's videos - to help remind you of key concepts and terminology used during the conversation. A second purpose is to encourage you to go further into very close readings of lines and phrases and words - and even punctuation - in the poems. If you have questions about the quiz, or would like to discuss the issues it raises, please post a comment in the discussion forum.

Question 1

I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

Dickinson uses dashes exclusively in this poem, rather than other forms of punctuation. Punctuation conventionally serves to provide readers certain logical cues. Commas, periods, semi-colons, colons offer us mostly distinct ways of pausing and of relating phrases and clauses and sentences that come next to what came just before. Dickinson's use of the dash is still something of a mystery to scholars, even those who have examined the handwriting in her manuscripts. When Dickinson might have conventionally used a comma, she uses a dash; when we arrive at such a dash, we might "translate" the dash as a comma in our minds and assume that the meaning that is being made is made the way a comma normally makes it. Or we can decide that the dash might function like a comma and also another form of punctuation and that the functioning a comma makes is only one of our interpretive options. When Dickinson might have used a period to end a complete grammatical sentence and thought, she also uses the dash. We can interpret those lines as if they were a complete sentence, or we can include that as one of the interpretive options. And so on. You know from our video discussion of this poem that

For Occupation – This –

is an important line. This brief quiz is intended to stimulate your thinking about the way the dash opens up (rather than closes down or narrows) interpretive options.

So here finally is your question. Which conventional punctuation would work in place of the second dash in that line, after the word “This”? (From the five options below, choose any or all that seem correct. Select all that apply.)

a comma

a period

a quotation mark

a colon

a dash

In accordance with the Honor Code, I certify that my answers here are my own work.

Конец формы

Конец формы

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04