1. The Theme of ILLNESS in Emily Dickinson’s poems
Emily isn’t feeling too well at the moment.
My male nurse is pretty hot!
The Theme of ILLNESS in Emily Dickinson’s poems
7th May 2014

2. Objective
To understand how Emily Dickinson represents illness with her poems

3. If we are going to look at illness in Emily Dickinson’s poems, which poems should we examine? (You may consider different types of illness.)
The main ones are probably:
I felt a funeral in my brain
After great pain, a formal feeling comes --
It was not Death, for I stood up,
One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted —

4. However, we may also consider:
Most of the poems that concern death as that often seems to be the result of illness in Dickinson’s poetry

5. IN GROUPS
You will all have ONE of the main poems and ALL of the other three on
which to focus.
On the sheets:
Find FIVE key points about your poem (one per sheet) together with quotations which illustrate these.
Highlight links with any of the three ‘secondary’ poems.
You may want to consider:
Different attitudes toward illness/Different types of illness
How illness impacts on her life
How illness and death are interlinked
Her use of language/form
Emotional responses within the poems
The reader’s reaction to the poems
Be prepared to feed back to the rest of the group and ask questions to stimulate discussion.

6. Another essay…
How does Emily Dickinson represent illness in ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes –’ and two or three other poems you have studied? (You can me this if you want and I will look before next week.)