Poetry in the Garden, Literary Travel with Todd Felton, 13 July 2008

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After spending the morning crawling around Quabbin Park with the local mycologists, the afternoon found me among the more cultivated environs of the "Poetry in the Garden" event at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. Local author Todd Felton discussed the history and philosophies presented in his book "A Journey into Transcendentalists' New England" and how these influenced, despite her relative isolation, Emily Dickinson's poetry. The full text of his remarks can be found at:http://www.redroom.com/blog/robert-todd-felton/remarks-poetry-garden-event-emily-dickinson-museum

Gallery pages: 1 2 >

Nan Fischlein welcomed the Museum visitors to the summer afternoon shade of the garden and introduced the speaker for the first of three "Poetry in the Garden Events". http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/events.html

Todd Felton is a photographer and writer who specializes in literary travel guides. His recent book, "A Journey into Transcendentalist's New England" includes consideration of Emily Dickinson as, if not a member, an exponent of the transcendentalism. http://www.rtoddfelton.com/

From the publisher's website: "This lavishly illustrated volume examines the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement and explores the places that inspired them. Beginning with Transcendentalism’s birth in Boston and Cambridge, the book charts the development of a movement that revolutionized American ideas about the artistic, spiritual, and natural worlds. At the same time, it creates a vivid sense of New England in the nineteenth century, from its idyllic countryside and sleepy towns to its bustling ports and burgeoning cities." http://www.roaringfortiespress.com/index.html

"The book is divided geographically into chapters, each focusing on a town or village famous for its relationship to one or more of the Transcendentalists. Thus, for instance, one chapter spotlights Cambridge, where Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his path-breaking lectures, while another explores Walden, when Henry David Thoreau spent two years attuning himself to the rhythms of nature. Other chapters retrace the paths of writers and poets such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, and Margaret Fuller through Salem, Amherst, Boston, and Concord and the utopian communities of Brook Farm and the Fruitlands."

Todd proposed in his book that Transcendentalism was forged by a growing desire for some individuals to turn away from the strict controls of colonial era Puritanism and find an "original relationship to the universe".

From page 136: "Her poetry sits within the broad confines of the philosophic ideals set out Ralph Waldo Emerson..." "Dickinson's subjects and language have much in common with those of Henry David Thoreau..."

Todd set the stage for the poetry by describing the vitality of the early Boston, Concord, and Amherst; the growth of the Universalism as a religious movement; and the intellectual surge fostered by the growing number of academic institutions.

From page 137: "She also wants to clear away everything that stands between her and whatever it is that is out there: Poem#327

So Safer--guess--with just my soul
Upon the Window pane--
Where other Creatures put their eyes--
Incautious--of the Sun--