Visiting Emily Dickinson’s House: an interview with Ms. Greiner
By Briana Gomez ‘26
Students in the “Reading Poetry” class have had the pleasure of reading and analyzing Emily Dickinson’s poetry this semester. They have read hundreds of her poems, and have even taken a trip outside the walls of GFA to her house in Amherst, Massachusetts in order to connect more deeply with her poetry. In this interview with the educator of this class, Gail Greiner, she will reflect on her students’ experiences with the class and how the trip to Dickinson's house enlightened the experience of reading Emily’s poetry.
Background on the Emily Dickinson class: What’s been going on?
“This course has truly been a deep dive into the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson..,” says Greiner, “ the goal of this class was to fully immerse students into her poems.” By mid November, students in this class have read over a hundred poems, and have also read the works that inspired them. They have studied the criticism that Dickinson received, the letters that she wrote to her sister in law Susanna, and have used tools like “Emily Dickinson’s Lexicon” in order to fully understand the language that she used in her poetry. “The tools offered by this class give students the opportunity of being capable of opening and unpacking the poems on their own,” says Greiner.
What was the trip like?
By going to her house, students were able to really put Dickinson’s poetry into perspective. They were able to observe her small room with a small desk, and a beautiful view right outside her window. They were able to picture the warm and atmospheric environment that Dickinson used as inspiration in many of her poems. Students were able to see what she was looking at the whole time she was writing. They are then able to imagine the thoughts running through her head and understand what her life was really like. By standing where she once stood, it gave emphasis and validity to the words that she expressed in verse. “What I think the kids really came away with was the idea that Emily Dickinson was a real person. She had a bed and a garden and posters of her favorite writers like George Elliot and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She truly lived. She was a living, breathing person who lived life fiercely.” The trip was transformative in many ways because students were able to form a more direct connection to Emily Dickinson. It gave a sort of assurance to the fact that she was real. They were able to understand the artist behind the art, and how the way she lived translated into her poetry.
Walking peacefully in the quiet of her house, both students and faculty recognized how being in the space of this writer felt like “a holy experience.” They now understood how she lived in her mind as well as her actual home. “They came away from this experience understanding her genius and her power. She created a life for herself where she could express and manifest that power. She really protected her time and energy for her poetry,” says Greiner. Emily Dickinson loved and lived fiercely. It is evident by her poems and her letters of correspondence to her great love Susanna Dickinson (sister in law) that she valued her relationships more than anything else. She was fortunate enough to be able to sustain herself all the way until her death. But needless to say, although she might’ve lived a reclusive life, she had this incredible mind and had these intense relationships. She was able to live a wonderful life and express her genius in over eighteen hundred poems.
“She lived large in her small room.”
Credits:
A special thanks to Ms. Greiner, who allowed me write this article due to her love and passion for Emily Dickinson. Her insight was the main source of this article. Thank you!
