It is fascinating to me how you can think you know a fair amount of information about a topic, but then discover that there are so many more stories and facts waiting to be discovered.  This is how I feel about Emily Dickinson, for I have read her poetry and a few letters over the years and her words have intrigued me.  Jerome Charyn's novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson has turned what I thought I knew about the poet on its head.  Although Charyn adds a few fictional characters and writes in Dickinson's own voice albeit using his words, many of his ideas are based in fact.

First of all, it was amazing to uncover the outspoken, stubborn, and even mischievous nature Dickinson had.  Throughout the novel Charyn has her stand up to headmistress Lyon about her beliefs on religion, chase multiple men, and rendezvous into far less cultured places of town in the evenings.  Dickinson was known for her reclusive tendencies, something that began around 1860.  While she remained in her home with only few and select visitors from that time on, no one would have seen this behavior coming considering her actions earlier in life.  What also interests me is what lead to this change in her life.  Is it one of her male friends as many have suggested?

I have been thinking a lot about what to do for the essay as well as the other four pieces for the project.  Today my idea for a golden thread hit me, so I believe this will influence the direction I go.  At Mount Holyoke College, each grade level has an animal and a color, all four of which rotate each year with the incoming class.  The combinations are Blue Lyon, Red Pegasus, Green Griffin, and Yellow Sphinx, the latter of which will be the marker for the class I will be a part of.  This tradition was not in place when Dickinson attended, nor did she remain at the school all four years to graduate, but had she been assigned a marker, it would have been a Yellow Sphinx.  I hope to use this as my golden thread.

For the expository essay, I plan to look at the side of Dickinson I was unaware of or what lead to her reclusive tendencies.  For my four other pieces, I tried to think of interesting ideas to make the assignment fun!  I plan to write a poem in the same meter Dickinson used, an annotated recipe of her bread famous at Mount Holyoke and within her family, a journal entry during her final months when everyone around her was also sick and she was bedridden, and a letter of her sisters about her surprise when she was assigned the task of throwing out Dickinson's letters and then discovered her nearly 2000 poems.  I cannot wait to get started!