A WOMAN'S LOVE POETRY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 13

A WOMAN'S LOVE POETRY

THE RIDDLE OF EMILY DICKINSON, by Rebecca Patterson; Victor Gollancz, English price 21/-. ‘THE poetry of Emily Dickinson pivots upon the sense of ‘separation from_ some beloved person. Some critics have. thought this person was God; others, an _ imaginary idol; others again, the Reverend Charles Wadsworth, who was for a time her literary mentor. Mrs. Patterson offers an alternative argument-_ that Emily Dickinson’s love poetry was written to and about a woman friend, Kate Anthon: and one can scarcely disagree with her conclusion, ~for it is" psychologically sound and supported by a wealth of detail. She argues thus: ". .. A woman might conceivably write love poems to an imaginary man (it is probable that many do), and she might sometimes, but not habitually, imagine the love affair from the viewpoint of the man involved. But no woman ever wrote poems describing a love affair between herself and an imaginary woman. Only the strong compulsion of truth would dictate poems so Opposed to convention." Her thesis will carry no weight against the invincible prejudice of readers who do not allow that a respectable poet could be a sexual invert; but it seems authentic and highly reasonable. | The weakness of the book lies not in its main theme but in the author’s method of approach, Too much space is devoted to the emotional history of Kate Anthon after her relationship with Emily Dickinson had terminated; and not enough: to the sequence and symbolism of the poems which justify inquiry. In the last resort the true riddle of Emily Dickinson is the always insoluble one of the origin of great poetry. Mrs. Patterson’s book sheds light only on some of the accompanying circumstances of Emily Dickinson’s creative development, and exemplifies a fundamental weakness of the _ biographical approach to literature-the neglect of aesthetic in favour of psychological

values.

James K.

Baxter