Lyric Life

Emily Dickinson, Poem #304 ("The nearest dream recedes")


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With this second in a mini series on the poems Emily Dickinson sent to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (see episode 30 for the first one in this series), let's try to understand why she claims dreams recede. Or is it heaven that recedes? Or maybe poetry? Or Dickinson herself? This poem is a confusing interpretive knot--like the poet herself. Perhaps that's why she sent it to the man she wanted to become her "preceptor."

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Lyric LifeBy Mark Scarbrough