Emily Dickinson: a quite passion

I saw the film about Emily Dickinson, A Quiet Passion twice, once with my sister Rhiannon and once with my poetry teacher Anna and poetry class. Its a biography. A true story. Emily Dickinson is a unique writer of literature, her writing is very important. Its hard to explain about Emily Dickinson. She sat and sewed with her books. She also loved words, language, history and Shakespeare like me. Shakespeare was like a bible for her, just like for me. She was very truthful. And sometimes said things that hurt. But found beauty in little things. My poems are good too. Also full of emotions, but not sad like some of Emily Dickinson's poems. She was spiritual but wanted to live in her own way. After she died, her poems were published but not her letters, which were private. I would like to know more of that private stuff, the letters he sister burned. And to publish a book of my own poems.

Emily Dickinson and Sherlock Holmes

By Emma Brodie

with Anna Maria Dell'oso

Emma: There are two famous people, very different, one who lived in the time of Queen Victoria in England and one who lived at the time of the American Civil War in America. Their names are Sherlock Holmes and Emily Dickinson. Emily was a real person, a poet, and Sherlock Holmes was a character in a book by SIr Arthur Conan Doyle, who didn't write much about women. He didn't have many women characters in his books, women who were interesting to write about. There is nothing about romance in the real Sherlock Holmes books and Anna says "the women usually serve tea and look after the lodgings at Baker Street where Sherlock Holmes and Watson lived."

I don't want to know about the murders in Sherlock Holmes, I just want to know about the beauty. What kind of beauty? The beauty of the mystery thing. The costumes, the streets, the atmosphere? Yes, just a bit of it.

Emma: These are my favourite words from the exhibition I went to in Sydney about Sherlock Holmes and his spying: "Following in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes, the touring International Exhibition allows the whole family to play ..."

Anna: You would love Cleudo, Emma.

Emma: Plato?

Anna: No, it sounds like 'Plato' but it's Cleudo and its all about English country houses glamorous women, handsome men, butlers, old libraries and mysteries and secret tunnels and all of that kind of Agatha Christie stuff. You would love it, especially the one I have, which is partly played with a DVD.

"He is interested of love, is Dr Watson?

"That's more in the modern Sherlock Holmes television series. It has more strong women characters in it, like Mary, the lady that Dr Watson gets married to."

"But Sherlock isn't interested in that, of being in love, is he? Can you tell me about that?"

"Well it's hard to explain. Sherlock has kind of disability with people but he also has a superpower with his brain, so he finds it hard to find a woman who understands him. Or could put up with him because he's really rude and annoying."

"Mary and Dr Watson are lovers, which means they're in love. That makes it more interesting for me. He would know how to spy on people for love, would he?"

"I guess if there was a mystery to solve about it, he would be spying."

"I always like to peek at my friends boyfriends or fiancées. Because I'm curious and suspicious and because I'm a flirt figure."

"Sherlock Holmes might have to investigate you then!"

"Yes, just a bit!"

Emma: I saw a film about Emily Dickinson called A Quiet Passion. They don't have an exhibition about Emily Dickinson, do they?

Anna: No. Unfortunately.

Emma: That's not good. Why?

Anna: That's a very good question. She didn't publish as much as Arthur Conan Doyle for a start. And her work wasn't popular even after it was published.

Emma: Why? What's it about, Emily Dickinson?

Anna: It's so hard to describe her

Emma: She doesn't like of romance, of love, does she?

Anna: Well not exactly. It's more that she doesn't want to talk about love in the normal ordinary ways.To be honest I don't know her poetry all that well myself but I like the bits of her writing that are spoken aloud in the film.

Emma: It's too much though, the bits about her mother - sorry I'm confused about her -

"That's ok, because Emily was a very intense and complicated writer, and the people in her time didn't understand her either -"

"I know she said God. It's not about religion, is it? Her poems?

"It's more about the God in Nature."

"That's a hard one for me about that. I don't want my poems to be like that."

"Why, Emma? You seemed to love her poetry, the bits you heard in the film, so why do you say that?"

"Because she doesn't like men."

"I don't know if that's true. Is it in the film? Do you mean the scene where she's so angry with her brother having an affair?

"Yes. And not coming down stairs."

"Oh, I see. Because she was hiding from the man who wanted to help her? Because she was upset when her best friend got married? Or because she didn't want to be a housewife or mother?

"Well I respect that you know, I understand that. Her poetry is about religion, is it? About beauty?"

"In a way, yes. She wants to know how to find beauty in the little things."

"It's very rare. Are you going to tell me all about that too?

"Well, I'll try."

"Emily Dickinson was a private person, was she? Private and shy? Some women actors can play that in films. She was too shy in her poetry and she got the shakes of it, did she?"

"Well she got sick and there was so much pressure on her from in her role in her household. Women then didn't have many choices. The only time Emily could do her writing was very early in the morning at 3am."

"I want you to put that in, please."

"Yes, I just have, see? I've written it down."

"Yes. But Sherlock and Emily Dickinson are together."

"You don't want them together? In this review?"

"No. They're not together, Emily Dickinson and Sherlock Holmes, are they?"

"Well you saw them both in the same week. And the thing that puts them together is their times. It's like you were saying about why women weren't in the Sherlock stories originally. Women were invisible in public life in those days and women writers like Emily Dickinson were hidden, writing in private. Their lives and thoughts were invisible."

"That's not good. I don't like sad stories."

"You look upset Emma. Is it about the invisible bit?"

"Yes."

"Hey let's chose a card about it, then."

"I don't know."

"I'll chose a card, then. Come and help me, Emma. What card can we choose?"

"I don't know."

"What about stillness?"

"Okay. Put that in."

"Here we are. Stillness. For Emily: "That quiet where you are hearing the whispers of your soul, listen and hear your wisdom ..."