THE PLAYFUL PURITANS:
Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens - (No Longer Available)
In all their poems, from the very first to the very last, Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens reveal the profound influence of their ascetic Protestant upbringing. Yet neither writes from the perspective of orthodox Christianity. The imagery, teachings, and music of religion become, in their hands, the building blocks of a playful exploration of the very idea of belief in something unseen. Like someone making a quilt out of scraps of household cloth, they take the faith of their ancestors apart for the sake of their idiosyncratic and beautiful lyrics. Sceptical, erotic, despairing or joyful by turns, these poems are suffused with the lived experience of a free mind and all its sensual and emotional complexities. These poets have often been called difficult, but their work responds well to the kind of unfettered inquiry our group will practice – the same spirit in which the poems were written.
IN THE NAME OF THE BEE – AND OF THE BUTTERFLY –
AND OF THE BREEZE – AMEN!
– Emily Dickinson
LEADER
Rosemary Gould currently unschools her three young children in Charlottesville, VA. In her spare time she leads discussions of poetry. Since she first discovered these two poets in college, she has been fascinated by their irreverent play with holy things that somehow only enhances the numinous beauty they describe. She didn’t grow up Protestant, but resisting the lure of the doctrinaire has always appealed to her.
BOOKS
Selected poems of Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens available for download here.
DISCOUNTS – one per registrant
- Register before January 1, 2010 and receive a complimentary Soulpepper theatre ticket
- St. Michael’s College blue card holders receive a CAD $50 discount
- Participants who have attended Toronto Pursuits at least five times receive a CAD $150 discount
- Register with a friend, and if one or both are first time participants, each receives a CAD $150 discount
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