72 Poetry for Students
with the similarity in spelling between “hearth” and
“heart,” for sweeping up the hearth was an oner-
ous chore too often performed by women during
the nineteenth century. In sweeping up the ashes of
the fireplace, the grieving one is actually sweeping
up the pieces of her burnt out and broken heart. Of
course, along with sweeping comes the folding up
of linens for storage in cedar chests, but here the
mourner is also folding up “And putting Love away
/ We shall not want to use again / Until Eternity.”
Shutting away one’s love for the deceased with
such utter finality is a sign of the state of psycho-
logical denial mentioned earlier. But Dickinson’s
poem is a verbal snapshot of that precarious time
after the personal disaster of a loved one’s death
before those suffering from it can integrate its
trauma into their lives and get beyond their pain.
There is no reason to believe, however, that the
grieving will stop at this stage and not proceed fur-
ther towards healing. Beyond the scope of this
poem’s dramatic vignette, there is still a chance this
love will be opened up again when the mourner is
able to stand love’s ultimate loss in death.
The fact is that Dickinson’s economy of lan-
guage and syntactical compression empower her
poetry to expose so much about the nature of hu-
man suffering. Many readers, as mentioned above,
find her syntactical deletions and obtuse style con-
fusing. We must understand, however, that Dick-
inson delighted in telling “all the Truth but tell[ing]
it slant—” because in her opinion “Success in Cir-
cuit lies” (poem 1129, lines 1 and 2, in The Com-
plete Poems). Telling all the truth “slant” entails an
indirect approach that reveals rather than pro-
saically states the inner dimensions of life. It is a
revelation that replicates for the reader Dickinson’s
own “evanescent” or fleeting insight into the
“Truth” of the human condition. Dickinson’s un-
usual syntax and her dependence upon isolated
words and phrases to tell her story actually reveals
the intensity of her thoughts and feelings, as well
as the situation she is meditating upon. In fact, herfusion of intellect and emotion accounts for her po-
etry’s power to involve the reader in an act of con-
sciousness, a direct apprehension of her vision. It
is for this quality her poetry is admired in Japan,
and it is this subtle power that makes “The Bustle
in a House,” for all its brevity, a true masterpiece
among Dickinson’s many exquisite poems.
Source:Michael Lake in an essay for Poetry for Students,
Gale, 2001.Sources
Griffin Wolff, Cynthia, “Emily Dickinson,” in The Colum-
bia History of American Poetry,Edited by Jay Parini, Co-
lumbia University Press, 1993.
Hart, Ellen Louise, and Martha Nell Smith, eds., Open Me
Carefully: Emily Dickinson’s Intimate Letters to Susan
Huntington Dickinson,Paris Press, 1998.
Howells, W. D., “Emily Dickinson Announced,” in W. D.
Howells as Critic,Edited by Edwin H. Cady, Routledge &
Kegan Paul, 1973, pp. 189-195.
Monro, Harold, “Emily Dickinson—Overrated,” in Recog-
nition of Emily Dickinson: Selected Criticism Since 1890,
Edited by Caesar R. Blake and Carlton F. Wells, University
of Michigan Press, 1966, pp. 121-122.
Rich, Adrienne, “Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily
Dickinson,” in Critical Essays on Emily Dickinson,G.K.
Hall Press, 1984.For Further Study
Ferlazzo, Paul, Emily Dickinson,G.K. Hall, 1976.
Though a little old, this book provides an excellent
introdcution to the life and work of Dickinson.
Griffin Wolff, Cynthia, Emily Dickinson,Knopf, 1986.
This excellent and engaging biography looks at Dick-
inson’s life from a femininst point of view and goes
a long way toward ending the myth of the poet as a
frustrated old maid.The Bustle in a House