Connie Doyle: 'Experiment in Green': Emily Dickinson's Search for Faith
Prompted by an article in the most recent issue of The Catholic Workey: "Mystical Journey of a Poet" by Bill Antalics, I googled "mystic emily dickinson" where i found this:
"....These early experiences established a pattern which dominated Dickinson's thinking and art for the rest of her life. She could not embrace conventional religion, but neither could she cast off its influence. It filled her poems, dictating the form and rhythm of the verses, providing her with a vocabulary, furnishing her with imagery, and giving her a point of view. She explored the Puritan ethos from her unique perspective, daring to question the fundamental tenets her family, friends and community embraced without the doubt she herself felt. With a temerity remarkable for a retiring New England maid of her day, Dickinson forged her way through a thicket of human and theological questions about life, death, God, immortality, love, and nature.
"Most of all, she sought to know and understand God, and the avenue she chose was the world of nature. All her life, she was attuned to the rhythms of the natural world and was known in Amherst for her fine gardening skills. But her interest in the phenomenal world went beyond what could be observed; it reflected her obsession with what lay "beyond;" her desire to bridge the gulf between humanity and God...."
Connie Doyle: 'Experiment in Green': Emily Dickinson's Search for Faith
"....These early experiences established a pattern which dominated Dickinson's thinking and art for the rest of her life. She could not embrace conventional religion, but neither could she cast off its influence. It filled her poems, dictating the form and rhythm of the verses, providing her with a vocabulary, furnishing her with imagery, and giving her a point of view. She explored the Puritan ethos from her unique perspective, daring to question the fundamental tenets her family, friends and community embraced without the doubt she herself felt. With a temerity remarkable for a retiring New England maid of her day, Dickinson forged her way through a thicket of human and theological questions about life, death, God, immortality, love, and nature.
"Most of all, she sought to know and understand God, and the avenue she chose was the world of nature. All her life, she was attuned to the rhythms of the natural world and was known in Amherst for her fine gardening skills. But her interest in the phenomenal world went beyond what could be observed; it reflected her obsession with what lay "beyond;" her desire to bridge the gulf between humanity and God...."
Connie Doyle: 'Experiment in Green': Emily Dickinson's Search for Faith