Hello and welcome to Frank Skinner's poetry podcast. This week I'm going to discuss the

American poet Emily Dickinson who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. I'll be honest

I used to struggle a bit with Emily Dickinson. I like strangeness and oddity in all its

manifestations but I used to find her poetry quite alienating. It felt a bit to me like you know

when you get instructions on Japanese electrical items and they've been quite badly translated

into English and they sort of seem to be in the same postcode as meaning but not actually

meaning. It was a bit like that. I felt I couldn't I couldn't find the core of the poetry and I think

now that there is a reason for that and I will go into that reason of why the poetry is the way

but it is biographical and normally I avoid biographical explanations of poetry because I think

they're very heavy on speculation but this podcast I'm going to let my biographical hair down

and just go for it. I finally sorted out my problems with Emily Dickinson in that we went

away on holiday together. It's a radical method of saving or even forming a relationship. What

I mean is I went on a family holiday and I didn't take any books or a Kindle or a iPod or anything

by the way of solitary entertainment except for a collection of Emily Dickinson's verse and I

decided it was make or break for me that week and on day three I got it and when I say I got it

I mean I think I got it. Anyone who can confidently say that they have got a poly and their work

is being quite arrogant I think I think we all get as close as we can. So I'm going to give you a

little bit of biography of Emily before I start I think of her as Emily now you know once you've

holidayed together and I think this is relevant to the poetry and that's why I'm sharing it

with you. Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst, Massachusetts and she lived an incredibly as she

as her life went on a more a more solitary and reclusive life. She would occasionally be seen

around Amherst always in a long white dress. She always dressed exclusively in white when seen

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