Emily Dickinson – Zero at the Bone

Performance Synopsis

With Emily Dickinson – Zero at the Bone, we celebrate the power and joy of this great American poet. From her work we see an artist who made a deliberate choice to pursue her craft and genius. Emily Dickinson – Zero at the Bone illuminates Dickinson’s poetry for students and audiences of all ages. Composing original music and rearranging her lines of poetry into songs give students access to the power of her language and a new way of experiencing her poetry.

In her early years Dickinson evolves her original style. During this time she reads and acquires encyclopedic knowledge becoming versed in: physics, astronomy, music, art philosophy, politics, religion and the great writers of her day. In her teens she begins her Herbarium, housed at Houghton Library MA, and just made available for Harvard University Press. Judith Farr, one of the most eloquent of the Dickinson scholars, has also recently published her, the Gardens of Emily Dickinson, also with Harvard University Press. So from all these talents, it is poetry to which she will dedicate her life’s great work.

In 1860 Dickinson embarks on her great writing. In the next four years she will write the 800 poems that are at the core of her cannon. Her years of study, her discipline, her withdrawal to a solitary “room with a view” as Virginia Wolf calls her own workroom, has prepared her for this great work.

With Emily Dickinson – Zero at the Bone, we see a Dickinson who is not the myth of the solitary recluse, possibly bi-polar and obsessed with death, no…we see a fully empowered poet who chooses her life and her art. She works at her craft without recognition, without fame or fortune. This is one of the great lessons of our Dickinson show, to say to students, in the words of the song “Given”, do you have Gold to own – in solid Bars? It is this gold that makes Dickinson “bold.” We ask students if they will have the will to pursue their calling without heed to fame or fortune. Will they use the “gold’ within to be bold?

State required curriculum. As one of the greatest poets in the English language, a female American poet, Dickinson will always be part of the required curriculum. Along with the language skills taught by studying her poetry, there is also the tumultuous history of her times: America 1850 to 1880. This period that will witness the rise of the women’s suffragette movement, transcendentalism, Marx and Darwin – the Romantics – and the cultural earthquake of the American Civil War. Whitman will write his Leaves of Grass, while Dickinson writes her life’s work. During the live show narrations tell this history as storytelling between songs.

Oh the earth was made for lovers… A text to accompany Emily Dickinson – Zero at the Bone.

This title is taken from Dickinson’s first poem, a witty take on Valentine poems. This book gives the context for the poems used in each song, as well as a survey of current scholarly research. Each track has a chapter devoted to it that is both poetic analysis and contextual setting. This is written to be a primer for teachers and students who want background, teaching themes and ideas, and an easy way to become familiar with Dickinson scholarship.

Dickinson Teacher Materials

This text gives the poems used for each song as well as the lyric. Students can study the poem, then see what choices were made to create the lyric (hooks, choruses, refrains etc…). An example of a lesson offered here would be to read, A narrow fellow in the grass, the poem Zero at the Bone comes from. Discuss the use of particular words, NooN, as she writes the word. Then, have students put a rectangle around their favorite line and circle five words. Listen to the song. Next, have students put that line at the top of the page, and using the five words they circled, write their own poem. This is called, a springboard poem. We have seen this successfully used in second grade, and with modification can be used even earlier – and it works as a lesson in college. This is the beauty of working with Emily Dickinson. A number of lesson and discussion ideas are given along with ways to use the CD, DVD or live performance in curriculum work. We also offer a two week intensive Dickinson study program. We are constantly adding to and seeking new material for this teacher’s text.

General Information Links about Emily Dickinson:

www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org
www.emilydickinson.org
www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org
www.bartleby.com/113

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