Emily Dickinson의 시 "There is a solitude of space"

'

 

There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself—
Finite Infinity.

 

 

'Finite Infinity'란 시어나 그로 시를 맺음이 절묘하다. (더 쓰지 않기로 한다.)

 

오늘  The Writer's Almanac (12/10/2024)에서 읽은 Emily Dickinson에 대한 글이 이 시로 끝난다. 그 앞 부분에서 조금 많이 아래에 인용한다. 내게 특히 인상적 구절은 "a bright, spirited girl" 그리고, 종교 문제에 대한 그녀의 진지함이 드러나는, "[T]rust I am not entirely thoughtless on so important & serious a subject."

 

It’s the birthday of poet Emily Dickinson, born in Amherst, Massachusetts (1830). She was a bright, spirited girl who loved to be outside....

 

When she was 16, Dickinson left for boarding school at Mount Holyoke Academy.... [T]he religious atmosphere of Mount Holyoke was intense. New England was experiencing a Protestant revival known as the Second Great Awakening, and Mount Holyoke encouraged students to publicly declare their commitment to Christ. The girls were separated into three groups: those who declared their faith, those who had hope of conversion, and those without hope.... Of 234 students, Dickinson was one of 80 who started the year in the “no hope” category, and one of just 29 who ended the year that way. She wrote to a friend: “There is a great deal of religious interest here and many are flocking to the ark of safety. I have not yet given up to the claims of Christ, but trust I am not entirely thoughtless on so important & serious a subject.” She left Mount Holyoke after one year, and no one knows the reason for sure — she had been ill, or the religious demands were too intense, or her family didn’t believe in educating her further. In any case, the religious pressure continued at home, and most of her friends and family converted. She wrote to a friend: “How lonely this world is growing ...."

 

 She spent much of her time gardening, and during her life she was known in Amherst not for her writing, but for her fabulous gardens of flowers and trees. She published just 10 poems during her lifetime, and they were heavily edited. After her death, her sister Lavinia found almost 1,800 poems that she had left behind.