“I dwell in possibility” (1929)
by Emily Dickinson
I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –
Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of Eye –
And for an Everlasting Roof –
The Gambrels of the Sky –
Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
This is the first post for my column! I am uber-excited about embarking on a journey of interpretation and wonderment with you all. The column, entitled, “How aMusing” will feature a poem and a discussion once a week. The discussions will mostly steam from my general environment as a student at Boston University and as a child of the world. I will use a poem, most likely from a different time and place, as a lens for analyzing and viewing how we live today. Please: don’t hesitate to state your differing opinions. I welcome them into my life like a fat kid welcomes strawberry cheesecake into his mouth.
This week I have chosen Emily Dickinson’s “I dwell in possibility.” It is one of my favorite poems, not just because I did an oral presentation on it and because it’s about how poetry is frickin’ awesome, but because Dickinson takes the once-restricting domain of the housewife, the home, and turns it into an almost mythical force of nature that outweighs prose.
Dickinson uses houses as metaphors for poetry and prose. She states that the house of poetry is more open to interpretation and readers (see the lines “More numerous of Windows” and “Of Visitors – the fairest”) than the house of prose. Unlike prose, poetry is limitless. According to Dickinson, It has a roof made of the sky, which unleashes the infinite uses and meanings of poetry.
Feel free to judge me on this, but this week I’m using Dickinson’s poem to highlight and emphasize the awesomeness that is to come this Friday! BU’s one and only performance poetry group, which I am honored to be a part of, Speak For Yourself (SFY), will be putting on a dazzling and mind-blowing performance at Marsh Chapel! No, your eyes have not fooled you. SFY has booked the beautiful chapel for their show, The Pen Commandments, this Friday, March 19th, at 7 p.m.! Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., and tickets are three dollars with a BU ID and five dollars without. Mere pennies compared to the immense amount of wisdom and insight you will gain.
Speak for Yourself’s goal is, “not only to promote spoken word poetry at BU through performances, but also to provide a forum where poets and poetry fans alike can discuss their thoughts and ideas, learn about events, meet friends and have fun.” (Taken from the group’s website at http://bu-sfy.com.)
For all of you out there who are not exactly best friends with religion: don’t fret your little hearts. The performance does not have much to do with God or religion at all, except maybe a hilarious and powerful surprise at the beginning of the show.
Speak For Yourself’s performance features a house of poems that is also as limitless as the sky in Dickinson’s “I dwell in possibility.” Their house may temporarily be a chapel, but that just makes it all the better to hear their thought-provoking and mesmerizing words vibrate like bees of truth in your mortal ears.
To learn more about BU’s Speak for Yourself and The Pen Commandments, visit the group’s website at BU or their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=2200915029.
