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Wild Nights – Wild Nights!

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Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
by Emily Dickinson
Autograph manuscript of the poem
First published inPoems, Second Series
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
PublisherRoberts Brothers
Publication date1891 (1891)
Lines12
MetreDimeter
Full text
Wild Nights — Wild Nights! at Wikisource

"Wild Nights – Wild Nights!" is an 1861 poem by Emily Dickinson.[1] It was included in her posthumous collection of Poems, Second Series, published November 9, 1891.[2]

Analysis

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The poem was published posthumously in Poems, Second Series, 1891

Dickinson's posthumous editor Thomas Wentworth Higginson thought the poem was too erotic for a woman he deemed pure and was initially reluctant to print the poem, "lest the malignant read into it more than that virgin recluse ever dream of putting there".[3] Modern readers now, however, recognize the poem as one of her most erotic and find in the text Dickinson's understanding of sexual passion.[3]

The poem is structurally unusual for Dickinson, using lines with only two metric feet instead of her typical three and four feet iambs.[3] Judith Farr writes that the opening spondees makes the poem theatrical, turbulent, and stormy, appropriate for the subject matter, and shows her interest in the Brontë sisters and Wuthering Heights.[4] She also notes that "Wild Nights" is perhaps the most "Dickinsonian" of her poems in that it is "ironic, paradoxical, voluptuous, and terse all at once."[5]

For the Poetry Society of America's Reading Through the Decades series, Sarah Arvio writes of the poem:

She seems to want those wild winds, but she also wants to moor in 'thee.' Isn't this love? Human love: the lovely wildness one can feel while moored in the beloved. But she also says that winds cannot touch the Heart that is in port. This odd paradox leaves me at sea, as so often when reading Emily.[6]

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It is set in Harmonium by John Adams (1981).[7]

The poem is the origin of the title Wild Nights with Emily, a 2018 biopic of Dickinson starring Molly Shannon.[8]

Actress Najarra Townsend recites the poem in its entirety in the 2017 film Mercury in Retrograde.[9]

In the 2019 TV show Dickinson the poem serves as the title of its third episode and is read by Austin Dickinson while looking for evidence that Emily and Sue love each other.

References

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  1. ^ Cora, Kaplan (2001). "15 Wild nights: pleasure/sexuality/feminism". In Evans, Mary (ed.). Feminism: Feminism and the Enlightenment. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-19284-2. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  2. ^ Wineapple, Brenda. White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson & Thomas Wentworth Higginson. New York: Anchor Books, 2009: 296. ISBN 978-0-307-45630-4
  3. ^ a b c Leiter, Sharon. Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson: A Literary Reference to Her Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2007: 231. ISBN 0-8160-5448-7
  4. ^ Farr, Judith. The Passion of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992: 229. ISBN 0-674-65665-2
  5. ^ Farr, Judith. The Passion of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992: 229–230. ISBN 0-674-65665-2
  6. ^ "On "Wild Nights"". Poetry Society of America. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  7. ^ "Emily Dickinson – The Music of Poetry". BBC. 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  8. ^ Olnek, Madeleine (2018-03-11), Wild Nights with Emily (Comedy, History), Molly Shannon, Susan Ziegler, Amy Seimetz, Brett Gelman, Embrem Entertainment, P2 Films, Salem Street Entertainment, retrieved 2021-05-08
  9. ^ Outlook, Indie (2017-09-14). "Roxane Mesquida, Najarra Townsend, Kevin Wehby, Jack C. Newell, Shane Simmons and Michael Glover Smith on "Mercury in Retrograde"". Indie Outlook. Retrieved 2021-05-08.

Further reading

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