1865, The Late Miracle

Abstract

Even though Dickinson spent another long period of months in Cambridge—from April of 1865 to October, she once again managed to write hundreds of consistently good poems. This total does not represent the flood of writing that 1863 had given her, with the poem count close to 300, but after a decline in 1864 to 98 poems, her production in 1865 continued on that same path. Aife Murray counts Dickinson’s total in 1863 as 295; in 1864, 98; and for 1865, 229 (Murray 80). Murray also quotes from contemporary poet Robert Creeley’s comment that Dickinson’s production here—already increased tremendously by the events of the war—was prompted by her eye condition. This is Creeley, “that’s when she goes for broke and writes Higginson. That’s when the authority of her ability must have utterly been possessed, possessive … And that’s of course the time too when she begins to make decisive changes in her whole proposal of herself to the world” (in Murray 81).