“The Earth reversed her Hemispheres –-“:
VIRTUAL PROGRAM
Join us for a virtual professional development program for educators exploring Dickinson’s manuscripts. This participatory zoom workshop will provide context and exercises that illuminate Dickinson’s frequently cryptic poetry. Attendees will leave this 90-minute session with new teaching strategies.
Registration is required and is offered on a sliding scale from $5 – $20. Please select the ticket price that is right for you and consider supporting the Museum and the participation of other educators through your purchase. Tickets are non-refundable.
You may request a Professional Development certificate upon registration.
View the full educator workshop lineup.
For any questions, please e-mail edmprograms@emilydickinsonmuseum.org
I saw no Way – The Heavens were stitched –
I felt the Columns close –
The Earth reversed her Hemispheres –
I touched the Universe –
And back it slid – and I alone –
A speck upon a Ball –
Went out upon Circumference –
Beyond the Dip of Bell –
(Fr 633)
Join Renée Bergland, historian of science and author of Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles, Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science for an interactive educator’s workshop.
During Emily Dickinson’s lifetime, the universe expanded in every direction. Developments in astronomy, geology, and biology enlarged the scales of space and time. To many, the realization that humans were a tiny part of Earth’s geological past was profoundly disturbing. Byron concluded that the planet Earth was doomed, and that the universe would end in “Darkness.” Others, including Dickinson, were more ambivalent. “I saw no Way – The Heavens were stitched – ” expresses a mix of despair at the loss of the old model of the universe and excitement about the possibilities of the new sciences. Dickinson’s poems insistently pressed different frames of reference together, inviting readers to find the relationship between different ways of thinking about the universe.
In this moment of planetary environmental emergency, Dickinson’s poetry gives us a way to talk about planetary grief and ecological anxiety, while also allowing us to imagine more hopeful frames of reference. This workshop will begin with a presentation of Dickinson’s planetary poems in the context of 19th-century science, followed by a discussion of how they invite us to expand our “Circumference” today. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of classroom activities and resources.
Renée Bergland is a literary critic and a historian of science who teaches in the Department of Humanities at Simmons University where she is Program Director of Literature and Writing. Her most recent publication is Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science (Princeton University Press, 2024). She contributed an essay, “Dickinson Emergent: Natural Philosophy and the Postdisciplinary Manifold”, to the Oxford Handbook to Emily Dickinson (2022). Bergland is writing a forthcoming general audience book examining Dickinson’s poetry as interpreted through the lens of difference sciences, including astronomy, geology, and ecology. She is a member of the board of the Emily Dickinson International Society.