EXTEND – Wild nights – Wild nights! #647825

STEP 2 Focus on imagery

Match each image from the poem to the concept it represents. Write the correct letters (A-C) in the gaps.

1 Heart in port ________
2 Compass and chart ________
3 Eden ________
4 Sea ________

A Rational guidance
B Final destination and perfect union
C Emotional intensity
D A state of tranquillity

Extend

Completamento aperto

STEP 3 Interpreting the imagery

Read the text and complete it with the words given.

The poem constantly shifts from wildness to emotional ________. The speaker evokes winds and the ________ sea, but contrasts these chaotic images with the security of the ________. Even as the speaker abandons her ________ of navigation, we are told that they are ________, because she hopes to find 'Eden' and ________ herself to her lover. As a result, the poem ends on a note of ________ and fulfilment.

Extend

Posizionamento

STEP 4 Think further and prepare for your test: eroticism vs spirituality

Read the passage taken from David S. Reynolds's Emily Dickinson and popular culture, in which he analyses the tension between eroticism and spirituality in the poem Wild Nights – Wild Nights!. Decide if the statements are true or false. Then look at the prompts and write some extra reflections in your exercise book. You can use the final text as revision material for your test.

PROMPTS:
- Refer to the box 'Universal themes' in 'All about Emily Dickinson' in your textbook. Explain how natural imagery expresses both imagination and reality.
- Refer to the box 'Her life' in 'All about Emily Dickinson' in your textbook. Explain why Dickinson might have felt the need to purify erotic passion through imagery.

A:

Reynolds explains that the poem Wild Nights transforms sexual desire into something more acceptable by linking it to nature and religion.

B:

The associations with nature and religion completely erase the eroticism of the poem.

C:

The contrast between the sea and the port suggests a tension between imagination and reality.

D:

According to Reynolds, the sea is used in the metaphor to suggest that the speaker's passion is fulfilled.

E:

Reynolds notes that the reference to the port likely refers to Dickinson's isolated existence.

Extend

Vero o falso

STEP 1 Read the poem and find out more about love and desire

Read the poem and choose the correct alternative to complete the sentences.

1 The 'wildness' the speaker refers to in the first stanza reflects ________.
2 The speaker states that storms and winds ________.
3 The speaker's attitude towards direction and control is one of ________.
4 In the final lines, the speaker expresses the hope of ________.

Extend

Completamento chiuso