VOA标准英语2010年-Servants Enhanced Work of Renowned Ame

How maids impacted the life and language of Emily Dickinson

Faiza Elmasry | Washington, DC 22 June 2010
 

When American poet Emily Dickinson wrote the lines, "I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you — Nobody — too? Then there's a pair of us!", she might have been writing about the women and men who tended her kitchen hearth¹ and household grounds in the quiet country town of Amherst, Massachusetts.

Except that the 19th century poet, who yearned² for privacy, became a famous "Somebody," while her maids and stablemen, gardeners and laundry workers were forgotten. But those "nobodies" — long lost to history — are about to be recognized for their contributions to American literature with the publication of "Maid as Muse³: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson's Life and Language."

Courtesy Aife Murray
Emily Dickinson, a prolific19th century writer, is still one of America's best-loved poets.
Maid as Muse

Emily Dickinson wrote almost 2,000 poems and countless⁴ letters. Her literary style is instantly recognizable — short sentences, partial rhymes and unconventional punctuation⁵.

"Her language is incredibly exciting, even now," says writer Aife Murray. "So, you can't really just say she was a 19th century writer. She is really still sending literary shockwaves. Her language is that fresh, that exciting."

Dickinson's poems often got their start in her kitchen, where she spent a large portion of each day, baking. She would draft poems on the back of recipes, shopping lists, chocolate bar wrappers, pharmacy⁶ flyers and wings of envelopes.

"Before she had a maid, she was in there cooking and doing all of the baking," Murray says. "When a maid was hired to permanently⁷ work in the kitchen, Dickinson actually remained in the kitchen to write."

Tim Nighswander/Courtesy Aife Murray
Emily Dickinson servant Henry Hawkins with his grand-daughter Helen Pettijohn.
Extended family

Over the years, Dickinson had hired an ethnically⁸ diverse group of servants: African American gardeners, Yankee seamstresses, Native American laborers⁹, stablemen from England, and maids from Ireland.

In her book, "Maid as Muse," Murray explores the relationship between Dickinson and her staff.

"Emily Dickinson isolated¹⁰ herself from her peers, the wealthy leading families of the town as she got older, but the poor community was in and out," Murray says. "The servants' children were running her errands, taking her letters around the neighborhood. She was rewarding them with pieces of cake. The world came to her."

For the last 17 years of her life, Dickinson shared her kitchen with Margaret Maher, an Irish immigrant. Dickinson wrote her poems while cooking with Maher.

She stored them in her maid's trunk, trusting Maher to keep them safe. This everyday interaction, Murray says, changed the way Dickinson felt about poor people, especially those coming from Ireland.

"When she was much younger, she actually made rather hateful comments about Irish immigrants that were pouring into the country, escaping famine conditions in Ireland," she explains. "Yet, at the end of her life, in an incredibly telling gesture, in a funeral that she scripted before her death, she picked six of the family's workmen, laborers, gardeners and stable hands to be her pallbearers. That was a shocking thing to her family and to neighbors."

Lasting¹¹ influence

Murray says the presence of domestic servants not only allowed Dickinson to flourish as a writer but also influenced her literary voice.

Courtesy Aife Murray
In her book, 'Maid as Muse,' Aife Murray explores the relationship between Emily Dickinson and her servants

"First of all, having a maid made it possible for her to write," she says. "Her writing really jumps in a huge way when a permanent maid is in the kitchen. She goes from writing no poems to writing almost a poem a week. In terms of language changes, what really surprised me was how she really enfolded some of that language of her writing."

She points to the poem, 'It was not death, for I stood up', as an example.

It was not Death, for I stood up,
And all the Dead, lie down-
It was not Night, for all the Bells
Put out their Tongues, for Noon.
It was not Frost, for on my Flesh
I felt Siroccos- crawl- …

"That poem and that grammatical structure, it is classically the way people in Ireland speak English," says Murray.

The voice of Dickenson's African American servants is also heard in her writings.

Promise This-When You be Dying-
Some shall summon Me-…

"And that way in which she says 'when you be dying', that's so classically the way African Americans structure their sentences, with that interesting use of 'be,'" says Murray.

"Maid as Muse" author Aife Murray says writing her book was a way for her to give credit where credit is due — to the unsung men and women whose language and culture enhanced the work of one of America's best-loved poets.
 

1 hearth   

n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面

参考例句：

• She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来，在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
• She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里，打开电灯。

2 yearned   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The people yearned for peace. 人民渴望和平。
• She yearned to go back to the south. 她渴望回到南方去。

3 muse   

n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感

参考例句：

• His muse had deserted him,and he could no longer write.他已无灵感，不能再写作了。
• Many of the papers muse on the fate of the President.很多报纸都在揣测总统的命运。

4 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

5 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

6 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

7 permanently   

adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地

参考例句：

• The accident left him permanently scarred.那次事故给他留下了永久的伤疤。
• The ship is now permanently moored on the Thames in London.该船现在永久地停泊在伦敦泰晤士河边。

8 ethnically   

adv.人种上，民族上

参考例句：

• Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句

9 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

10 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

11 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。