“Seeing New Englandly,” is the second DVD in the series, Angles of a Landscape, created in association with the museum that bears her name in Amherst.
Emily Dickinson composed her poems at her home on Amherstâs Main Street. AMHERST – Locals and visitors alike will be able to “see New Englandly” with the help of a new DVD that was made in association with The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst and covers little-known aspects of the life of the 19th-century poet.
“Seeing New Englandly,” the second DVD in the series, Angles of a Landscape, explores Dickinson’s first-rate scientific education – highly unusual for a girl in 1840s New England.
The script is by poet Susan R. Snively, of Amherst.
“The message of the poem (from which the title of the DVD was taken) is we all see in the context of where we are,” Snively said. “Where we live determines what we see.”
Emily DickinsonThe DVD is illustrated with more than a dozen pieces of fine art – mostly 19th-century landscape paintings from museums including the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Pols painted a new oil painting of Dickinson at her window for the DVD’s cover art. Ernie Urvater produced the DVD.
Professor Deborah Gilwood of Westfield State College and Mohawk Trail Concert Players performed the music.
“Seeing New Englandly,” more than an hour in length, will have its debut at Amherst Cinema and Arts Center on Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. The screening is free.
“I have never had so much fun working on anything I have written,” said Snively who has published four books of poetry and just finished a novel that is yet to be published.
A guide at The Emily Dickinson Museum, she noted “how dramatic” weather in New England was in the mid-19th century when Dickinson was writing poetry in Amherst. “Her poetry is full of dramatic weather, northern lights, snow storms, rain storms, you name it. She is very elemental,” she said. “From her room (with four large windows) she saw everything going on outside.”
Snively – who has given lectures on Dickinson at local colleges and at museum seminars – said Dickinson was key in her development as a poet, saying Dickinson helped her to think and taught her to embrace paradoxes and puzzles. “She provides us a way to ask questions and not worry if we can’t answer them. There are so many things we want to know about Emily Dickinson we’ll never know.”
The DVD was about year and a half in the making. When asked if there will be a third in the series, Snively replied, “Oh yes, there will be, and what they will be about I don’t know.”
“Seeing New Englandly” will sell for $29.95 and will be available at the Emily Dickinson Museum book store, on line at www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org or at the screenings. Proceeds will benefit the museum.