“If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin, Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain,” Excerpt from “I Shall Not Live in Vain,” by Emily Dickinson.

The Kassia: Women in Song, along with faculty and students, celebrated Emily Dickinson’s inspirational poetry on Nov. 5.

Photograph by Kate Olsen
Emily Dickinson’s poetry was brought to life by Kassia through readings set to music and song.

“We [were] celebrating her life and her artistry,” Susan Savage Day, music teacher specializing in voice, music theatre, bodywork for musicians and vocal pedagogy, said.

Dickinson lived her life in Amerst, Mass. until her death in 1886. After her death, her younger sister discovered roughly 1,700 pieces of her work which has lead people to question her introverted life.

“I can’t give a complete answer because no one knows her experiences and thoughts,” Martha Drummond, associate professor of English, said. “But at least one reason was her extreme religious beliefs-she was attempting to perfect her soul. One cannot do that in a public life. The other reason is that she had so many deaths of close ones beginning at an early age.”

Kassia performers included Day and Rebekah Demaree, music professor specializing in diction and voice. Demaree and Day created Kassia in 2006 to celebrate the lives of extraordinary women in the arts.

Deborah Lewis, associate professor of English, Drummond and UW-Platteville students Debra Meyer and Erin Johnson, joined Kassia members to read selected poetry from Dickinson set to music.

Dickinson did not conform to the culture of the 19th century. She was labeled a “mad woman” because she broke socially acceptable behaviors for that time period. At the time, women were to transition from being a nobody in their father’s home to a nobody in their husband’s home. Dickinson was considered a transcendentalist, a person who protested against the general state of culture and society. Transcendentalists believe that the ideal spiritual state “transcends” the physical and observed.

“She opened up a world for women that was never seen before,” Johnson, a junior music education major with emphases in choral music, general music and instrumental music education, said. “She was a catalyst to get things moving. Poetry would have eventually evolved but who knows how long that would have taken.”

“It is part of their American heritage,” Drummond said. “She wrote poetry entirely different from anyone in Europe which has, in a sense, repeated itself to carry on old traditions. Besides, it is beautiful.”

Students were in attendance at the performance, not only for classes that offered extra credit for the event, but because Dickinson was an inspiration to them.

“I like her poems and it was interesting to hear them to music,” Michelle Merkovich, freshman criminal justice major, said. “I’m here for music appreciation, and we were given class time to come to the performance.”