Personified time in Emily Dickinson’s «Dear March - Come In»

By drawing examples from her poem Dear March-Come in, the article examines the ways in which Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) reflects subjective and natural time as means of expressing natural changes. Figurative and allegorical levels of the formal organization of the poetic text are highlighted. The article demonstrates that one of the main devices of conceptualizing the complex phenomenon of time for E. Dickinson is metaphor, which makes it possible to link abstract categories, inaccessible for direct perception, to more tangible areas of experience. Resorting to a wide range of temporal metaphors based on spatial, dynamic, and object analogies, the American poet places emphasis upon personifications. Personifying metaphors, which liken certain manifestations of temporal experiences to interpersonal relations, reflect the anthropocentrism of artistic thinking conditioned by embodiment and human involvement in society. The article notes that in E. Dickinson’s poetry metaphor is characterized by a variety of manifestations. Making time the central character of her works, the poet creates a complex pattern of metaphors which intersect and interact with each other. It is exemplified in the selected poem, in which projections of superdynantic (LIFE IS A HOUSE) and subdynantic (NATURE IS A CANVAS, MAPLES ARE PEOPLE) levels are superimposed on the “foundation” of plot-forming personifying metaphors, introduced into the narrative through a direct reference to the temporal phenomenon as a subject of dialogue. Personification serves as an effective means of explicating the subjective experience of changes in nature occurring over time.