SOURCE: "Her Moment of Brocade: The Reconstruction of Emily Dickinson," in Parnassus: Poetry in Review, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1989, pp. 9-44.

In the following essay, Fulton contends that while Dickinson is acknowledged as a premier American poet, there remains a resistance among critics to a "Dickinsonian tradition in American letters." Fulton explores the possible reasons for this resistance and notes that when Dickinson is judged by the criteria derived from the work of other major poets and movements, her unique accomplishments, particularly in the area of language, are overlooked.

 The way Hope builds his House
It is not with a sill—
Nor Rafter—has Mars—
But only Pinnacle—
(1481, variant version) 

The following bit of apocryphal gossip made the rounds of writers' conferences last summer: Two well-known poets stand at a podium, both of them in their fifties. One waits to read her poems; the other to introduce her. The poet...