From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:
In a recent plog (poetry blog) post, I wrote about differences between The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, and The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin. The post is HERE, and in it I discuss the order of the poems, identical poems (or those with very insignificant differences), poems with interesting differences, and poems with significant differences – and that was just the start. There are other differences:
COMBINED/SEPARATED POEMS
Sometimes individual poems in one book are combined (or separated) to create a single poem (or multiple poems) in the other volume. For example, F-335, “Her smile was shaped like other smiles,” in the Franklin edition, is made up of two poems from the Johnson edition, J-514, “Her smile was shaped like other smiles,” and J-353, “A happy lip – breaks sudden.”
On the other hand, three poems in Franklin's book – F-29, “All these my banners be,” F-30, “To lose – if One can find again,” and F-31, “To him who keeps an Orchis’ heart" – are combined in one poem in the Johnson edition, J-22, “All these my banners be.”
RECENTLY DISCOVERED POEMS
Some poems in the Franklin edition were unknown at the time of the Johnson edition. Therefore, the “complete” poems edited by Johnson were the those poems known at the time, but the volume is no longer “complete.” I suspect Franklin realized that additional poems could be discovered in the future – and that is why he did not include the word “complete” in the title of his volume, “The Poems of Emily Dickinson.”
One example of a poem that is in Franklin but is not found in Johnson is F-1244, “Fly – fly—but as you fly”:
In a recent plog (poetry blog) post, I wrote about differences between The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, and The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin. The post is HERE, and in it I discuss the order of the poems, identical poems (or those with very insignificant differences), poems with interesting differences, and poems with significant differences – and that was just the start. There are other differences:
COMBINED/SEPARATED POEMS
Sometimes individual poems in one book are combined (or separated) to create a single poem (or multiple poems) in the other volume. For example, F-335, “Her smile was shaped like other smiles,” in the Franklin edition, is made up of two poems from the Johnson edition, J-514, “Her smile was shaped like other smiles,” and J-353, “A happy lip – breaks sudden.”
On the other hand, three poems in Franklin's book – F-29, “All these my banners be,” F-30, “To lose – if One can find again,” and F-31, “To him who keeps an Orchis’ heart" – are combined in one poem in the Johnson edition, J-22, “All these my banners be.”
RECENTLY DISCOVERED POEMS
Some poems in the Franklin edition were unknown at the time of the Johnson edition. Therefore, the “complete” poems edited by Johnson were the those poems known at the time, but the volume is no longer “complete.” I suspect Franklin realized that additional poems could be discovered in the future – and that is why he did not include the word “complete” in the title of his volume, “The Poems of Emily Dickinson.”
One example of a poem that is in Franklin but is not found in Johnson is F-1244, “Fly – fly—but as you fly”:
| Fly – fly – but as you fly – Remember – the second pass you by – The Second is pursuing the Century The Century is chasing Eternity – What a Responsibility – No wonder that the little Second flee – Out of it’s frightened way – Note: Franklin left the apostrophe in “it’s” as Dickinson wrote it. |  |
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