In Robert Frost and the New England Renaissance, author George Monteiro made this connection between a line from Emily Dickinson’s poem “My Cocoon tightens – Colors tease” and a very well-known work by Robert Frost: “Even in ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snow Evening,’ Frost echoes this theme when, playing on Dickinson’s phrase, ‘easy sweeps of sky,’ he writes of ‘the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.’” I wrote a post about this a few days ago (HERE), and since then I’ve published a couple of posts on Dickinson’s uses of “sweeping” and “swept.” Today: “sweep” and “sweeps.”
Interestingly, after searching the Dickinson Archive for “sweep,” I had to run a separate search for “sweeps” – and oddly, both searches had errors. The “sweep” search included one poem with “sweeps,” and the “sweeps” search yielded two of the poems with “sweep.” Here's the breakdown:
The search for “sweep” yielded nineteen results representing seven different poems, six of which had “sweep” (one had “sweeps”). The search for “sweeps” generated fifteen results representing five poems, and three of those used the word “sweeps” (two had “sweep”).
Interestingly, after searching the Dickinson Archive for “sweep,” I had to run a separate search for “sweeps” – and oddly, both searches had errors. The “sweep” search included one poem with “sweeps,” and the “sweeps” search yielded two of the poems with “sweep.” Here's the breakdown:
The search for “sweep” yielded nineteen results representing seven different poems, six of which had “sweep” (one had “sweeps”). The search for “sweeps” generated fifteen results representing five poems, and three of those used the word “sweeps” (two had “sweep”).
I suppose I can see why the search engine has to be that specific (i.e., requiring separate searches for “sweep” vs. “sweeps”); if it were not that precise, then a search, say, for a word like “ton” might also pickup results for “tone" – along with “tongue,” “tongueless”, “tonic” and “tonight” (and yes, Dickinson did use the word “tongueless” in one poem, “Grief is a Mouse”).
By coincidence, in my daily post yesterday, I shared a “water” poem that wrapped up a series of posts having to do with Dickinson’s use of “coffee” and “tea"; now that I’m wrapping up a series of posts dealing with her various uses and forms of “sweep,” I see from the search results above that one of the “sweep” poems is also a “water” poem, “Water makes many beds,” so I’ll include that one today. However, this “water” poem is so inspirational as yesterday’s work, “Water, is taught by thirst.” No, this poem is more on the macabre side with its reflection on drowning (and by chance, by the way, I shared a post the other day about a poem by Edward Mayes that seemed to focus on a literal and/or figurative drowning, HERE).
By coincidence, in my daily post yesterday, I shared a “water” poem that wrapped up a series of posts having to do with Dickinson’s use of “coffee” and “tea"; now that I’m wrapping up a series of posts dealing with her various uses and forms of “sweep,” I see from the search results above that one of the “sweep” poems is also a “water” poem, “Water makes many beds,” so I’ll include that one today. However, this “water” poem is so inspirational as yesterday’s work, “Water, is taught by thirst.” No, this poem is more on the macabre side with its reflection on drowning (and by chance, by the way, I shared a post the other day about a poem by Edward Mayes that seemed to focus on a literal and/or figurative drowning, HERE).
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So there you have it -- over the past few days, I've taken a look at Dickinson's use of "swept," "sweeping," "sweep," and "sweeps." Hmm...what about "vacuum"? I'll cover that tomorrow -- and you may just be surprised!
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