A few days ago, I started writing about Helen Vendler’s book Dickinson, Selected Poems and Commentaries. I’d mentioned that I found her in-depth analyses interesting, particularly her thoughts on how Dickinson’s structures augmented her poems’ themes. I’d mentioned that I’d share two examples in the coming days, but then I got sidetracked with two pieces I wrote following a chance encounter with American poet Calvin Forbes at O’Hare Airport this past Monday. For now, back to Vendler with the first of the two examples, the lesser complicated one of the two.
To set the stage for this initial case, though, involving “The morns are meeker than they were,” let me first provide a bit of background involving an entirely different poem, “An altered look about the hills,” a poem Mabel Loomis Todd included in the second series of Poems by Dickinson she published in 1891. Take a look at lines 3 and 4. Dickinson wrote them as follows:
A wider sunrise in the morn –
A deeper twilight on the lawn –
To provide a perfect rhyme – to make the poem more palatable for Victorian tastes – Todd changed the lines to read as follows:
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
Of course, Dickinson knew that “dawn” rhymed with “lawn. If she had wanted “dawn,” she would have written “dawn.” However, it is completely clear by her own handwriting that she intended for the word at the end of line 3 to be “morn.”
To set the stage for this initial case, though, involving “The morns are meeker than they were,” let me first provide a bit of background involving an entirely different poem, “An altered look about the hills,” a poem Mabel Loomis Todd included in the second series of Poems by Dickinson she published in 1891. Take a look at lines 3 and 4. Dickinson wrote them as follows:
A wider sunrise in the morn –
A deeper twilight on the lawn –
To provide a perfect rhyme – to make the poem more palatable for Victorian tastes – Todd changed the lines to read as follows:
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;
Of course, Dickinson knew that “dawn” rhymed with “lawn. If she had wanted “dawn,” she would have written “dawn.” However, it is completely clear by her own handwriting that she intended for the word at the end of line 3 to be “morn.”
“Why did Dickinson prefer ‘morn’?” you ask. At this point, I’ll just assume a role as parent and say, “Because I said so.” My point this morning is not to debate “dawn” vs. “morn.” Instead, I’m just laying a bit of groundwork about a poet’s deliberate word choice as intro to Vendler’s discussion of rhyme in another of Dickinson’s poems, “The morns are meeker than they were.”
Take a look at that poem and examine its rhyme scheme: XAXA XAXA. Lines 1, 3, 5, and 7 do not rhyme, while lines 2, 4, and 6 do – and line 8 comes close (brown, town, gown, and on).
Take a look at that poem and examine its rhyme scheme: XAXA XAXA. Lines 1, 3, 5, and 7 do not rhyme, while lines 2, 4, and 6 do – and line 8 comes close (brown, town, gown, and on).
 | Of course, if Dickinson wanted a perfect rhyme to end line 8, she would have supplied a perfect rhyme to end line 8. For example, she could have said, “I’ll don a festive crown.” Or, she could have changed line 6 to something like, “The fields in scarlet drown,” and then saved “gown” to use at the end line 8 with something like, “I’ll don a festive gown” (although “drown” certainly counters the mood of the second stanza). To end line 8 there are other alternative word choices, too, which provide a closer rhyme than with “gown” than “on.” |
“Why did Dickinson prefer ‘on’?” you ask. This time, I won’t act the exasperated parent. Instead, let me turn to Vendler.
Early in her book, Vendler discusses typical and prevalent traits and techniques of Dickinson’s style, for example, her frequent use of the em dash. Another is her frequent practice of presenting lists in poems which then suggest, support or build to some profound realization or insight. In reviewing this poem, Vendler writes, “We see here the look of a Dickinson list before it becomes cryptic, or wild, or eccentric. Nonetheless, the list migrates oddly from category to category: time of day; high up fruit of nut tree; ground-low fruit of berry vines and absent flower; a vertical tree; a horizontal field.” Soon the main topic comes into focus, a change of season.
“As a consequence of her observation,” states Vendler, “Dickinson decides that she should participate in the new fashion of self-adornment.”
Vendler offers much more insightful insight on the poem (LOL – how’s that for redundant redundancy?); however, what about that use of the word “on” to end the poem?
Vendler concludes her commentary with this:
“This poem, which is more ingenious than it first appears, maintains the same rhyme-sound throughout. It exhibits a perfect chiming in ‘brown,’ ‘town,’ and ‘gown,’ but is plainer in its dress, like Dickinson, in its closing, simplified ‘on.’”
Why did Dickinson use “on”? Because Helen Vendler said so.
Early in her book, Vendler discusses typical and prevalent traits and techniques of Dickinson’s style, for example, her frequent use of the em dash. Another is her frequent practice of presenting lists in poems which then suggest, support or build to some profound realization or insight. In reviewing this poem, Vendler writes, “We see here the look of a Dickinson list before it becomes cryptic, or wild, or eccentric. Nonetheless, the list migrates oddly from category to category: time of day; high up fruit of nut tree; ground-low fruit of berry vines and absent flower; a vertical tree; a horizontal field.” Soon the main topic comes into focus, a change of season.
“As a consequence of her observation,” states Vendler, “Dickinson decides that she should participate in the new fashion of self-adornment.”
Vendler offers much more insightful insight on the poem (LOL – how’s that for redundant redundancy?); however, what about that use of the word “on” to end the poem?
Vendler concludes her commentary with this:
“This poem, which is more ingenious than it first appears, maintains the same rhyme-sound throughout. It exhibits a perfect chiming in ‘brown,’ ‘town,’ and ‘gown,’ but is plainer in its dress, like Dickinson, in its closing, simplified ‘on.’”
Why did Dickinson use “on”? Because Helen Vendler said so.
RSS Feed
