| Yesterday I provided details about “a supernova of Baader Meinhof moments I experienced recently – a union of coincidental connections betwixt assorted details from several of my recent posts.” All of this came about when I stumbled upon a 2020 essay entitled “An Acrostic Window on Emily Dickinson’s ‘I dwell in Possibility’” by Julia Hejduk of Baylor University. In the essay, Hejduk argues the the deliberate inclusion of an acrostic in “I dwell in Possibility” “offers a clue to the riddle of its voice, simultaneously suggesting that the speaking ‘I’ is the Poem, the Poet, and God.” In essence, Hejduk asserts that the first six lines of the poem include the acrostic I AM – YES – SO I. |  |
You can read the entire essay in the link HERE (once on the site page, click on “PDF” to access the entire article).
Was this acrostic written deliberately by Dickinson?
I’m going to have to say … **drum roll** …yes! ; )
I suspect that at some point in an earlier version of myself I would have said no – but now I’m a believer in “deliberateness.” Why the transformation? Two whys and wherefores come to mind.
First, when I returned to school in my late thirties (or was it my early forties?) to pursue a Master’s degree in school administration, I remember that I submitted a paper in some class about “current issues in education” (I can’t recall the exact name of the class or the exact topic for the paper), and I deliberately submitted a twenty-six paragraph essay where each paragraph started with a different letter – in alphabetical order. I was just trying to incorporate some creativity (and fun) into my coursework.
The work was serious, scholarly – not silly – but I injected playfulness. If I remember correctly, I believe I was in the Ed School library doing research on the topic, and I saw one author’s reference to the “three Rs” and the “ABCs,” and a lightbulb flashed above my head. The ABCs. Why not?
Second, I used to think that the inclusion of “la” and “le,” two singular French articles, in E. E. Cummings’ poem “l(a” was purely coincidental. No more. I now believe their inclusion was deliberate. I wrote about this topic HERE.
I concluded that particular post with my newly adopted mantra “There are no coincidences.”
So yeah, for someone at the level of genius as E. E. Cummings (with “l(a”) or Emily Dickinson (with “I dwell in possibility”), I believe that – with their command of and skillfulness with language and their desire to convey powerful messages in as succinct a way as possible (concerning Dickinson, Hejduk as “a poet of incarnation—of the small, concrete, and quotidian becoming a vessel for the infinite”) – and with that being so, there are no coincidences.
Was this acrostic written deliberately by Dickinson?
I’m going to have to say … **drum roll** …yes! ; )
I suspect that at some point in an earlier version of myself I would have said no – but now I’m a believer in “deliberateness.” Why the transformation? Two whys and wherefores come to mind.
First, when I returned to school in my late thirties (or was it my early forties?) to pursue a Master’s degree in school administration, I remember that I submitted a paper in some class about “current issues in education” (I can’t recall the exact name of the class or the exact topic for the paper), and I deliberately submitted a twenty-six paragraph essay where each paragraph started with a different letter – in alphabetical order. I was just trying to incorporate some creativity (and fun) into my coursework.
The work was serious, scholarly – not silly – but I injected playfulness. If I remember correctly, I believe I was in the Ed School library doing research on the topic, and I saw one author’s reference to the “three Rs” and the “ABCs,” and a lightbulb flashed above my head. The ABCs. Why not?
Second, I used to think that the inclusion of “la” and “le,” two singular French articles, in E. E. Cummings’ poem “l(a” was purely coincidental. No more. I now believe their inclusion was deliberate. I wrote about this topic HERE.
I concluded that particular post with my newly adopted mantra “There are no coincidences.”
So yeah, for someone at the level of genius as E. E. Cummings (with “l(a”) or Emily Dickinson (with “I dwell in possibility”), I believe that – with their command of and skillfulness with language and their desire to convey powerful messages in as succinct a way as possible (concerning Dickinson, Hejduk as “a poet of incarnation—of the small, concrete, and quotidian becoming a vessel for the infinite”) – and with that being so, there are no coincidences.
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