I am part of a poetry group sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum where we meet monthly over Zoom and discuss the poetry of – no surprise here – Emily Dickinson.
In April, a guest speaker was Emily Seelbinder, a Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte from 1989 until her retirement as a Professor Emerita in 2019.
In April, a guest speaker was Emily Seelbinder, a Professor of English at Queens University of Charlotte from 1989 until her retirement as a Professor Emerita in 2019.
| The focus of the meeting was “Emily Dickinson and the Invention of Faith”: “Though Emily Dickinson may not fit traditional molds for religious persons, in her own time or in ours, she was clearly fascinated by spiritual matters, and she explored such matters from differing, often contradictory points of view.” Dr. Seelbinder told an interesting story from her time in college when she began reading Dickinson’s poetry from start to finish from the Johnson edition of her “Complete Poems” – although she had an edition that included Johnson’s annotations as he compiled and ordered all of the poems. “And then I came upon this,” said Dr. Seelbinder. It was Dickinson’s poem “Of Tribulation – these are They,” posted at the right. |  |
Dickinson included this poem with three others in a letter to her mentor, Thomas Wentworth HIgginson – AND (here’s the bit of intrigue associated with all of this – note that at the bottom of her second page, Dickinson wrote “I spelled ankle wrong.”
Yes, in the poem, Dickinson wrote “ancle,” and then in her note she spelled it as “ankle” – “I spelled ankle wrong” – so obviously she knew how to spell “ankle.”
Yes, in the poem, Dickinson wrote “ancle,” and then in her note she spelled it as “ankle” – “I spelled ankle wrong” – so obviously she knew how to spell “ankle.”
What do you make of this?
Stay tuned!
CONTINUED:
Yesterday I gave a few details about a poetry talk I participated in last month. The discussion was sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum and included guest speaker Dr. Emily Seelbinder on “Emily Dickinson and the Invention of Faith.”
Dr. Seelbinder told a story of her introduction to Dickinson, and how – when she was reading all of Dickinson’s poetry – she was intrigued by an annotation by Dickinson scholar/editor Thomas Johnson that was connected to the poem “Of Tribulation – these are They.”
The note, in part, read, “The spelling ‘Ancle,’ which was reproduced in the Atlantic Monthly along with ED's acknowledgment that she had spelled it wrong, was regularized in Poems (1891).”
You read that correctly: Dickinson spelled the word “ankle” as “ancle” in the poem, and then on the very same page (which was included in a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson), Dickinson wrote, “I spelled ankle wrong” – so she clearly knew how to spell the word “ankle.”
So what’s up with that?
Dr. Seelbinder researched this for years, and ultimately her investigation landed her at the Houghton Library at Harvard where she actually perused Emily Dickinson’s personal Bible.
To make a long story short, Seelbinder determined that the word “ankle” appeared twice in the bible – once in Ezekiel 47:3: “And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.”
No answer to the riddle there.
So she turned to the New Testament, Acts, Chapter 3, in which a lame man is healed: “And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.”
However, in this passage in Dickinson’s Bible, the word was spelled “ancle.”
In her poem, “Of Tribulation – these are They,” ED was referring to that very passage – that passage of being saved…and like the healed man, Seelbinder leapt for joy!
In the telling of this story, Dr. Seelbinder mentioned that ED knew her Bible – and knew it really, really, really, really well.
Evidently, the word “ancle” was spelled as “ancle” in the King James Bible; however, the “c” was changed to a “k” in the old Testament, but remained with the “c” in the New Testament into the 1890s.
Dickinson wrote the poem and sent it with a letter to Higginson, who was a Unitarian minister, and by adding “I spelled ankle wrong” in her communication, she knew (or at least suspected) that Higginson would understand her reference.
Yesterday I gave a few details about a poetry talk I participated in last month. The discussion was sponsored by the Emily Dickinson Museum and included guest speaker Dr. Emily Seelbinder on “Emily Dickinson and the Invention of Faith.”
Dr. Seelbinder told a story of her introduction to Dickinson, and how – when she was reading all of Dickinson’s poetry – she was intrigued by an annotation by Dickinson scholar/editor Thomas Johnson that was connected to the poem “Of Tribulation – these are They.”
The note, in part, read, “The spelling ‘Ancle,’ which was reproduced in the Atlantic Monthly along with ED's acknowledgment that she had spelled it wrong, was regularized in Poems (1891).”
You read that correctly: Dickinson spelled the word “ankle” as “ancle” in the poem, and then on the very same page (which was included in a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson), Dickinson wrote, “I spelled ankle wrong” – so she clearly knew how to spell the word “ankle.”
So what’s up with that?
Dr. Seelbinder researched this for years, and ultimately her investigation landed her at the Houghton Library at Harvard where she actually perused Emily Dickinson’s personal Bible.
To make a long story short, Seelbinder determined that the word “ankle” appeared twice in the bible – once in Ezekiel 47:3: “And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.”
No answer to the riddle there.
So she turned to the New Testament, Acts, Chapter 3, in which a lame man is healed: “And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.”
However, in this passage in Dickinson’s Bible, the word was spelled “ancle.”
In her poem, “Of Tribulation – these are They,” ED was referring to that very passage – that passage of being saved…and like the healed man, Seelbinder leapt for joy!
In the telling of this story, Dr. Seelbinder mentioned that ED knew her Bible – and knew it really, really, really, really well.
Evidently, the word “ancle” was spelled as “ancle” in the King James Bible; however, the “c” was changed to a “k” in the old Testament, but remained with the “c” in the New Testament into the 1890s.
Dickinson wrote the poem and sent it with a letter to Higginson, who was a Unitarian minister, and by adding “I spelled ankle wrong” in her communication, she knew (or at least suspected) that Higginson would understand her reference.
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