| My recent posts have focused on a visit to a branch of the public library in Cape Charles, on Virginia’s Eastern Shore at the southern tip of the DelMarVa Peninsula. Two days ago I wrote about an anthology of poetry that didn’t include any of Dickinson’s poems – I hadn’t realized at the time that the book was a collection of works prior to the publication of Dickinson’s poetry. Yesterday I highlighted another anthology that did include four of Dickinson’s poems – albeit some odd choices. When I put that hefty tome back on the shelf, I ended up with a book in my hand called “Yowl, Selected Poems about Cats” – and I really just moved that book out of the way to put the anthology back in its space. |  |
 | I had no intention, really, to check that book for any of Dickinson’s poetry, but without really thinking I opened it to one random page, and I couldn’t believe what I saw – Dickinson’s “She sights a Bird – she chuckles.” I hadn’t checked the index, nor had I checked the table of contents – I just opened the book to a random page – and there it was. Lavinia was the real cat lover in the family, and Emily, I think, had mixed feelings about them. She wasn’t happy with how they stalked and killed birds (she thought of birds as “nature’s little poets”) – hence the failed attempt to snag a robin in this poem, “She sights a bird – she chuckles.” Dickinson used the word “cat” in four different poems; however, this is a fifth work about a cat, but it never uses the word cat. |
| Also Dickinson considered a couple of other word choices for the poem: For “twitching” in line 5 she thought about using “longing,” and for “toes” at the end of line 11 she considered “wings.” Most volumes use the word “toes,” however, when it was first published, editor Mabel Loomis Todd used the word “wings” in line 11 – and TBH, I prefer that use (and image of a flock of bird fluttering and flying off, denying the cat its “bliss”). By the way, I love the descriptions of the cat in the first stanza – as a cat owner, I can say that lines 2, 3 and 4 are completely accurate. |  |
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