Category: Emily Dickinson - The Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum

Dinner Belle

7/27/2019

From our art columnist, Jarvis MacKinnon III:

Members of the Dickinson Organization of Poetry Enthusiasts visited New York City last weekend -- the travelogue from our trip is HERE -- and on one of the days, we visited the Brooklyn Museum.

The main draw to see the museum was a painting by Edward Hopper ("Macomb's Da Bridge"). Hopper was a lover of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request), and he said the life and poetry of Dickinson was his greatest inspiration as a painter.

However, when we arrived at the museum we were also thrilled to learn that it is the permanent home of Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party."

What is "The Dinner Party"?

Here is information from the Brooklyn Museum's site: "The Dinner Party, an important icon of 1970s feminist art and a milestone in twentieth-century art, is presented as the centerpiece around which the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is organized. The Dinner Party comprises a massive ceremonial banquet, arranged on a triangular table with a total of thirty-nine place settings, each commemorating an important woman from history."

More information is HERE.

Of course, we were thrilled to find a place setting for the Belle of Amherst, Emily Dickinson, at "The Dinner Party." We were a little surprised, though, that a prominent color at her seat was pink -- but hey, we were happy that she was included in the guest (and rightly so).

Who else is at the table? Below is a complete list:

Wing I: From Prehistory to the Roman Empire
1. Primordial Goddess
2. Fertile Goddess
3. Ishtar
4. Kali
5. Snake Goddess
6. Sophia
7. Amazon
8. Hatshepsut
9. Judith
10. Sappho
11. Aspasia
12. Boadicea
13. Hypatia

Wing II: From the Beginnings of Christianity to the Reformation
14. Marcella
15. Saint Bridget
16. Theodora
17. Hrosvitha
18. Trota of Salerno
19. Eleanor of Aquitaine
20. Hildegarde of Bingen
21. Petronilla de Meath
22. Christine de Pisan
23. Isabella d'Este
24. Elizabeth I
25. Artemisia Gentileschi
26. Anna van Schurman

Wing III: From the American to the Women's Revolution
27. Anne Hutchinson
28. Sacajawea
29. Caroline Herschel
30. Mary Wollstonecraft
31. Sojourner Truth
32. Susan B. Anthony
33. Elizabeth Blackwell
34. Emily Dickinson
35. Ethel Smyth
36. Margaret Sanger
37. Natalie Barney
38. Virginia Woolf
39. Georgia O'Keeffe

Above: The first place setting is for Primordial Goddess. Note that the runner looks like an animal skin.

For information for each of the women at the table in Judy Chicago's "the Dinner Party," click HERE.

Unsolved Mysteries

7/17/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

Back in March of this year, I wrote about a mysterious letter “E” that appears before “It sifts from Leaden Sieves” in my 1998 Franklin edition of The Poems of Emily Dickinson – you can read about that HERE.

Now, I’m looking into a second mystery: I just realized that “I would distil a cup” appears in my 1960 Johnson edition of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson (J-16), but I can’t find it anywhere in my Franklin edition. What gives?

Here’s the the poem:

By Emily Dickinson:

I would distil a cup,
And bear to all my friends,
Drinking to her no more astir,
By beck, or burn, or moor!

Below: "I would distil a cup" -- J-16 -- appears at the page break for pages 13 and 14 in the Johnson edition of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.

I checked the Emily Dickinson Archive to see if that might shed some light on the mystery, but it indicated that “I would distil a cup” – which Emily had included in a letter to Samual Bowler and Mary Bowles – appeared only in the Johnson edition. I searched the words “distil,” “beck,” and “astir,” and all three queries yielded the same information. I thought, perhaps, that the lines (or similar lines) from “I would distil a cup” would appear embedded in some other poem by Dickinson in the Franklin edition. Alas, no. “I would distil a cup” seems to have vanished with Franklin’s edition of the Belle of Amherst’s poetry.

Below: The results when I searched the word "beck" in the Emily Dickinson Archive turned up one entry for "I would distil a cup":

Do any Dickinson scholars out there have any info on this mystery – as to why “I would distil a cup” does not appear in the Franklin edition of The Poems of Emily Dickinson?

FYI: Information related to the origin of “I would distil a cup” can be found HERE.

The Write Stuff

4/19/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

On a recent trip to Chicago, I stopped by the American Writers Museum, "celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture, and our daily lives."

From the museum's website:

The American Writers Museum strives to:

Educate the public about American writers – past and present
Engage visitors to the Museum in exploring the many exciting worlds created by the spoken and written word
Enrich and deepen appreciation for good writing in all its forms
Motivate visitors to discover, or rediscover, a love of reading and writing
Inspire the young writers of tomorrow

The exhibits are wonderful, and they include -- as their website notes -- interactive displays from "typewriters to touchscreens."

Below: A touchscreen display in the lobby allows visitors to learn about writers from each of the fifty United States. The page on Massachusetts includes Emily Dickinson, the Belle of Amherst; the page on Pennsylvania shows Emmett Lee Dickinson, the Bore of Washerst.

Left: A timeline runs above the main exhibit dedicated to the most influential American writers. Not surprisingly, the lineage highlights the birth of Emmett Lee Dickinson in 1803.

Below: Emmett Lee Dickinson is included in the display of America's most influential writers. He is line with some of his best friends -- Edgar Allan Poe, Abraham Lincoln, and Henry David Thoreau.

Click the images to enlarge.

Right: The photograph of Frederick Douglass at the American Writers Museum includes a year of birth -- but no date listed as a year of death. Many point to this to explain Donald Trump's enigmatic comments in 2017, "Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job and is getting recognized more and more."

Below left and right: The display on Emily Dickinson.

Below left (and above right): Emily Dickinson's poem "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" is included on the display for Emily Dickinson. Below right: Emily Dickinson was inspired to write her poem after reading her third cousin Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "'Hype' is the thing with bullfeathers."

By Emily Dickinson:

"Hope" is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –

I've heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of Me.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

“Hype” is the thing with bullfeathers –
It preaches to enthrall –
It stretches Truth with guileful words –
And doesn’t care – at all –

Though sweeter – in the Sale – than sweetest –
More real – than genuine –
It carries no precaution of
Consequence– from Saccharine.

New – Improved – Superlative –
It’s magnified and grand –
It charms consumers – senseless –
With sleight of underhand.

Right: An interactive display allows visitors to submit their favorite books -- and I was tickled pink to discover that The Complete Poems of Emmett Lee Dickinson was listed as the top pick!

Below: The AWM's gift shop included finger puppets of famous American writers. Emmett Lee Dickinson is at the center, left of the photo -- circled in red.

What The H?

3/29/2019

From our current affairs editor, Lemuel Stuart III:

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the American Heart Association's poll for the "Man with the Smallest Heart" and the "Woman with the Smallest Heart" (HERE).

In that post, I wrote about Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "For smallest Woman's Heart we know," which inspired Emily Dickinson to write, "For largest Woman's Heart I knew."

However, in gathering information about those two poems, I came across this on Wikisource:

Huh? For largest Woman's HEARTH? Isn't that supposed to be HEART?

Of course the first place I checked to investigate this was the Emily Dickinson digital archive, and I found this:

I would say that settles the debate since "Heart" is in Emily Dickinson's own handwriting.

I also came across this analysis of Dickinson's poem on The Prowling Bee -- HERE.. On that post, blogger Susan Kornfeld was asked about the very same peksy "H," and she also checked the Dickinson archive to confirm "heart" vs. "hearth."

So what's up with that "h"? Or should I say, "What the H?"

This just goes to show you the importance of editing -- for just a single letter can make all the difference in the world. To that point, check out these Dickinson's first lines which are altered by the addition or omission of just a single letter:

There’s a certain slant of flight

Because I could now stop for death

Wild Knights! Wild Knights!

I heard a fly buzz – when it died

Hope is the thing with fathers

This certainly proves the point that a single letter can make all the difference in the world. Or should I say that a single letter can make all the difference in the word. What the L? Am I right?

Thirst Editions

3/23/2019

From our 19th century historian, Eudora Dickinson:

I saw this on Twitter today:

Of course Mr. Atkinson's chart might make one wonder what libations would top a similar list for poets?

Well, in the case of the Dickinsons, we know exactly what would rank as their "thirst editions."

For Emily Dickinson -- and her sister Lavinia -- the choice would be a keg of beer. There was nothing the sisters loved more than frat parties and keggers at Amherst college.

For Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request, the choice would be a Margarita, the lime libation he invented! Information about Dickinson & his delicious concoction is HERE.

Of course, Emmett Lee Dickinson knew of his third cousin Emily's fondness for keggers at Amherst College, and he immortalized her addiction to frat parties in his now-classic poem, "As School Bells end the summer" (below on the left). His poem inspired Emily to pen her poem "As Sleigh Bells seem in summer" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

As School Bells end the summer
And Boys, at Amherst show –
So friendly – so flirtatious
The individuals go
Replete with strong libations –
A Party does ensue –
She’s down there in an instant
Till Dawn the Ingénue.

By Emily Dickinson:

As Sleigh Bells seem in summer
Or Bees, at Christmas show –
So fairy – so fictitious
The individuals do
Repealed from observation –
A Party that we knew –
More distant in an instant
Than Dawn in Timbuctoo.

Pictured at the right: In 1849, Emily Dickinson wrote to her cousins Frances and Louisa Norcross. In her letter, Dickinson stated the following:

"There is to be a party at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house tomorrow night. They say that home is where the heart is ~ I think it is where the Sigma house is, and the adjacent buildings.

Vinnie and I will be happy amid this delightful kegger, and well we will drink our icy beers ~ and the world there will be so beautiful, and things so sweet and fair, that my heart will be soothed and comforted."

Letter of Introduction

3/17/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

Recently I have published some plog (poetry blog) posts about variations in poems by Emily Dickinson in the Johnson and Franklin editions of her poetry. This all started with a post about a quote from Oscar Wilde -- HERE -- and then I moved on to discuss Johnson v. Franklin -- HERE (from 3/10/19) and HERE (from 3/13/19).

In the post dated March 10, 2019, I discussed Dickinson's poem "It sifts from Leaden Sieves," which is number 311 in Johnson's edition and number 291 in Franklin's. Following the opening stanza, the poem differs significantly in the two volumes. In Johnson's book, the poem is 5 stanzas long. In Franklin's it is 3 -- and Franklin noted in the introduction to his collection that he always chose "the latest version of the entire poem, thereby giving to the poet, rather than the editor, the ownership of change.”

However, besides the two very different versions of the poem, there is one other mystery (or should I say, "myster-E"?): In Franklin's volume "The Poems of Emily Dickinson," there is a capital "E" just before the opening line of the poem.

No where else in the over-six-hundred page book with 1,789 poems does a letter appear before the start of a poem.

Does anyone know what this E stands for? Is it just a printing error -- or is that E supposed to be there?

If you can help solve this myster-E, please let me know. Comment below, or reach out on our "Contact Us" page, HERE.

A World of Difference

3/13/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

In a recent plog (poetry blog) post, I wrote about differences between The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, and The Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by R. W. Franklin. The post is HERE, and in it I discuss the order of the poems, identical poems (or those with very insignificant differences), poems with interesting differences, and poems with significant differences – and that was just the start. There are other differences:

COMBINED/SEPARATED POEMS

Sometimes individual poems in one book are combined (or separated) to create a single poem (or multiple poems) in the other volume. For example, F-335, “Her smile was shaped like other smiles,” in the Franklin edition, is made up of two poems from the Johnson edition, J-514, “Her smile was shaped like other smiles,” and J-353, “A happy lip – breaks sudden.”

On the other hand, three poems in Franklin's book – F-29, “All these my banners be,” F-30, “To lose – if One can find again,” and F-31, “To him who keeps an Orchis’ heart" – are combined in one poem in the Johnson edition, J-22, “All these my banners be.”

RECENTLY DISCOVERED POEMS

Some poems in the Franklin edition were unknown at the time of the Johnson edition. Therefore, the “complete” poems edited by Johnson were the those poems known at the time, but the volume is no longer “complete.” I suspect Franklin realized that addition poems could be discovered in the future – and that is why he did not include the word “complete” in the title of his volume, “The Poems of Emily Dickinson.”

One example of a poem that is in Franklin but is not found in Johnson is F-1244, “Fly – fly—but as you fly”:

Fly – fly – but as you fly –
Remember – the second pass you by –
The Second is pursuing the Century
The Century is chasing Eternity –
What a Responsibility –
No wonder that the little Second flee –
Out of it’s frightened way –

Note: Franklin left the apostrophe in “it’s” as Dickinson wrote it.

Vive La Différence

3/10/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

Recently I came across an Oscar Wilde quote on Twitter about a poet’s ability to survive everything “but a misprint.” On the same day I came across a misprint within an online version of a poem by Emily Dickinson. I wrote about it HERE.

In that post I also mentioned some of the differences between the Johnson and the Franklin editions of Dickinson’s poetry.

My (now-ragged) copy of “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson” edited by Thomas H. Johnson was published in 1960, and the introduction to the book states, “The text for this edition…reproduces solely and completely that of the 1955 variorum edition, but intended as a reading text, it selects but one form of each poem.” It further notes, “The order of the poems is that the Harvard (variorum) edition.”

My (close-to-ragged) copy of “The Poems of Emily Dickinson” edited by R. W. Franklin was published in 1998, and the introduction to this volume states, “About three fourths of the poems exist in a single source. For the rest, with from two to seven sources, the policy has been to choose the latest version of the entire poem, thereby giving to the poet, rather than the editor, the ownership of change.”

Franklin also noted, “With Dickinson’s practice in her manuscripts as the standard for representing her poem, this volume follows her spelling, capitalization punctuation and usage.” Johnson, in his 1955 volume, stated “I have silently corrected obvious misspelling…and misplaced apostrophes. Punctuation and capitalization remain unaltered….Capitalization, though often capricious, is likewise untouched.”

Below left: My Johnson edition of Dickinson's poetry is falling apart -- and the cover is taped together with scotch tape. Below right: My Franklin edition is in better shape -- but it won't be too much longer until I need a new one. : )

So how similar – or different – are the two volumes?

ORDER

In some instances, poems are very close to the same order in both books. For example, poems J-119 (Talk with prudence to a Beggar), J-120 (If this is “fading”), and J-121 (A Watchers hang opon the East) in the Johnson edition, are numbers F-118, F-119, and F-120 in the Franklin edition.

In other cases, though, poems are significantly distant in their order. For example, F-56 (I’ve got an arrow here) is toward the end of the Johnson edition, numbered J-1729.

IDENTICAL POEMS (or those with very minor differences)

In some cases, poems in both the Johnson and the Franklin editions are exactly the same. For example, poems J-381 and F-643 (A Secret told) are identical in every way. In other cases, differences can be as minor as a single capital letter. For example, with J-435 and F-620 (Much Madness is divinest Sense), the only difference appears in the fifth line of the poem, “In this, as all, prevail.” The Johnson version includes a capital “A” with the word “All,” while the Franklin edition has a lower case “a.”

POEMS WITH INTERESTING DIFFERENCES

Some poems in the two editions have more intriguing differences – more than just a capital letter, an altered spelling, or a shifted punctuation mark. I think one of the more intriguing – but subtle differences – occurs in J-341/F-372 (After great pain, a formal feeling comes). The second stanza of the poem in the Johnson edition reads as follows:

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

Note the slight – or significant? – change in the second and third lines of the second stanza in the Franklin edition:

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

Does the change make any difference?

A similar change in a piece of music would be undeniably significant. Take Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – what if the third and fourth measures were flipped with the first and second?

POEMS WITH SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES

When comparing Dickinson’s poems in the Johnson and Franklin editions, occasionally poems with the same first line are significantly different. Take F-291 and J-311, “It sifts from Leaden Sieves”:

J-311

It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –

It makes an Even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain –
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again –

It reaches to the Fence –
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces –
It deals Celestial Vail

To Stump, and Stack – and Stem –
A Summer's empty Room –
Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them –

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen –
Then still its Artisans – like Ghosts –
Denying they have been –

F-291:

It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood –
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –

It scatters like the Birds –
Condenses like a Flock –
Like Juggler's Figures situates
Upon a baseless Arc –

It traverses yet halts –
Disperses as it stays –
Then curls itself in Capricorn –
Denying that it was –

More differences coming soon – including poems in Franklin's edition that are NOT in Johnson's "The COMPLETE Poems of Emily Dickinson." Stay tuned!

At One's Peril

3/3/2019

From our master grammarian & resident logophile, Angstrom Dickinson:

I was glancing through my Twitter feed this evening, and I came across this quote:

"A poet can survive everything but a misprint." ~Oscar Wilde

Very shortly after that, I came across Emily Dickinson's poem "Peril as a Possession" on Wikisource, and it appeared as follows:

Peril as a Possesssion
'Tis Good to hear
Danger disintegrates Satiety
There's Basis there –
Begets an awe
That searches Human Nature's creases
As clean as Fire.

Of course, I noticed the misspelling of "possession" – I supposed that that was not how Dickinson had actually written the word (although there are some distinctive misspellings in her poems) – but "'Tis Good to hear" just didn't sit right with me. Therefore, I checked my Johnson volume of Dickinson's poetry and my Franklin edition too. Sure enough, the line should be "'Tis Good to bear."

Here's the Johnson version:

Peril as a Possession
'Tis Good to bear
Danger disintegrates Satiety
There's Basis there –
Begets an awe
That searches Human Nature's creases
As clean as Fire.

Here's the Franklin version:

Peril as a Possession
'Tis Good to bear
Danger disintegrates satiety
There's Basis there –
Begets an awe
That searches Human Nature's creases
As clean as Fire.

Both the Johnson and the Franklin editions had "'Tis Good to bear" (vs. "hear"). To be honest, the only difference between the two versions was a capital vs. a lower case "s" for the word "satiety," certainly a minor difference (however, there can be major differences presented in Dickinson's poems in the two volumes).

I then checked the Dickinson Electronic Archives (HERE) for the poem just to see if they had a version of the lines in Dickinson's own handwriting. Here is what I found:

So Oscar Wilde was correct, I suppose, "A poet can survive everything but a misprint." I'll tell you what though – I'm not so sure how accurate Dickinson's poems would be if I were to be the one to transcribe them! Her handwriting is certainly a challenge to read!

By the way – that looks like a capital "S" for "Satiety" to me.

DC Bound

2/10/2019

From our Board Chairman Dorothy Dawe:

Emily Dickinson had a long-standing interest in politics, so after her father Edward was elected to the House of Representatives in 1853, she visited him in Washington, DC, in 1855. While there, she rode a boat down the Potomac to visit Mount Vernon, and of course, she visited the Capitol to see where her father worked.

We are excited to announce that Dickinson will once again visit Washington this April as part of National Poetry Month.

In early April, Board Members of the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum will join Chicago poet Mary Steinberg to celebrate poetry with members of Congress. We will present selected members with poems by Emmett Lee Dickinson and complimentary copies of When They Go Low, We Go Haiku.

As National Poetry Month nears, we’ll provide more information about our historic trip – bringing Dickinson back to Washington.

By Emily Dickinson:

That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love;
It is enough, the freight should be
Proportioned to the groove.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

That Hate is all they have,
And all they have is Hate;
It's not okay, that hate should be
Just how they make us great.

For more information on When They Go Low, We Go Haiku, click HERE.