Category: Emily Dickinson - The Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum

All Dolled Up

3/7/2018

From our entertainment editor Qwerty Lee Dickinson:

In the 1800s, the Mattel toy company made a set of dolls based on historical women. However, the dolls did not go over well with the public because the company did not select the most respected and inspiring women of the time. Instead, many of the women had dishonorable and disreputable pasts.

The set included a Lizzie Borden doll, the Lizzie Borden who gave her mother 40 whacks.

Others in the series included confederate spy Mary Surratt, dance hall girl and prostitute Mary Katherine "Big Nose Kate" Haroney, outlaw Belle Starr, Butch Cassidy’s girlfriend and, later, Harry Longabaugh’s (the Sundance Kid) wife, Etta Place, and Eleanor Dumont, the owner of a gambling house in Nevada City, Nevada.

Pictured at the right: Mattel's Lizzie Borden doll.

Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) was a critic of the dolls, and he wrote about the Lizzie Borden doll in his poem "So baffled when I spied her."

Interestingly, Mattel has come out with a new set of dolls based on real-life figures. I have to admit, though, when I spied the Emily Dickinson doll I immediately thought of Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem. I was certainly a bit addled if not alarmed.

Pictured below: Mattel's new series of Barbie dolls based on historical figures. Left to right: Vicky Martin Berrocal, Xiaotong Guan, Bindi Irwin, Sara Gama, Chloe Kim, Martyna Wojciecowska, Nicola Adams OBE, Yuan Yuan Tan, Patty Jenkins, Emily Dickinson, Hui Ruoqi, and Leyla Piedayesh. Info about the new dolls can be found HERE.

We suspect that Dickinson's poem "So baffled when I spied her" (below on the left) did not inspire Mattel to include a doll of Emily Dickinson in the set; however, his poem did inspire third cousin Emily to pen her poem "So bashful when I spied her" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

So baffled when I spied her!
So addled – so alarmed!
So stricken were her features,
Doth everybody find –

So breathless when I passed her –
So senseless that I turned
And saw her, scowling, gazing,
Her simple package spurned!

For whom they made this Barbie?
For whom they made this Doll?
Many, will doubtless buy one –
But I shall not at all!

By Emily Dickinson:

So bashful when I spied her!
So pretty – so ashamed!
So hidden in her leaflets,
Lest anybody find –

So breathless till I passed her –
So helpless when I turned
And bore her, struggling, blushing,
Her simple haunts beyond!

For whom I robbed the Dingle –
For whom betrayed the Dell –
Many, will doubtless ask me –
But I shall never tell!

The Dopplegänger’s All Here

1/17/2018

From our current affairs editor Qwerty Lee Dickinson:

Emily Dickinson wrote...

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
  Are you – Nobody – too?
  Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

Well, maybe you're a "nobody" who just happens to look like Emily Dickinson. It's possible, you know.

From the BBC: "Folk wisdom has it that everyone has a doppelganger; somewhere out there there’s a perfect duplicate of you, with your mother’s eyes, your father’s nose and that annoying mole you’ve always meant to have removed. The notion has gripped the popular imagination for millennia – it was the subject of one of the oldest known works of literature – inspiring the work of poets and scaring queens to death."

The notion that "there's a pair of us" has also gripped Google's Arts & Culture app recently too. A feature in the app asks, "Is your portrait in a museum"? The app asks that you take a selfie, and then it searches "thousands of artworks to see if any look like you."

NOTE: Currently this feature on the Google A & C app is available only in selected areas.

I thought it would be interesting to see what matches would be made with the only known photograph of Emily Dickinson. However, I didn't stop there. I also tried the feature with a photograph of Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson form the movie "A Quiet Passion", with the likeness of Emily Dickinson from a painting of her and her brother and sister, and a recently discovered image of a woman thought to be Emily Dickinson.

All of the likenesses and the matches are below. If necessary, click the images to enlarge. Let us know what you think -- did Google find accurate matches?

First, we tried to find matches using the only known photograph of Emily Dickinson:

Next up: Cynthia Nixon as Emily Dickinson in Terence Davies' film "A Quiet Passion":

Next, we tried the app with the likeness of young Emily from the painting of her and her brother and sister:

Finally, we tried the Google app with an image thought to be Emily Dickinson from a photograph that was only recently discovered:

For information on Francois Brunelle's "I Am Not A Look-alike Project," click HERE. More "I Am Not A Look-Alike" photos are HERE.

Better Call Saul

1/3/2018

From our art columnist, Jarvis MacKinnon III:

Ever since we published our plog (poetry blog) post entitled "PoARTry of Emily & Emmett Lee Dickinson” (HERE), we have been inundated with questions about the connection between artist Saul Steinberg and Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

Steinberg was born in Râmnicu Sărat, Buzău County,Romania, and later attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Bucharest. In 1932, he entered the University of Bucharest. In 1933, he enrolled at the Politecnico di Milano to study architecture; he received his degree in 1940. In 1936, he began contributing cartoons and drawings – based on the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson – to the humor newspaper Bertoldo. Two years later, the anti-Semitic racial laws promulgated by the Fascist government forced him to start seeking refuge in another country. In 1941, he fled to the Dominican Republic, where he spent a year before coming to the US.

In the US, Steinberg published drawings for The New Yorker and other periodicals, including Fortune, Vogue, Mademoiselle, and Harper’s Bazaar. One of his most famous drawings is the now-iconic family portrait of Emily Dickinson and her family.

Pictured at the left: Steinberg's iconic drawing of Emily Dickinson and her family: Austin Dickinson, Emily's brother, and Emily are standing in the back; her parents, Emily Norcross Dickinson and her father Edward Dickinson, are seated. Her sister, Lavinia, is seated on her mother's lap, and Emily's beloved dog Carlo is by her father's side.

Most of the questions and comments we received centered on the works by Steinberg that we included in our plog post:

Which of Dickinson’s sisters were portrayed in Steinberg’s drawing of the four women, and what were they doing?

The sisters (four of Dickinson’s seven) are Qwerty Anne Dickinson, Penelope Laine Dickinson, Ethelene Etheline Dickinson, and Pythagoria Dickinson. In the drawing, the women are playing BINGO in Venice, California.

Steinberg said that the drawing was both a tribute to the Dickinson family and to his father, Stanislav Steinberg, and his grandfather, Frantisek Steinber, both of whom were professional BINGO callers. As a matter of fact, Frantisek Stieinberg was not only a BINGO caller, but he was the inventor of the game.

Frantisek Steinberg said that he was interpreting a Romanian Valentine’s Day card which read as follows:

Fii al meu
Eu sunt
Acum a ta
Scuze
Oh Prunc

The card translated as

Be mine
I am
Now Yours
Gee Whiz
Oh Babe

Steinberg said he noticed the word “BINGO” down the side of the translation, and the idea for the game came to him like a flash of lightning.

Saul Steinberg said he made the drawing of the Dickinson sisters playing BINGO for a BINGO event in Venice, California, which was a fund-raiser for a local chapter of the Dickinson Organization of Poetry Enthusiasts.

What can you tell us about Steinberg's drawing of the Dickinson Candy Corn Company factory?

As most people know, Emmett Lee Dickinson was the inventor of candy corn, and to this day, the Dickinson Candy Corn Company in Washerst, PA (Dickinson’s birthplace), produces the bulk of the candy corn consumed in the United States.

Steinberg, a lover of candy corn, said that one of his favorite paintings was Charles Sheeler’s representation of the Dickinson Candy Corn Company's factory, and upon seeing it, he knew immediately he wanted to produce some artistic likeness of the plant. He said he visited the factory many times before drawing it, and that due to his infuriation with society’s War on National Candy Corn Day (October 30th), his rendering of the factory took on a more militaristic look.

Pictured below: The Dickinson Candy Corn Company in Washerst, PA, the birthplace of Emmett Lee Dickinson.

Below left: Charles Sheeler's rendering of the Dickinson Candy Corn Company in Washerst, PA. Below right: Saul Steinberg's symbolic image of the same factory.

Steinberg’s work “Conversation” was based on a discussion Steinberg had with other artists about Emmett Lee Dickinson’s poetry. Who were the other artists present for the conversation?

In addition to Saul Steinberg himself, "Conversation" included symbolic representations of Gore Vidal, Groucho Marx, Mark Rothko, and Ellsworth Kelly.

What other works by Steinberg were inspired by Dickinson?

MANY of Steinberg’s drawings and paintings were inspired by the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson, and one of his most famous works is that of a letter “E” (Emily) dreaming of another letter “E” (Emmett Lee) (pictured at the left).

“Emmett Lee Dickinson gained incredible fame and prominence in his lifetime, something which eluded his third cousin Emily,” said Steinberg, “and this representation of their relationship came to me in a dream.”

Of course, Steinberg is quite well-known for a noteworthy cover of The New Yorker; however, many people don’t realize that that particular cover was based on a drawing he previously submitted to The Washerster magazine entitled, “View of the World from the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (aboe the Coin-Op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard)” (pictured at the right).

Keep your questions and comments coming, and in the future we will post more of Saul Steinberg’s works inspired by the life and poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson.

PoARTry of Emily & Emmett Lee Dickinson

1/2/2018

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

On a recent trip to Washington, DC, I attended a poetry event (in honor of Emily Dickinson’s 187th birthday) at the Folger Shakespeare Library (info HERE), I visited the Library of Congress (info HERE), and I strolled through the East Building of the National Gallery of Art.

The East Building was recently renovated. It re-opened to the public in the fall of 2016, and I hadn’t had a chance to visit until now – and it was nice to see so many artworks influenced by or in honor of Emily Dickinson and Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

Pictured at the left: In the American Art gallery, there is a wonderful hard-edged, industrial painting by Charles Sheeler (who as a youth attended the Emmett Lee Dickinson School for Boys in Philadelphia) of the Dickinson Candy Corn Factory in Washerst, PA (Dickinson invented candy corn).

Of course, the gallery included works by Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keefe, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstien – four artists who were significantly influenced by Emmett Lee Dickinson.

For info on the Hopper/Dickinson connection, click HERE and HERE.

For the O’Keeffe/Dickinson connection, click HERE.

For info on Warhol and Dickinson, click HERE.

For info on Roy Lichtenstein and Dickinson, click HERE.

Pictured at the left: The East Building also had a gallery completely devoted to Alexander Calder, another artist who was completely influenced by the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson – especially his cow poetry (see HERE…and scroll down to the entry dated July 14)

Pictured at the right: Two paintings, one by Henri Matisse and one by Pablo Picasso, are thought to include images of Dickinson’s daughter, Qwerty Jean Dickinson.

Pictured at the left: A small gallery on the second floor included works by Saul Steinberg. One is claimed to include images of some of Dickinson’s sisters; one was a version of a factory based on Sheeler’s painting of the Dickinson Candy Corn Factory; and one – called “Conversation” – was based on a discussion Steinberg had with other artists about Dickinson’s poetry.

Pictured at the right: Steinberg also drew what is now thought to be the most important family portrait of Emily Dickinson and her family.

Standing in the back of the drawing are Austin and Emily Dickinson; seated are Dickinson's parents, Emily Norcross Dickinson and Edward Dickinson. Dickinson's sister Lavinia is on her mother's lap, and Emily's beloved dog Carlo is at her father's side.

At the end of one hallway, the museum has on display an oversize painting of Qwertzie Dichundsohn, the daughter of Germany’s greatest poet and philosopher, Emil E. Dichundsohn, a distant relative of Emmett Lee Dickinson. Information on Dichundsohn is HERE.

Pictured below left: Emil E. Dichundsohn, Germany's greatest poet and philosopher. Pictured below right: Dichundsohn's daughter, Qwertzie Dichundsohn.

Throughout the various galleries of the museum are many paintings by artists in tribute to Emily Dickinson, the woman in white.

Pictured below: Two representations of Emily Dickinson by artist Anne Truitt:

Pictured below: Two paintings of Emily Dickinson by Robert Ryman:

Pictured below: A pair of paintings of Emily Dickinson by Jo Baer:

Pictured below left: A cloth representation of Emily Dickinson by Richard Tuttle. Pictured below right: A painting inspired by Emily Dickinson by Barnett Newman.

Hit List

1/1/2018

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

On December 11, 2017, I attended a poetry reading at the Folger Shakespeare Library dedicated to Emily Dickinson. Literary critic and poet Sandra Gilbert read and discussed some of her own poetry and selected poems of Dickinson’s focused on death and grief.

The next day, I visited the Library of Congress and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. Have you ever visited the Library of Congress? It has to be the most beautiful building in Washington. Below are pictures (I will post photos from the East Building soon in a future post):

In my posts about the Folger’s poetry reading, I posed the question, “If you had to present ten of Dickinson’s poems about death and grief, which ones would you pick?” Of course, the poems selected by Gilbert and ten more which I would recommend are included in some of my previous posts – HERE.

However, I now have a different question: If you were to select 17 – and only 17 – of Dickinson’s poems to publish in an anthology, which ones would you include?

The Library of Congress had a gift shop, and a portion of the shop was designed like a library (no surprise) -- albeit a modest one – so I checked the poetry section to see if there were any books of Dickinson’s poetry. Alas, no. However, there was collection of Great Poems by American Women, and of course, the volume included some of Dickinson’s poems – 17 of them, to be exact.

Hence, my question: If you were to select 17 – and only 17 – of Dickinson’s poems to publish in an anthology, which ones would you include?

If/when you are ready to discover which ones were included in this particular book – scroll down! I would say that I agreed with about a dozen of the editors’ choices.

Below: The Library of Congress also had a display of Thomas Jefferson's library.

If you were to select 17 – and only 17 – of Dickinson’s poems to publish in an anthology, which ones would you include?

Below is the list of 17 poems by Emily Dickinson included in Great Poems by American Women:

The Top Ten?

12/31/2017

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

On December 11, 2017, I attended an observance of Emily Dickinson’s 187th birthday at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. At the event, literary critic and poet Sandra Gilbert explored ten of Dickinson’s poems of death and grief.

If you were to present just ten of Dickinson’s poems on death and grief, which ten would you select?

Below is the list of poems presented by Gilbert (NOTE: I must have missed one in my notes, so I only have nine of the first lines.)

* There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House

* How many times these low feet staggered

* That it will never come again

* Two swimmers wrestled on the spar

* If I may have it, when it’s dead

* Because I could stop not for Death

* I felt a funeral in my brain

* I heard a Fly buzz when I died

*Under the light, yet under

Which ten would I pick?

Well, I have to admit, I relished Gilbert’s selections. She offered a perfect mix of melancholy, morbidity and the macabre. Therefore, I wouldn’t necessarily replace any of the poems she recited. Instead, I would offer an additional ten to augment her program:

After great pain, a formal feeding comes, my favorite poem about grief by Dickinson. “This is the hour of lead,” she wrote in one of the incredible images in the poem.

The last night that she lived, another poem centered on a Victorian death watch. One stanza from the poem reads:

We noticed smallest things, --
Things overlooked before,
By this great light upon our minds
Italicized, as 't were.

This world is not conclusion -- because a “Species stands beyond / Invisible, as Music / But positive, as Sound.”

A Coffin – is a small domain, a short poem that explores the paradox of eternity.

If anybody’s friend be dead, a poem of grief filled with the poignant memories of a deceased friend that “make the Quick of Woe!”

Safe in their Alabaster chambers, one of Dickinson’s “Greatest Hits” about the dead, the “meek members of the resurrection."

‘Tis good – the looking back on grief, which includes the following lines of condolence:

And though the Woe you have Today
Be larger – As the Sea
Exceeds its Unremembered Drop –
They're Water – equally –

Apparently with no surprise, an unforgiving poem about the facts of life. The image where “The Sun proceeds unmoved / To measure off another Day” reminds me of “Out, out,” Robert Frost’s poem about the death of a boy, which concludes, “No more to build on there. And they, since they / Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”

She laid her docile Crescent down, a poem which Dickinson referred to as “an Epitaph" about the words and images of a aging gravestone.

Back from the cordial Grave I drag thee, a short and shadowy poem that borders on necromania (see Gilbert’s selection “If I may have it, when it’s dead").

Back from the cordial Grave I drag thee
He shall not take thy Hand
Nor put his spacious arm around thee
That none can understand

This poem does not seem that far-fetched for the Victorian era. For example, an entry from Ralph Waldo Emerson's diary dated a year and two months after his first wife's death indicates that he dug up her grave to embrace her once again.

As a matter of fact, in a Google-search about this, I found the following:

I confess I was astonished to learn that Emerson was so driven by grief over the death of his first wife, Ellen, that he was moved to open the coffin and view her corpse a year and two months after her death….I was also surprised to learn that 25 years after the death of his first wife Emerson would open the coffin of another loved one, his firstborn son Waldo, who had died from Scarlet Feaver at age five. This time it was 15 years after the death, not one year, so the corpse would be even more disintegrated than that of his wife Ellen had been.

Hmm…seems as though I’ve veered off track! Well, it’s time to close anyway, for I hav listed Gilbert’s top choices of Dickinson’s poetry centered on death and grief, and I have picked ten as well.

Did I miss any particular poem on death and grief that you would include?

I’m dying to know.

Good Grief -- Part 4

12/30/2017

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

On December 11, 2017, I attended a tribute to Emily Dickinson at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. Literary critic and poet Sandra Gilbert discussed and recited some of her own poetry as well as ten poems by Dickinson centered on the theme of death and grief.

If you were to present ten of Dickinson’s poems on death and grief, which ten poems would you select?

* The first poem Gilbert read was “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House.” I wrote about it HERE.

* The second and third poems were “How many time these low feet staggered” and “That it will never come again.” I discussed them HERE.

* The fourth and fifth selections were “Two swimmers wrestled on the spar” and “If I may have it, when it’s dead.” I wrote about them HERE.

After reading the first five of ten poems by Dickinson, Gilbert turned to some of her own works focused on death and grief. Her poetry of remembrance of family members and friends was characterized by genuine sorrow framed with humor and vivid images of heartfelt memories. Each poem reflected a generous spirit for those lost to time, and each was a touching tribute of tenderness and power.

To conclude the program, Gilbert read five more of Dickinson’s poems, and with these five she included many of the poet’s “greatest hits”: “I’m going to read some of the poems you knew I had to read,” she said with a reassuring grin.

The first poem of the final five was “that poem of the maiden and her icy suitor,” “Because I could not stop for Death.”

Next came “I felt a Funeral, in my brain”: “Death is madness and madness death as the coffin drops into the grave,” said Gilbert.

Next she read, “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died”: “She imagines herself dying,” said Gilbert. “It’s an amazing poem of enactment, complete with a death watch.”

Next came – well – I have a confession to make: Next came the final poem by Dickinson selected by Gilbert. Either I missed one (remember, I was typing notes with one frantic finger into my iPhone as I was listening) – or Gilbert only recited nine and not ten of Dickinson’s poems. Oh well. Say, "la vee."

Anyway, the final poem by Dickinson was “Under the light, yet under,” an incredible contemplation of the phenomenon and paradox of death: while “it” (i.e., the deceased) is under the light, the grass and the clover’s root, it is also over the light and the arc of the bird – further than riddle can ride.

The poem is filled with far-fetched but astoundingly imaginative images, and of course, the final two (Further than Guess can gallop / Further than Riddle ride) call to mind the horses in “Because I could not stop for Death” as they galloped toward Eternity, “the Distance / Between Ourselves and the Dead!”

Under the Light, yet under,
Under the Grass and the Dirt,
Under the Beetle's Cellar
Under the Clover's Root,

Further than Arm could stretch
Were it Giant long,
Further than Sunshine could
Were the Day Year long,

Over the Light, yet over,
Over the Arc of the Bird –
Over the Comet's chimney –
Over the Cubit's Head,

Further than Guess can gallop
Further than Riddle ride –
Oh for a Disc to the Distance
Between Ourselves and the Dead!

Good Grief -- Part 3

12/29/2017

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

If you were to pick ten of Emily Dickinson’s poems on death and grief to present to others, which ten would you select?

I posed that question when I started writing about Sandra Gilbert’s presentation at the Folger Shakespeare Library for an observance of Dickinson’s 187th birthday.

My first post on Gilbert's presentation of “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House” is HERE.
My second post on “How many times these low feet staggered” and “That it will never come again” is HERE.

The next poem Gilbert discussed was “Two swimmers wrestled on a spar,” a work which Gilbert called “a terrifying poem,” one which “she could have collaborated with Poe.”

For me, this poem called to mind “Adrift! A little boat adrift,” Dickinson’s twelve-line poem with a similar tale, only told in reverse.

In “Adrift!” one small boat “gave up its strife / And gurgled down and down,” but a second boat “redecked its sails / And shot – exultant on!” Perhaps the swimmers from “Two swimmers wrestled on the spar” were, in fact, the sailors whose little boat “gave up its strife”?

Two swimmers wrestled on the spar –
Until the morning sun –
When one – turned smiling to the land –
Oh God! the Other One!

The stray ships – passing –
Spied a face –
Opon the waters borne –
With eyes in death – still begging raised –
And hands – beseeching – thrown!

Adrift! A little boat adrift!
And night is coming down!
Will no one guide a little boat
Unto the nearest town?

So Sailors say – on yesterday –
Just as the dusk was brown
One little boat gave up its strife
And gurgled down and down.

So angels say – on yesterday –
Just as the dawn was red
One little boat – o'erspent with gales –
Retrimmed its masts – redecked its sails –
And shot – exultant on!

Gilbert’s next selection was a macabre lament to a dead lover, “If I may have it, when it’s dead.”

Of course, the first thing Gilbert mentioned was that vexatious pronoun “it,” once again used to designate the dead in “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House.”

The Victorians had some peculiar customs surrounding death and mourning. For example, Victorians often posed for portraits with the recently deceased (click HERE), they covered mirrors to prevent trapping the deceased’s soul in their reflection, and mourners stopped clocks to mark the time of death (for additional information on “22 Morbid Death and Mourning Customs from the Victorian Era,” click HERE).

In another article I found (HERE), UC Berkeley’s Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost and expert on Victorian death, Carol Christ said, “Death was a common domestic fact of life for Victorians...so they developed elaborate rituals to deal with it.”

Did one of their customs include a reference to the dead with the third person impersonal pronoun “it”? I wonder.

Dickinson’s morbid love poem speaks to some forbidden relationship which now – only because one has died – can the two be united: “Think of it Lover! I and Thee / Permitted – face to face to be.” Whoever the “it” may be, the grieving but “contented” speaker in the poem asks the corpse’s forgiveness in the final stanza “if the Grave come slow”…

For Coveting to look at Thee --
Forgive me, if to stroke thy frost
Outvisions Paradise!

In 2013, Susan Kornfeld blogged about this poem (HERE), and asked, “Is there another dramatic monologue to a lover that matches this in pathos and an almost Gothic twist of imagination?”

Sandra Gilbert concluded her comments on this poem by calling it “an extraordinary love poem.”

So, "If I may have it, when it is dead" was the fifth of ten poems presented by literary critic and poet Sandra Gilbert. Five more to go! Check back soon, and I'll fill you in on the five remaining poems. : )

If I may have it, when it's dead,
I'll be contented — so --
If just as soon as Breath is out
It shall belong to me --

Until they lock it in the Grave,
'Tis Bliss I cannot weigh --
For tho' they lock Thee in the Grave,
Myself — can own the key --

Think of it Lover! I and Thee
Permitted — face to face to be --
After a Life — a Death — We'll say --
For Death was That --
And this — is Thee --

I'll tell Thee All — how Bald it grew --
How Midnight felt, at first — to me --
How all the Clocks stopped in the World --
And Sunshine pinched me — 'Twas so
cold --

Then how the Grief got sleepy — some --
As if my Soul were deaf and dumb --
Just making signs — across — to Thee --
That this way — thou could'st notice me --

I'll tell you how I tried to keep
A smile, to show you, when this Deep
All Waded — We look back for Play,
At those Old Times — in Calvary,

Forgive me, if the Grave come slow --
For Coveting to look at Thee --
Forgive me, if to stroke thy frost
Outvisions Paradise!

Good Grief -- Part 2

12/28/2017

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

On December 11, 2017, I attended an event in honor of Emily Dickinson's 187th birthday at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. That evening, poet and literary critic Sandra Gilbert read and discussed Dickinson's poems around the theme of death and grief.

Information about and pictures from the event are HERE and HERE.

My initial post on Gilbert's presentation is HERE, and related posts are HERE and HERE.

In my initial post on Gilbert's presentation, I posed the question, "If you were to present ten poems on death and grief by Emily Dickinson in a tribute to the poet, which ten poems would you select?" In that post, I discussed Gilbert's first selection, "There's been a Death, in the Opposite House."

The second poem was "How many times these low feet staggered," a heavy, gloomy poem about the death of a housewife.

In this poem, Death is not the “kindly” gentleman who “stops for me” with a carriage in a later poem. No, this look at death is much more intense for the "Indolent Housewife" now lying in the daisies.

Gilbert loved the image of the "adamantine fingers" which "Never a thimble – more – shall wear." With that and the other images in the poem, one wonders if this housewife ever found much peace or had much rest and solace in life at all.

I was not familiar with this poem, but I found interesting the reference to the buzz of the "dull flies – on the chamber window" and its connection to another later poem, "I heard a fly buzz – when I died."

How many times these low feet staggered –
Only the soldered mouth can tell –
Try – can you stir the awful rivet –
Try – can you lift the hasps of steel!

Stroke the cool forehead – hot so often –
Lift – if you care – the listless hair –
Handle the adamantine fingers
Never a thimble – more – shall wear –

Buzz the dull flies – on the chamber window –
Brave – shines the sun through the freckled
pane –
Fearless – the cobweb swings from the ceiling –
Indolent Housewife – in Daisies – lain!

In this poem, though, it was not the dying housewife who heard the uncertain, stumbling buzz; no in this case, it was the mourning speaker of the poem who perceived the dull pests' buzzing about the chamber window, the now-freckled pane with fearless cobwebs – now that the housewife is with the daisies.

In my rush to type out hurried notes on my iPhone with a frantic finger, I know I missed some of Gilbert's thoughts and observations. I did catch a particularly keen reflection, though, as she concluded her comments on "How many times these low feet staggered" when she marveled at "how Dickinson could describe what is very indescribable." This poem must have offered one of those instances when Gilbert "felt as if a bomb had exploded in my mind" (which I discussed in my post about Gilbert's discussion of "There's been a Death, in the Opposite House").

The next poem presented, "That it will never come again," opens with two lines of Dickinson's that are now familiar if not proverbial. However, with a gruff laugh, Gilbert made a succinct observation about the poem, "It certainly conveys a skeptical point of view of an after life," and moved on.

That it will never come again
Is what makes life so sweet.
Believing what we don't believe
Does not exhilarate.

That if it be, it be at best
An ablative estate –
This instigates an appetite
Precisely opposite.

I once saw an analysis of this poem that summed the whole thing up with, “Better a glimpse within the tavern caught than in the temple lost outright.” It’s no wonder that Mount Holyoke's headmistress, Mary Lyon, labeled young Emily Dickinson as a "no hoper."

More on Gilbert's tribute to Dickinson in later posts!

Mechanical Engineering

12/23/2017

From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request):

Recently I attended an Emily Dickinson birthday observance at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. At the event, literary critic and poet Sandra Gilbert discussed and recited some of Dickinson’s poetry on death and grief. Information and pictures are HERE and HERE.

Gilbert’s first selection was Dickinson’s “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,” and during her recitation, the word “mechanically” jumped out at me. It reminded me of the use of “mechanical” in “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.” I commented on the connection HERE.

That observation made me wonder -- in how many poems did Dickinson use the word “mechanical” (to include “mechanically” and “mechanic”)?

What’s your prediction?

I turned to the Emily Dickinson Archive (HERE) to find out. The answer is below.

According to the archive, Dickinson used some form of the word “mechanical” – to mean, “acting by the laws of motion, without intelligence or design” – in four poems. Well, maybe three depending upon how you count one of them.

The four poems are “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,” “After great pain, a formal feeling comes,” “From Blank to Blank,” and “She laid her docile Crescent down.”

Of course, I already discussed "There's been a Death, in the Opposite House" and "After great pain, a formal feeling comes" in previous posts.

Below on the left is "From Blank to Blank," and in both the 1955 Johnson edition of Dickinson's poetry and the 1998 Franklin edition, the poem is the same. However, the Dickinson archive included a version of the poem that showed
alternative word choices that Dickinson considered (below on the right).

From Blank to Blank –
A Threadless Way
I pushed Mechanic feet –
To stop – or perish – or advance –
Alike indifferent –

If end I gained
It ends beyond
Indefinite disclosed –
I shut my eyes – and groped as well
'Twas lighter – to be Blind –

From Blank to Blank –
A Threadless Way
I pushed Mechanic feet –
To stop – or perish – or advance –
Alike indifferent –

If end I (reached)
It ends beyond
Indefinite disclosed –
I shut my eyes – and groped as well
'Twas (firmer) – to be Blind –

When it came to "She laid her docile Crescent down," the Johnson edition version of the poem differed from the Franklin edition, and neither included the word "mechanic," "mechanical" or "mechanically."

JOHNSON EDITION:

She laid her docile Crescent down
And this confiding Stone
Still states to Dates that have forgot
The News that she is gone –

So constant to its stolid trust,
The Shaft that never knew –
It shames the Constancy that fled
Before its emblem flew –

FRANKLIN EDITION:

She laid her docile Crescent down
And this subjunctive Stone
Still states to Dates that have forgot
The News that she is gone –

So constant to its stolid trust,
The Shaft that never knew –
It shames the Constancy that fled
Before its emblem flew –

The Dickinson archive, though, included yet another version of the poem -- with the title "THE MONUMENT" -- and that version included the word "mechanic" (as wall as some alternative punctuation and capitalization). The "Publication History" in the archive stated, "Poems (1896), 157, as two quatrains, from the draft (A); in Poems (1930), 202, the text of line 2 became composite with the adoption of a variant ("confiding") from Higginson's copy" (if that makes any sense to you).

ARCHIVE VARIANT…entitled “THE MONUMENT”

She laid her docile Crescent down
And this mechanic Stone
Still states to Dates that have forgot
The News that she is gone –

So constant to it's stolid Trust
The shaft that never knew
It shames the Constancy that fled
Before it's Emblem flew –

So there you have it -- some "mechanical" engineering by Emily Dickinson. How do you think the word and/or the substitutes effect the meaning of the poems?