Category: Emily Dickinson

All About Eve

12/30/2024

On this eve of New Year’s Eve, I thought I’d take a look at the number of poems by Dickinson which use the word “eve” – and that number is four. Hmm…or is it five?

In the poem "Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,” the first poem in both the Johnson and Franklin editions [and sometimes referred to as “Valentine Week” because (a) it was written during Valentine week of 1850 and (b) Dickinson wrote “Valentine Week” at the top of the page], Dickinson used the name “Eve” in line 8: “Adam, and Eve, his consort, the moon, and then the sun.”

In line 6 of “Besides the Autumn poets sing,” Dickinson uses the plural of “eve,” her shown with line 5:

A few incisive Mornings --
A few Ascetic Eves --

In the poem “Better than Music! For I who heard it,” Dickinson used the name “Eve” again, “Eve” from Eden.

In line six of “She went as quiet as the Dew,” Dickinson wrote “From out my summer's eve.”

So those are the four poems which use the word (or name) “eve.”

However, when you search “eve” on the online Dickinson archive, eleven entries pop up representing five poems. The fifth poem is “I bring an unaccustomed wine” – and take a look at lines 6 and 7 from this poem below – with the plural of the word “eve”:

Hmm…now where have I heard those lines before? Those are the same lines from “Besides the Autumn poets sing,” one of the poems already discussed.

Did Dickinson re-use the lines in this other poem?

No. It seems as though the online archive has erroneously combined the two poems. The first three lines in the pic are correct, but then – starting with the fourth line – the poem shifts to the other poem.

I’ve sent a notice to the archive’s tech support explaining the problem, so hopefully, it will be corrected soon – so for now, back to Dickinson’s use of the word “eve.” She used the word “eve” in two poems, and the name “Eve” in two poems – and no poem mentions “New Year’s Eve.”

Have Your Fill

12/29/2024

I suspect you are all familiar with Abraham Lincoln’s well-known and oft-quoted bit of advice he gave his son Tad, “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet.”

I mention that because I came across a past “Women’s History Month” post from Colorado State University about Emily Dickinson, and it states, “Poet Emily Dickinson was born in 1930 in Amherst, Massachusetts.”

While there is other misinformation on the page (for example, ten of Dickinson’s poems were published in her lifetime, not seven), the incorrect year of her birth was merely the result of a typo – 1930 in place of 1830 – and I’m sure the eyes and brain of the person who published the post saw “1830” when they proofread the site because they expected to see “1830.”

This phenomenon it's often called "expectation bias" or "brain-filling" - essentially, your brain sees what it expects to see or fills in the gaps with what it thinks should be there, causing you to overlook actual errors in the text.

BTW: Three things I’m a true-believer in are (1) Murphy’s Law, (2) the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, and (3) Expectation Bias. Hmm…let me add a fourth: (4) the Peter Principle.

Okay, at a later date/time, Imma have to add a few more generalizations to the list I just cited from this site, HERE.

Perhaps I need to develop “Asher’s Caveat”: “When exploring the number of times a word is used by Dickinson in her poetry, there is never a specific number.” I’ll delve into this tomorrow when I look into how often she used the word “eve” (in recognition of the upcoming Eve of the New Year).

Also, I’ll work on re-wording “Asher’s Caveat.” When I drafted the axiom, I couldn’t help but think of Charles Dickens’ admonition, “Never say ‘never.’”

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho

12/26/2024

Today’s the 26th. The holiday is over – and a great pain has settled in. Not from the hoard of Christmas cookies, puddings and pies you’ve consumed, but from the sound of the alarm bell on your clock reminding you that it’s time to ready for work!

Just before Christmas I was posting Dickinson poetry translated into corporate buzzwords, and I have a handful more; today’s offering is “After great pain, a formal feeling comes.”

If, in fact, it is too painful to proceed to your cubicle, contact your EAP. I’m sure they can help!

Pictured below: Counselors at the world headquarters for the Guild of Employee Assistance Program Counselors

I'm Dreaming of the Right Christmas?

12/24/2024

I’ve been posting various Dickinson’s poems translated into corporate buzzwords, but not today! Since it's Christmas Eve, I’ll pause for a bit of Christmas spirit. I happened to stumble upon a site with a post from 2020 entitled “Christmas Spirit with Emily Dickinson," HERE.

Hmm…there are few oddities about the site, though.

The first lines quoted are taken from one of the three poems by Dickinson which include the word “Christmas” – though the lines are not quoted correctly (of course, they could come from some variation of the poem I’m not familiar with).

The site cites these lines:

And if my stocking hung too high,
Would it blur the Christmas glee,
That not a Santa Claus could reach
The altitude of me?

However, both the Johnson and Franklin editions of Dickinson’s poetry have the lines like this:

And would it blur the Christmas glee
My Stocking hang too high
For any Santa Claus to reach
The altitude of me –

Plus, the poem, “’Twas just this time, last year, I died,” was written from the perspective of one who had died – hence “The altitude of me.”

Following those four lines, the site includes two other poems by Dickinson, “The Savior must have been” and “Before the ice is in the pools” (another of Dickinson’s “Christmas” poems).

The really odd feature, though, is that the site concludes the post with a poem entitled “A Christmas Carol” (the first line is “Welcome, sweet Christmas, blest be the morn“) – but Dickinson did NOT write this poem.

But this gets even weirder. When I was trying to figure who did write the poem, I came across this site, HERE.

I tried to send a message to famouspoetsandpoems.com using their “Contact Us” link to let them know that Dickinson did NOT write that poem, but the feature malfunctioned.

Then, lo and behold, look what I found on the same site, HERE. It's the exact same poem, but this time it is attributed to William Topaz McGonagall -- and according to a list on Wikipedia, HERE, McGonagall did write the poem.

And get this -- here's some info I found about the poet: "William McGonagall was a Scottish poet and public performer. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work."

Hilarious!

Imma have to look into William McGonagall a bit further one of these days! For now, though, that's it for this Christmas Eve -- and just FYI: no post tomorrow. I'll be on the road. I'll be back with my next post on the 26th.

Buzz Words

12/19/2024

Yesterday, I discussed some lines from a letter Dickinson wrote to a sick friend (HERE), and believe it not, the idea of Dickinson’s “business” (“My business is love”) reminded me of some corporate jargon – soooo…

With that in mind, I’ll post a few poems this week where I translate Dickinson’s language to corporate buzzwords.

The first (pictured below) is "This is my letter to the world."

Pictured below: The Strategic Communications Office at the American Research Center for the Study of Buzzwords, Business Jargon, and Policyspeak.

Business Letter

12/18/2024

A couple of days ago, I was checking to see if Emily Dickinson ever played any Beethoven on the piano. While there is no evidence that that might have been the case, I did stumble upon a site with this quote from Dickinson, “My business is to sing.”

Hmm…did she mean herself, her business was to sing? And by “sing,” did she mean “write poetry”?

Well, no, not really – but close.

The quote comes from a letter to a sick friend, and in it Dickinson stated,, “My business is to love,” and then she compared her “business” to that of a bird she’d encountered:

“I found a bird, this morning, down - down - on a little bush at the foot of the garden, and wherefore sing, I said, since nobody hears?

One sob in the throat, one flutter of my bosom - "My business is to sing" - and away she rose!”

LOL – I’m going venture into territory here that I generally despise – corporate jargon – because but all of Dickinson’s “my business” stuff reminded me of the “Hedgehog Concept” from the book “Good to Great,” a concept related to the intersection of three circles: 1) what you are deeply passionate about, 2) what you can be the best in the world at, and 3) what best drives your “economic or resource engine.”

The name “hedgehog effect” comes from an ancient Greek parable where a fox is said to know many things, while a hedgehog only knows one big thing - which is to curl up into a ball with its spikes out, representing the idea of focusing on a single, strong core competency rather than trying to do many things moderately well; essentially, the hedgehog's "one big thing" is its defense mechanism, which is highly effective when utilized fully.

I always thought it odd that in professional development seminars I attended, consultants and higher-ups would encourage us to focus on our “hedgehog skills,” and the idea was all based on an animal’s defense mechanism.

I mean, I like the idea of focusing on something you’re passionate about (a la Dickinson), but I cringe at the thought of thinking of one’s passion in terms of defense reactions.

LOL – I apologize for turning corporate, so let me instead highlight another, more literate, comparison – that of Jacob Marley’s rebuke of Ebenezer Scrooge’s outlook on life:

“The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

I think Dickinson would find that comparison a bit more to her liking – and as she said, her business was love.

BTW: The complete letter referenced above can be found HERE.

Moonlighting

12/17/2024

Yesterday was Beethoven’s birthday, and I posted info about the Moonlight Sonata (HERE). I ended the post wondering if Dickinson had ever used the word “moonlight” in any of her poems.

Dickinson did use the word “moon” in 23 poems and “Luna” in one, but did she ever use “moonlight”?

Nope. “Moonlight” does not appear in any poems (nor does the word “sunlight”); however, the word “light” does appear in one of the “moon” poems.

Wellll….sorta. The word “lightly” appears in one of the “moon” poems – and that’s kind of close to “light,” no?

The poem is “Lightly stepped a yellow star,” and that’s as close as one gets to “moonlight” in any of Dickinson’s poetry.

Lightly stepped a yellow star
To its lofty place -
Loosed the Moon her silver hat
From her lustral Face -
All of Evening softly lit
As an Astral Hall -
Father, I observed to Heaven,
You are punctual.

How Dashing!

12/15/2024

I gave a pop quiz yesterday on Dickinson’s use of the word “Wednesday” in her poetry; HERE.

Surprise, surprise – I have another pop quiz for you today:

Who said, “Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all”?

A. Clement Clarke Moore
B. Saint Nicholas
C. Ellie May Clampett (about Dash Riprock)
D. Emily Dickinson

Well, I’ll accept both A and B as correct answers, but maybe I should give partial credit to those who chose D as the answer since the quoted line seems to sum up Dickinson’s style of punctuation?

Are you familiar with the various types of dashes – the hyphen, the en dash, nd the em dash?

I stumbled across this gentleman on Reels the other day, and he sums up the three types of dashes rather neatly.

Click the image at the right to view the video.

So which dash did Dickinson use?

Well, I checked her draft of “This is my letter to the world,” and then I took a look at the poem in various editions and on various sites to see how editors depicted her dashes. See below.

The first pic is the poem in Dickinson’s own handwriting.

The second pic is how the poem was represented in the first ever edition of Dickinson's poems in 1890.

The next three pics show how the poem with its dashes was printed in the Johnson (1960), the Franklin (1998), and the Miller (2016) editions of Dickinson’s poetry (click the images to enlarge).

The final pic shows the poem as it was represented on six randomly chosen web sites (click the image to enlarge).

Back to today's pop quiz on who said "“Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all”?

I think I'll give full credit to anyone who wrote in "Mrs. Dash" as the answer too!

TGIS?

12/14/2024

Okay, everyone – I have a pop quiz for you today! Get out a paper and pencil.

The quiz is based on yesterday’s post, and if you missed yesterday’s post & need to review it first, you can find it HERE.

Once you feel that you’re ready for the quiz, here it is (keep your eyes on your own paper):

How many poems by Dickinson include the word “Wednesday”?

A. 2
B. 2 ⅔
C. 3
4. All of the above

I’ll grade all the quizzes and get your scores back to you as soon as I can.

For now, let’s move on to “Saturday.” How many of Dickinson’s poems include the word “Saturday”?

None. However, editor Mabel Loomis Todd gave one of Dickinson’s poems the title “Saturday Afternoon” in the third edition of selected poems published in 1896.

Hmm…perhaps a better name would have been something like “School’s Out,” for the poem doesn’t really describe a Saturday afternoon; rather, it describes the burst of energy when “a mob of solid bliss” (i.e., the students) is released from school and “They storm the earth and stun the air.”

TGIS!

TGIF?

12/13/2024

I’ve had a busy week, and I’m behind on a few things – including various paths I plan to explore with my #DickinsonDaily posts – so I thought today maybe I’d do a quick check on Dickinson’s use of the word “Friday” – that would make for a nice and easy post, no?

No – cuz there’s a bit of confusion.

First I checked on how many poems Dickinson wrote with the word “Friday.” There were none (so that part was easy).
Next, I decided to check the other days of the week, and it turns out that only two days were ever named in Dickinson’s poems: Sunday and Wednesday.

“Sunday” was used in two poems, “I never felt at home – below” and “If anybody’s friend be dead.”

“Wednesday” was used in three poems, “Dew is the freshet in the grass,” “I never felt at home – below,” and “We spy the Forests and the Hills.”

SIDE NOTE: “Freshet” is the flood of a river from heavy rain or melted snow, and the pic below shows its rise and then decline in use over the years

A closer look at the Dickinson archive surprised me, for I noticed that the last poem, “We spy the Forests and the Hills,” appeared only in a 1914 edition of selected poems, “The Single Hound,” so I decided to check for it in my Johnson & Franklin editions. Hmm…it’s not included in either volume.

Well, that struck me as odd – a poem that was included in a 1914 edition of Dickinson’s poetry but not included in either of the late-twentieth century volumes of the poet’s “complete works.” So much for a nice and easy post today, huh?

It turns out that the poem “We spy the Forests and the Hills” consists of the second and third stanzas of another poem, “Dew is the freshet in the grass” (which is included in both Johnson and Franklin), and Dickinson sent those two stanzas as a stand alone poem to her sister-in-law Susan in late 1865. See the images below.

BTW: Johnson dates “Dew is the freshet in the grass” from 1866; Franklin dates the poem as 1865 – the same year at the letter – so I wonder if the three-stanza poem came first or the two-stanza version?

Oh – and then there’s the problem with “Saturday.” As Scarlett O’Hara so famously said, “Fiddle-de-dee, I'll worry about that tomorrow!"