Just about a week ago, I posted Dickinson’s “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants.” There are a few variations of this poem, though one – sent to Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Dickinson’s cousin Frances Norcross – is lost. That particular version was included in Norcross’ letter which read, in part: "I am impelled to send to you my cousin’s poem on the mushroom and also this gem about a spider.” You can view the letter in Dickinson’s handwriting HERE.
Pictured below: Tiny spider webs in a field I ran by one morning this past week:
Pictured below: Tiny spider webs in a field I ran by one morning this past week:
I don’t know which “spider” poem was included with the letter – Dickinson wrote six different poems with the word “spider” – but I hope it was “Alone and in a circumstance.” I love that poem, and I would certainly refer to it as a “gem.” I have written about it in the past; check HERE.
 | Alas, after some investigation, I don’t believe this was the particular spider poem. No, I discovered that Dickinson sent “A Spider sewed at night” to her sister-in-law Susan in the summer of 1869. In her book “The Letters of Emily Dickinson,” edited and published by Cristanne Miller, the letter poem to Susan Dickinson includes this footnote: “Sent to Norcrosses (lost).” I also found Thomas Johnson’s notes on the poem which confirm the same, HERE.  |
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