Happy Leap Day, one and all!
Since it’s ‘Leap Day,” I checked to see if Dickinson ever mentioned Leap Year (or Leap Day) in any of her poems – and the answer is “no.”
She used the word “leap” in 18 different poems, and there is no poem where “leap” and “year” are used together or separately – nor is there a poem with “leap” and “day.”
The closest to that is the poem “Blazing in gold and quenching in purple,” which uses the words “leaping” and “day” – OR – the poem “Let Us play Yesterday,” which uses the words “leap” and “yesterDAY” (but not just plain old “day”). In both poems, the words are used lines apart.
Since it’s ‘Leap Day,” I checked to see if Dickinson ever mentioned Leap Year (or Leap Day) in any of her poems – and the answer is “no.”
She used the word “leap” in 18 different poems, and there is no poem where “leap” and “year” are used together or separately – nor is there a poem with “leap” and “day.”
The closest to that is the poem “Blazing in gold and quenching in purple,” which uses the words “leaping” and “day” – OR – the poem “Let Us play Yesterday,” which uses the words “leap” and “yesterDAY” (but not just plain old “day”). In both poems, the words are used lines apart.
 | To check out "Let Us play Yesterday," click HERE. As far as I can tell, Dickinson did not mention “leap year” or “leap day” in any of her letters – but I did not complete an exhaustive search on this – so I can’t say I’m 100% sure on this. :-) Interestingly, I did find a Dickinson Lexicon – sponsored by BYU (HERE) – and it includes an entry for “Leap Year” – but they don’t reference where this is from in Dickinson’s works/letters. |
RSS Feed
