Category: Morgan Library

Along Came A Spider

7/13/2024

I made a post on Counter Social earlier today about an incident that happened to me today. In short – I opened a small package of something that I had ordered online, and when I lifted the box’s flaps, hundreds of black bugs went scampering in all directions. Good lord – I threw the box down thinking that they were baby spiders! LOL. They turned out to be black ants, and I was able to get the box outside to release the ants in the woods.

Anyway, now that my heart has stopped pounding, I'm at my computer to type up a short post about a poem by Dickinson that came to mind, “Alone and in a circumstance.”

I’ve always loved this poem – the opening is just hilarious – but it is a bit odd, so I’ll talk a little about it today and then a little more about it tomorrow.

Actually, today I’ll just post the poem so that you can read it, and then I’ll also post a link of a video from a past exhibit at the Morgan Library of Dickinson memorabilia where some people involved with the exhibit discuss the poem.

Take a listen if/when you have a chance. The link is HERE.

CONTINUED...

Yesterday I posted the poem “Alone and in a circumstance” along with a video of a discussion of the poem when it was part of an exhibit of Emily Dickinson’s works in New York City.

I’ve posted it again below – and on the right of the pic, you can see the alternate word choice Dickinson considered.

The opening stanzas of this poems are hilarious! The speaker (Dickinson?) is alone at home, and along comes a spider! The spider seemed to feel more at home than the speaker – who “immediately withdrew.”

Later, the speaker returns to claim her space, but she found it “quietly assumed” by spiders swinging through the air as if her home were a Gymnasium (LOL – the “inmates of the Air”)>

The next part of the poem talks about how the speaker could take action through the courts, “according to the law,” were one to strike her on the street and/or take her property (“According to the Law / The Statute is my Learned Friend”) – but how do you reclaim your sense of self and/or your property if/when assailed by spiders?

A page about the poem at the Morgan Library is HERE.

Also, you might know that I set poems by Dickinson to music, and then in December a friend of mine sings them – I’m on the piano – and we host a concert around the time of Dickinson’s birthday. I’m working on a song based on this poem – I’m somewhat happy with it – still working on it – but lo and behold, I found a musical piece based on the poem.

OR – at least – based on the title. It’s a nice and easy, jazzy piece – but I don’t think it conveys the comic nature of the arachnophobia inherent in this poem.

You can listen to the piece HERE.

BTW: I love the name of Bloom's album -- "Wild Lines: Improvising Emily Dickinson" -- an allusion to her poem "Wild Nights!"

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Exit Strategy

4/10/2017

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From Jim Asher, the world's leading authority on Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Recently I traveled to New York City to conduct research surrounding the sometimes steady, sometimes volatile relationship between Emily Dickinson and Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request).

I visited various sites around the city, but my main destination was an exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum called “I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson.” Details surrounding my trip and extensive research can be found HERE.

After completing exhaustive work at the Morgan (and after similar investigative examinations at the Whitney and the Metropolitan Museum), I did what every other serious researcher and/or every museum-goer does: I exited through the gift shop. As a matter of fact, at the Morgan, I purchased a copy of The Networked Recluse – the Connected World of Emily Dickinson (below left) – published to accompany the exhibit at the Morgan – to add to the collection at the celebrated Emmett Lee Dickinson Library in historic Washerst, PA (the birthplace of Emmett Lee Dickinson) (below right).

Above: All of the Dickinson stuff in the Morgan Library's gift shop.

So once again it worked – the “exit through the gift shop” strategy, the very strategy first conceived by Emmett Lee Dickinson, and later immortalized in “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” the 2010 film about (and possibly by) graffiti artist Banksy.

Dickinson first wrote about the “exit through the gift shop” concept in his now-classic poem “’Tis customary as you part” (below on the left). Dickinson’s strategem not only inspired museums around the world to adopt the approach, but it also inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “’Tis customary as we part” (before on the right).

Of course, an early adopter of Dickinson’s “exit through the gift shop” strategy was, in fact, the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (before it burned down in the raging inferno that devastated historic Washerst on New Year’s Eve in 2015; information about that calamity is HERE). The museum tantalized Dickinson fans and lovers of poetry with a whole host of poetry-related gift items as they exited the museum. A catalog of the available items is HERE.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

'Tis customary as you part
A trinket – to purchase –
It helps to stimulate our growth
When Guests shop with purpose –

'Tis varied haul – for the various tastes –
For Patrons – exiting through –
The Gift Shop with the single Aim
Of our Eclectic Loot –

By Emily Dickinson:

'Tis customary as we part
A trinket – to confer –
It helps to stimulate the faith
When Love be afar –

'Tis various – as the various taste –
Clematis – journeying far –
Presents me with a single Curl
Of her Electric Hair –

Now, the Emmett Lee Dickinson is embarking on a plan to rebuild and rise from the ashes. The Board of Directors of the museum has begun on a 15.6 billion dollar project to reconstruct the museum in the now-abandoned Dickinson Lanes bowling alley (information is HERE). Of course, when all the work is done, the dust has settled, and the museum has reopened, we can guarantee that the ELD will reestablish itself as one of the great museums of the world – and that all visitors will exit through the gift shop.

Below: The abandoned Dickinson Lanes bowling alley, site of the future ELD Museum.

Below: The vision for the 15.6 billion dollar project to rebuild the ELD Museum.

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A poetry log for the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard in historic Washerst, Pennsylvania).

Along Came A Spider

Exit Strategy

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