Two days ago I wrote about Frank Lloyd Wright’s adoration of cows (HERE), and I shared two poems by Dickinson that feature the word “cow.” Yesterday (HERE), I continued the theme by discussing a poem by Dickinson with the word “cattle.”
“Cattle” is an odd word because it is a “plurale tantum” (Latin for "plural only"), a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular equivalent for referring to a single object. Other plural tantums are “pants,” “suds,” “scissors,” and “shenanigans.”
Hmm. Are there singular nouns which have no plural form, a singulare tantum?
Yes, words like “information,” “homework,” “butter,” “mud,” and “furniture” have no plural form – and of course, there are some singular forms which we also use as plurals, words like “deer,” “sheep,” and “fish.”
Okay, so back to my look into “cattle”
I ran a search in the Dickinson archive for the word “cattle,” and thirteen entries popped up representing four poems:
“The Wind begun to knead the Grass”
“The Winters are so short”
“They called me to the window, for”
“Those cattle smaller than a bee”
Yesterday, I shared “They called me to the window, for,” and today, check out line 14 in “The Wind begun to knead the Grass”: “The cattle flung to barns.”
“Cattle” is an odd word because it is a “plurale tantum” (Latin for "plural only"), a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular equivalent for referring to a single object. Other plural tantums are “pants,” “suds,” “scissors,” and “shenanigans.”
Hmm. Are there singular nouns which have no plural form, a singulare tantum?
Yes, words like “information,” “homework,” “butter,” “mud,” and “furniture” have no plural form – and of course, there are some singular forms which we also use as plurals, words like “deer,” “sheep,” and “fish.”
Okay, so back to my look into “cattle”
I ran a search in the Dickinson archive for the word “cattle,” and thirteen entries popped up representing four poems:
“The Wind begun to knead the Grass”
“The Winters are so short”
“They called me to the window, for”
“Those cattle smaller than a bee”
Yesterday, I shared “They called me to the window, for,” and today, check out line 14 in “The Wind begun to knead the Grass”: “The cattle flung to barns.”
 | Wow, that must have been some storm, huh – with winds strong enough to fling cattle into barns? Well, that’s not the meaning of “flung” here. An archaic use of flung (and its root, fling) was "to run or rush” (additionally, in Middle English, the verb fling had a regular past tense, flang, and an archaic past participle, flungen, that have since fallen out of use) – so the cattle, in Dickinson’s poem, ran into the barn to get out of harm's way. Also, in another bit of trivia related to cattle, Dickinson scholar and editor Thomas Johnson included this in his notes about an 1870 letter from Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson: |
In later years, Emily Dickinson claimed that her father approved no bread except hers; she was, indeed, an accomplished baker. Her round loaf of Indian and Rye won second prize in the Amherst Cattle Show of 1856, though admittedly her sister Lavinia was one of the judges. Dickinson specialized in desserts as well. Thomas Wentworth Higginson reported Dickinson’s comments about sweets in a letter to his wife: “‘People must have puddings’ this [was said] very dreamily, as if they were comets—so she makes them” (L342a).
Turns out that Dickinson’s father was the chairman of the annual Cattle Show. LOL – I’m surprised she didn’t win first place!
BTW, the letter from ED to TWH about which Johnson made these comments is HERE. Johnson’s complete comments are HERE.
The notes are definitely worth the read; they include this fascinating observation from Higginson:
“She was much too enigmatical a being for me to solve in an hour's interview, and an instinct told me that the slightest attempt at direct cross-examination would make her withdraw into her shell; I could only sit still and watch, as one does in the woods; I must name my bird without a gun, as recommended by Emerson.”
Turns out that Dickinson’s father was the chairman of the annual Cattle Show. LOL – I’m surprised she didn’t win first place!
BTW, the letter from ED to TWH about which Johnson made these comments is HERE. Johnson’s complete comments are HERE.
The notes are definitely worth the read; they include this fascinating observation from Higginson:
“She was much too enigmatical a being for me to solve in an hour's interview, and an instinct told me that the slightest attempt at direct cross-examination would make her withdraw into her shell; I could only sit still and watch, as one does in the woods; I must name my bird without a gun, as recommended by Emerson.”
STOP THE PRESSES: I looked into the history of the Amherst Cattle Show and found this site, HERE, which states that the first ACS was held in 1864 – but Johnson’s notes indicate Dickinson won the baking prize in 1856.
I’ve emailed the Jones Library in Amherst, publisher of the site, to clear up this mystery (if they are unable to do so, I’ll notify NBC's "Dateline" asap).
I’ve emailed the Jones Library in Amherst, publisher of the site, to clear up this mystery (if they are unable to do so, I’ll notify NBC's "Dateline" asap).
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