Yesterday I posted Emily Dickinosn’s “Fly – fly – but as you fly.”
 | Many years ago I was in Chicago for a Poetry Slam at the Green Mill. I was not a competitor but a guest – I was there to recite poems by Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily’s third cousin, twice removed (at her request). While in Chicago, I visited the Poetry Foundation, and while in their library, I pulled a book of Dickinson’s poetry from a shelf. That’s when I first came across “Fly – fly – but as you fly.” I had never seen this poem before. |
Later, when I was back home, I checked Thomas Johnson’s “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson” to revisit the poem – but it was not included in the book. Say whaaa?
I contacted someone – I think a reference library at the Houghton Library at Harvard – and discovered the poem was to be found in Franklin’s edition of Dickinson's poems. That’s when I realized that Johnson’s 1960 volume was no longer “complete,” following Franklin’s 1998 update.
That’s when I began comparing the poems between the two editions.
Both have “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine” as the first poem, but that’s where the similarities end. Johnson’s number 2 is not found in Franklin at all. Johnson’s numbers 3, 4 and 5 are Franklin’s 2, 3, and 4. Johnson’s number 6 is Franklin’s number 24, and Johnson’s number 7 is Franklin’s 16.
Johnson’s 8 and 9 are Franklin’s 42 and 43, and Johnson’s 10 is Franklin’s 61.
Johnson’s volume includes 1775 poems; the last one in the book is “The earth has many keys.” This poem does not appear in Franklin at all. The Franklin edition includes a total of 1789 poems, and the final poem is “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise” (#1764 in Johnson).
“Fly – fly – but as you fly,” poem number 1244 in Franklin, was written in 1872. It was not included in previous editions because it was kept “among the prose fragments” and thought to be “raw material for a poem.”
The poem was written in pencil on the back of a flier advertising a decorated one-volume edition of “The Children’s Crusade” by George Zabriskie Gray. On the same page is a prose draft beginning “Paradise is no Journey.”
I contacted someone – I think a reference library at the Houghton Library at Harvard – and discovered the poem was to be found in Franklin’s edition of Dickinson's poems. That’s when I realized that Johnson’s 1960 volume was no longer “complete,” following Franklin’s 1998 update.
That’s when I began comparing the poems between the two editions.
Both have “Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine” as the first poem, but that’s where the similarities end. Johnson’s number 2 is not found in Franklin at all. Johnson’s numbers 3, 4 and 5 are Franklin’s 2, 3, and 4. Johnson’s number 6 is Franklin’s number 24, and Johnson’s number 7 is Franklin’s 16.
Johnson’s 8 and 9 are Franklin’s 42 and 43, and Johnson’s 10 is Franklin’s 61.
Johnson’s volume includes 1775 poems; the last one in the book is “The earth has many keys.” This poem does not appear in Franklin at all. The Franklin edition includes a total of 1789 poems, and the final poem is “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise” (#1764 in Johnson).
“Fly – fly – but as you fly,” poem number 1244 in Franklin, was written in 1872. It was not included in previous editions because it was kept “among the prose fragments” and thought to be “raw material for a poem.”
The poem was written in pencil on the back of a flier advertising a decorated one-volume edition of “The Children’s Crusade” by George Zabriskie Gray. On the same page is a prose draft beginning “Paradise is no Journey.”
 |  |
More on this tomorrow.
CONTINUED...
Yesterday I posted information about Emily Dickinson’s “Fly – fly – but as you fly.”
The poem was written in pencil on the back of a flier advertising a decorated one-volume edition of “The Children’s Crusade” by George Zabriskie Gray. On the same side as the poem is a prose draft beginning “Paradise is no Journey.”
What was the Children’s Crusade? From Wikipedia, I found this:
“The Children's Crusade (1212) was a failed Popular Crusade by the West to regain the Holy Land. The traditional narrative includes some factual and some mythical events including visions by a French boy and a German boy, an intention to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity, bands of children marching to Italy, and children being sold into slavery. Thomas Fuller referred to it as a Holy war in his Historie of the Holy Warre.”
Who was George Zabriskie Gray? I found this info, HERE
I even found Gray’s book that was advertised on the flyer, HERE.
The poem was written in pencil on the back of a flier advertising a decorated one-volume edition of “The Children’s Crusade” by George Zabriskie Gray. On the same side as the poem is a prose draft beginning “Paradise is no Journey.”
What was the Children’s Crusade? From Wikipedia, I found this:
“The Children's Crusade (1212) was a failed Popular Crusade by the West to regain the Holy Land. The traditional narrative includes some factual and some mythical events including visions by a French boy and a German boy, an intention to peacefully convert Muslims to Christianity, bands of children marching to Italy, and children being sold into slavery. Thomas Fuller referred to it as a Holy war in his Historie of the Holy Warre.”
Who was George Zabriskie Gray? I found this info, HERE
I even found Gray’s book that was advertised on the flyer, HERE.
 |  |
RSS Feed
