Yesterday I shared an article entitled “15 pairs of words that seem etymologically related but aren’t.” The tagline for the piece offered one example: “There's no bomb in bombast.” That subtitle made me wonder, “was Dickinson more bomb than bombast?” I checked the Dickinson archive and found that the Belle of Amherst never used the word “bombast” in any of her poems. However, she did use the word “bomb,” in four poems.
That info got a little weird, though, with one of the four poems. In the Johnson edition, a set of five lines that includes the word “bomb” appears in the poem “I tie my Hat – I crease my Shawl.” However, in the Franklin edition, that exact same set of lines appears in a different poem, “A Pit – but Heaven over it.” The confusion seems to have stemmed from a torn (and lost?) page from one of Dickinson’s fascicles.
My post concluded with this: “And then there’s the poem ‘One Joy of so much anguish.’ That poem popped up in the results when I ran a search for ‘bomb’ on the Dickinson archive, but the word doesn’t appear in the poem at all. What’s up with that?”
That info got a little weird, though, with one of the four poems. In the Johnson edition, a set of five lines that includes the word “bomb” appears in the poem “I tie my Hat – I crease my Shawl.” However, in the Franklin edition, that exact same set of lines appears in a different poem, “A Pit – but Heaven over it.” The confusion seems to have stemmed from a torn (and lost?) page from one of Dickinson’s fascicles.
My post concluded with this: “And then there’s the poem ‘One Joy of so much anguish.’ That poem popped up in the results when I ran a search for ‘bomb’ on the Dickinson archive, but the word doesn’t appear in the poem at all. What’s up with that?”
 | Here’s the skinny on that: Take a look at line 6: “Before the Quick of Day.” Dickinson wasn’t so sure about that wording, and she considered using “Before the Drums of Day” or “the Bells of Day.” She also thought about the “Burst” of day, the “Flags” of day, the “Ripe” of day, and the “Peal” of day. Which of those do you prefer? Dickinson also contemplated using the “Step” and the “Tick” of day. It doesn’t end there, though. She even weighed the “Shouts” of day, the “Pink” of day, the “Red” of day, the “Blade” of day, and – you guessed it – the “Bomb” day. |
There’s that word “bomb” – and that’s why “One Joy of so much anguish” showed up in the search results when I ran my bomb search!
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