Clean Sweep

From our 19th century historian Eudora Dickinson:

Did you know that Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) was the first person to receive a gold medal at a modern Olympics? 

Dickinson was the Skip (or captain) of the US curling team, and they won the first gold medals in the Olympic games in Färht, Sweden, in 1880.   During the medal ceremony, Dickinson was the first to receive a medal.  

Dickinson wrote about the experience in two now-classic poems, "Winter under competition" and "With Brooms of Steel" (both below on the left).  Dickinson's two line "Winter under competition" inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Winter under cultivation" (below on the right).  His other poem inspired Emily to write "Like Brooms of Steel" (also below on the right). ​
​

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
Winter under competition
Is now winnable with Bling
​

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Winter under cultivation
Is as arable as Spring.
​

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:
 
With Brooms of Steel
In Snow and Wind
They swept the Winter Ice –
The House was hooked
The Stone sent out
It’s landing was Precise –
Where stopped the Stone
The Score was tied
The Skip was – plotting Still
The Final in the Center stood
Gold medals were supplied.
​

By Emily Dickinson:
 
Like Brooms of Steel
The Snow and Wind
Had swept the Winter Street --
The House was hooked
The Sun sent out
Faint Deputies of Heat --
Where rode the Bird
The Silence tied
His ample — plodding Steed
The Apple in the Cellar snug
Was all the one that played.
​

Below on the left:  Many believe that this is a photograph of Emmett Lee Dickinson practicing on the roof of a life preserver hut he kept in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  Dickinson said that practicing on the roof allowed him the quiet and undisturbed environment he needed for concentration.

Below on the right:  President Rutherford B. Hayes with Emmett Lee Dickinson's broom used in curling in the 1880 Olympic games.  Dickinson's presented the broom to President Hayes after he returned from the games.  The broom is now on display in the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington DC.

Dickinson's relative Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn, Sweden's preeminent poet, witnessed Dickinson's gold-medal win at the Olympics, and she wrote about it in her poem "Swishen tīmen hâst kapützen här" (below on the left).  The poem, which translates as "Sweep hours have perished here," inspired Emily Dickinson to write her poem "Sweet hours have perished here" (below on the right). 

For more information on the Dickinson's relative Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn, click HERE. 

​By Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn:

Swishen tīmen hâst kapützen här,
Dist es ein livlig rink –
Inmit dis zone swiffers hâst
​        frølickt
Mit grânit boolders das klink.
​

Translation:

Sweep hours have perished here,
This is a lively rink –
Within its precincts brooms have
       played
With granite slabs that clink.

By Emily Dickinson:

Sweet hours have perished here,
This is a timid room -
Within its precincts hopes have
       played
Now shadows in the tomb.