I shared a link to The Electric Classroom the other day, a site “sponsored in part by the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE).”
The site describes itself thusly:
“The Classroom Electric is a constellation of web sites on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and nineteenth-century American culture. Here users can explore images of original manuscripts, rare photographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, letters, and maps in sites informed by cutting-edge scholarship. While each site works as a stand-alone case study useful to students and teachers, the sites also link to each other, to other resources, and to the Dickinson Electronic Archives and the Walt Whitman Archive.”
I mentioned that I’d share one of the links from the site’s Table of Contents, and I picked “Spiders, the Web, and Dickinson & Whitman," HERE.
The site describes itself thusly:
“The Classroom Electric is a constellation of web sites on Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and nineteenth-century American culture. Here users can explore images of original manuscripts, rare photographs, notebooks, scrapbooks, letters, and maps in sites informed by cutting-edge scholarship. While each site works as a stand-alone case study useful to students and teachers, the sites also link to each other, to other resources, and to the Dickinson Electronic Archives and the Walt Whitman Archive.”
I mentioned that I’d share one of the links from the site’s Table of Contents, and I picked “Spiders, the Web, and Dickinson & Whitman," HERE.
I had hoped my favorite spider poem from Dickinson was featured, but alas no. The site states it “works outward from two well known poems, both treating spiders, and both composed at roughly the same time” – one is Dickinson's "A spider sewed at night" and Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider"
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All four versions of Dickinson's poem are HERE. All of the various versions of Whitman's poem are HERE.
More on all of this -- including my favorite spider poem by Dickinson -- tomorrow.
More on all of this -- including my favorite spider poem by Dickinson -- tomorrow.
CONTINUED ON 1/16/25:
In an 1862 letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Emily Dickinson wrote, “You ask of Walt Whitman—I never read his Book—but was told that he was disgraceful.” As I was exploring the Whitman-Dickinson connection, I found a site that dates back to the early days of the Internet (1998), and teachers and college professors put together a “web” of lessons on the two poets. The site is HERE.
From their table of contents, I clicked on “Spiders, the Web, and Dickinson & Whitman,” HERE.
When I saw the title of the lesson, I had hoped that it would feature my favorite of Dickinson’s spider poems, “Alone and in a circumstance,” but no, it centered on another of the poet’s arachnid-focused poems, “A spider sewed at night,” a fine work indeed – I just love the humor in “Alone and in a circumstance.” The lesson also includes “A noiseless patient spider” by Whitman.
The site also includes a page entitled “Poetic Contexta” (sic), with links to other spider poems – two additional by Dickinson (including “Alone and in a circumstance”) and nine other poems as well.
By the way, when one searches “spider” on the Dickinson archive, sixteen results pop up, representing six different poems.
“Alone and in a circumstance” is HERE. (NOTE: In line 21, “Leaned” is supposed to read “Learned”).
I love the opening eight lines – very Miss-Muffet-like and so funny! I can certainly relate to the speaker’s alarm and need to skidaddle! Then in lines 9 through 12, when she returns to reclaim her space, it has transformed into a “gynasium,” with spiders all a-swing on their web strings! LOL!
The rest of the poem recounts how one can take action if assaulted by another human (“if any strike me on the street / I can return the Blow - / If any take my property / According to the Law / The Statute is my Learned friend”). However, what legal course can one take for an offense brought on by spiders? The course of action is “not in Equity.”
In an 1862 letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Emily Dickinson wrote, “You ask of Walt Whitman—I never read his Book—but was told that he was disgraceful.” As I was exploring the Whitman-Dickinson connection, I found a site that dates back to the early days of the Internet (1998), and teachers and college professors put together a “web” of lessons on the two poets. The site is HERE.
From their table of contents, I clicked on “Spiders, the Web, and Dickinson & Whitman,” HERE.
When I saw the title of the lesson, I had hoped that it would feature my favorite of Dickinson’s spider poems, “Alone and in a circumstance,” but no, it centered on another of the poet’s arachnid-focused poems, “A spider sewed at night,” a fine work indeed – I just love the humor in “Alone and in a circumstance.” The lesson also includes “A noiseless patient spider” by Whitman.
The site also includes a page entitled “Poetic Contexta” (sic), with links to other spider poems – two additional by Dickinson (including “Alone and in a circumstance”) and nine other poems as well.
By the way, when one searches “spider” on the Dickinson archive, sixteen results pop up, representing six different poems.
“Alone and in a circumstance” is HERE. (NOTE: In line 21, “Leaned” is supposed to read “Learned”).
I love the opening eight lines – very Miss-Muffet-like and so funny! I can certainly relate to the speaker’s alarm and need to skidaddle! Then in lines 9 through 12, when she returns to reclaim her space, it has transformed into a “gynasium,” with spiders all a-swing on their web strings! LOL!
The rest of the poem recounts how one can take action if assaulted by another human (“if any strike me on the street / I can return the Blow - / If any take my property / According to the Law / The Statute is my Learned friend”). However, what legal course can one take for an offense brought on by spiders? The course of action is “not in Equity.”
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