Category: Word Choice

Game On!

12/6/2020

If you were to play a classic board game with Emily Dickinson -- based on word usage in her poetry -- the chosen game would likely be the game of Life and not Monopoly because Dickinson never used the word "monopoly" in any of her poems, but she used the word "life" in 142 different poems.

Here's how the vintage games stack up (according to the number of poems in which the words appear):

Monopoly: 0
Chess & Checkers: 0
Clue: 1
Scrabble: 1
Concentration: 2
Sorry: 6
Risk: 7
Trouble: 19
Life: 142

Even though Dickinson used the word "clue" only once in her poetry, I did wonder what would it be like to play the classic detective game with her. Here's how it would turn out:

The culprit who committed the murder would be Mrs. White, because Dickinson used the word "white" in 25 different poems, and she never mentioned Colonel "mustard" or Professor "plum." Here's the breakdown of the characters' names as used in Dickinson's poetry:

Mustard: 0
Plum: 0
Green: 15
Scarlet: 17
Peacock: 1
White: 25

And which weapon would Mrs. White have used? Most likely a fire arm:

Candle: 6*
Knife: 1
Pipe: 3
Lead: 5
Revolver: 1
Gun: 6
Rope: 5
Wrench: 1***

* Dickinson never used the word "candlestick," but she did use "candle" 6 times -- and she even used the word "stick" once.

** Dickinson used the word "lead" in 21 poems; however, in only 5 poems did she mean "lead," a heavy metal.

*** Dickinson also used the word "wrenched" in one poem and "wrenching" in another.

New versions of the game "Clue" include additional weapons, so here is how they fared:

Poison: 0
Bat: 0*
Club: 1
Trophy: 0
Axe: 2
Dumbbell: 0
Weight:: 3**

* Dickinson did use the word "bat" once, but it was for the creature; she did, though, used the word "club" once.

** Dickinson never used the word "dumbbell," but she did used the word "weight" ten times -- and three times the word referred to a heavy object.

Finally, where would the victim have been murdered? "Hall" is used most often in Dickinson's poetry, but I don't think that location is one of the choices for the murder in "Clue"; the hall is just used to move characters around. Therefore, in the traditional game, the murder would have taken place in the "dining room."*

Study: 0
Kitchen: 1
Ballroom: 1
Conservatory: 1
Billiard Room: 0**
Library 1
Hall: 5
Lounge: 0
Dining Room: 2

* The word "room" is used in 36 different poems -- and in two of those poems, Dickinson actually said "Dining Room."

** "Pool" is used in 10 poems, but never as the game similar to "billiards."

NOTE: Some more modern versions of "Clue" include the cellar as a possible murder site -- and "cellar" was used in 4 different poems.

So there you have it -- in a traditional game of "Clue" -- based on word usage in the poems of Emily Dickinson -- the murder would have been committed by Mrs. White with a gun in the dining room (and in the cellar in an up-to-date version of the game).

For more statistics on word usage in the poems of Emily Dickinson, click HERE.

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Eight Is Enough

12/5/2020

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I'm looking for EIGHT people on this earth -- maybe TWELVE. Which eight (or possibly twelve) people? I'll get back to that in just a minute. For now, read on. : ) INFO RE: THE EIGHT PEOPLE I'M SEARCHING FOR IS BELOW.

In the past few days and weeks, I’ve been posting tables and charts with visual representations of word use in Dickinson’s poems. You can see the fruits of my labor HERE.

Can these charts and tables reveal anything about the poet?

For example, when writing about various living things, Dickinson used the word “creature” in 35 different poems, and she used the word “animal” in only one (she even used the word “beast” in two poems).

Dickinson’s poems that mention “summer” (103 poems) outnumber the combined total of poems where she wrote of the other three seasons (68 poems). Interestingly enough, though, she used "cold" terminology more frequently than words of "warmth" (“cool,” “cold,” and “frozen” were used in 53 different poems; “hot,” “warm,” and “warmth” were used in a total of 31 poems).

I’ll admit, I having fun doing this. I find it interesting to discover that Dickinson made many more references to music than she did to art which outnumbered mentions of writing and poetry. I find it curious that she used the word “frog” more often than “deer” or “fox” – and that the common house fly appeared in more poems than “frog,” “deer” and “fox” combined.

In tribute to my investigations of Dickinson's word choice, I have posted Emmett Lee Dickinson's "I count the words to every poem," below on the left. Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "I found the words to every thought," below on the right.

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

I count the words to every poem
She ever put – to Pen –
And that – absorbs me –
As her Hand did set to write the Poems

And Letters – nurtured at her Desk –
How would the next – begin?
Can Sense be shown in all the Counts –
And Then -- what does it Mean?

By Emily Dickinson:

I found the words to every thought
I ever had – but One –
And that – defies me –
As a Hand did try to chalk the Sun

To Races – nurtured in the Dark –
How would your own – begin?
Can Blaze be shown in Cochineal –
Or Noon – in Mazarin?

Okay -- about those eight (or maybe twelve) people:

Just yesterday, my wife said that I could be raking the yard or loading the dishwasher or putting away the laundry instead of analyzing the poetry of Emily Dickinson. She said I was being too dedicated to my work. Okay, okay -- she didn't say that. She said I was being too anal. :-D Then she posed a most preposterous question: "Do you think there are even eight people on this earth who care about that stuff?"

I told her that, yes, I thought there were eight people on earth who cared -- and I told her I would try to find those eight people.

That's when she said, "Well, up the number to twelve if you count those people at the museum." She was referring to the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA, and not the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum in Washerst (pronounced "WAS-herst"), PA.

Anyway, if you're one of the eight (or twelve) people on this earth who care, please comment below or tweet to me on Twitter. My Twitter name is @The_Dickinson.

Thank you.

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

11/11/2020

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The Emily Dickinson Archive (HERE) is an "open access website for the manuscripts of Emily Dickinson," and it's a great resource for scholars researching Dickinson's poetry.

One useful feature of the archive is that you can search for a particular word -- for example, in the picture below, I searched for the word "bleakness" -- and then you can explore the text from a particular poem and even from a specific publication of the poem (again, in the picture below, I selected a version of "On the bleakness of my lot" from the 1998 Franklin Variorum).

An additional feature I like is that the archive's transcriptions show the various word choices Dickinson was considering for her poems.

In the example at the right, "On the Bleakness of my Lot," take a look at the second stanza. Dickinson considered "steadfast tilled" vs. "steady tilled," and she considered "reward" and "repay" before settling on "refund."

Some other examples are below. You can click the images to enlarge.

From the poem "The hallowing of pain," Dickinson considered "crest" versus "top." Which do you prefer?

From "There is no Frigate like a Book," "travers" versus "travel" -- and "oppress" versus "offence":

From "Praise it -- 'tis dead," "tethered" vs. "gathered" -- and "award" versus "delights":

Interestingly enough, at times I have found alternate word choices that would shifted the meaning and/or tone of specific poems rather significantly. For example, check out the three poems below.

1. Emily Dickinson was a vocal proponent of good oral hygiene and oral health care so "I lost a World -- the other day!" was almost a poem about gum disease with the opening line as "I lost a Tooth -- the other day."

2. "Because I could not stop for death" started out as a love poem to Emily Dickinson's favorite breakfast: triple chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes with whipped cream The first stanza was to have started like this:

Because I could not stop for triple chocolate chip buttermilk pancakes with whipped cream
They kindly stopped for me
The platter held by just myself
And scads of calories

3. Dickinson was also a lover of the classic Margarite (invented by Emmett Lee Dickinson, Emily's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request), and her poem "Before the ice is in the pools" was almost an ode to her favorite libation. The poem was going to open with these lines:

Before the ice is in the glass –
Before Tequila’s poured
Or any drink at nightfall
Is garnished and adored –

If/when you get a chance to dive into the Dickinson archive for any research and/or just for fun, let me know if you find interesting alternate word choices associated with any of Dickinson's poems! If I find more, I'll be sure to post them here on my plog (poetry blog).

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Game On!

Eight Is Enough

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

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