Yesterday, I wrote about Dickinson’s poem “Of Tribulation, these are they,” one of four poems she enclosed in a letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson in July 1862. The other three poems were “Your Riches taught me poverty," "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church," and "Success is counted sweetest."
The letter is a very well-known one in all of Dickinson’s correspondences; it is the one where she describes the way she looks:
“I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the Wren, and my Hair is bold, like the Chestnut Bur- and my eyes, like the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves-”
In much of the body of the letter, she discusses her role as his “scholar,” so that she might grow if not flourish in her work as a poet based on his feedback, and she also divulges more about her own personality (“I know the Butterfly, and the Lizard, and the Orchis – / Are not those your Countrymen?”).
Her talk of the work of the Surgeon calls to mind an allusion she made in her second letter where she thanked Higginson for the critique of her work: “Thank you for the surgery – it was not so painful as I supposed.”
In this, her fourth letter to the writer, she states “I shall bring you – Obedience…and every gratitude I know.” However, she states that she is looking for more than someone who will just “smile at me”; she stipulates “My Business is Circumference.”
Two things to note here: First, I just discussed the other day (on Pi Day) Dickinson’s use of the word “circumference” in her poetry (HERE); second, check out the meanings for “circumference” from the online Dickinson’s archive (HERE). In relation to this letter, take a look at meanings 6, 8, 11, 12 and 13.
Toward the end of the letter, she talks about her craft: “When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse – it does not mean – me – but a supposed person.” In other words, when she uses the pronoun “I,” she does not mean herself.
Of course, this is obvious in poems like “I heard a fly buzz when I died” and “I felt a funeral in my brain,” but perhaps not so clear-cut in a poem like “If I can stop one heart from breaking / I shall not live in vain.”
In the penultimate paragraph, she states, “You spoke of Pippa Passes” – this is in reference to a verse drama by Robert Browning published in 1841 (info HERE).
At the end, she is grateful but uncertain how to thank Higginson: “To thank you, baffles me”... “had I a pleasure you had not, I could delight to bring it” – and she signs the letter “Your Scholar.”
Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson corresponded for roughly 23 years, starting in 1862 and continuing until Dickinson's death in 1886. The two only met twice, and Higginson also attended her funeral in the spring of 1886.
After Dickinson's death, Higginson collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd to edit and publish the first collection of Dickinson's poetry.
“I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the Wren, and my Hair is bold, like the Chestnut Bur- and my eyes, like the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves-”
In much of the body of the letter, she discusses her role as his “scholar,” so that she might grow if not flourish in her work as a poet based on his feedback, and she also divulges more about her own personality (“I know the Butterfly, and the Lizard, and the Orchis – / Are not those your Countrymen?”).
Her talk of the work of the Surgeon calls to mind an allusion she made in her second letter where she thanked Higginson for the critique of her work: “Thank you for the surgery – it was not so painful as I supposed.”
In this, her fourth letter to the writer, she states “I shall bring you – Obedience…and every gratitude I know.” However, she states that she is looking for more than someone who will just “smile at me”; she stipulates “My Business is Circumference.”
Two things to note here: First, I just discussed the other day (on Pi Day) Dickinson’s use of the word “circumference” in her poetry (HERE); second, check out the meanings for “circumference” from the online Dickinson’s archive (HERE). In relation to this letter, take a look at meanings 6, 8, 11, 12 and 13.
Toward the end of the letter, she talks about her craft: “When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse – it does not mean – me – but a supposed person.” In other words, when she uses the pronoun “I,” she does not mean herself.
Of course, this is obvious in poems like “I heard a fly buzz when I died” and “I felt a funeral in my brain,” but perhaps not so clear-cut in a poem like “If I can stop one heart from breaking / I shall not live in vain.”
In the penultimate paragraph, she states, “You spoke of Pippa Passes” – this is in reference to a verse drama by Robert Browning published in 1841 (info HERE).
At the end, she is grateful but uncertain how to thank Higginson: “To thank you, baffles me”... “had I a pleasure you had not, I could delight to bring it” – and she signs the letter “Your Scholar.”
Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson corresponded for roughly 23 years, starting in 1862 and continuing until Dickinson's death in 1886. The two only met twice, and Higginson also attended her funeral in the spring of 1886.
After Dickinson's death, Higginson collaborated with Mabel Loomis Todd to edit and publish the first collection of Dickinson's poetry.
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