Do Tell

Yesterday I concluded a week-long series of posts that focused on Dickinson’s poetry of clouds.  and I posted “The wind drew off,” which, in line 5, mentions a “Volcanic cloud.”  To see the posts, click HERE.

I posted that poem more, though, for its final image: “When Nature falls upon herself / Beware an Austrian.”

Say what?  “Beware an Austrian”?  Is that some sort of a weather-related phenomenon – like a “Nor’easter”?  I’ve heard of an Alberta Clipper – but an Austrian?

@authorpendragon (on Counter Social) suggested, “Maybe the storm is real but is used as a metaphor for her brother's temper or scandals. Wouldn't take much to switch Austin into Austrian & poke fun of him slyly.”

Believe me, I would not put this past Dickinson.  She loved plays on words.  

@Coctaanatis (also Counter Social) shared “An austral wind is a wind from the south.”  Oddly, the online Dickinson lexicon states that an “Austrian” is a “southern wind; storm front.”  See at the right and below.

I tried to find an online photo of this poem in Dickinson’s own handwriting so I could see if I could decipher the word.

For example, in the poem “Summer begins to have the look,” there is disagreement about a word in line 14:  Did Dickinson write “almost” or “at most”?  So in the case of this poem, did she write “austral”?  “Austrian”?  “Austin”?

Alas, I could not find a draft of the original poem.

Notes in Cristanne Miller’s edition of Dickinson works say this about the poem:

“Austria and Italy were sometimes associated with treachery by predominantly Protestant countries, because of their Catholicism.  ED may also associate Austria wiht the tyrannical Albrecht Gessler, who, according to legend, forced William Tell to shoot an apple off his own son’s head.”

Miller then concludes the note with “See ‘Tell as a Marksman – were forgotten.’” 

Alrighty, then.  See below for “Tell as a Marksman – were forgotten,” and for Miller’s notes on that poem.  

Does this clear things up?  LOL.