Everything's Just Ducky!

Yesterday I wrote about an appalling void in our society –  not the paucity of but a complete absence of rubber duck figurines dressed in plain white garb, a squeaky bathtub toy dubbed “Emily Duckinson,” a matchless treasure for more than just Jeep owners and charity derby enthusiasts. I emailed the brand licensing agent/gift shop merchandise manager at the Emily Dickinson Museum to see if they can help rectify this dire matter.

In the meantime, I also checked to see if Dickinson ever used the word “duck” in any of her poems, and the answer is yes, yes she did; however, due to some confusion (on my part) with the online Dickinson archive, I wasn’t so sure. When I first typed in the word “duck” for a search, nothing popped up. However, when I checked the lexicon, the word “duck” was there. Hmm…what is going on?

I ran other quick searches on “ducks,” “ducked,” “ducking,” and even “ducky.”   Nothing, nothing, nothing, and nothing.  No results were reported for any of those variations. I then checked the word “mallard.”  Nothing. Finally, I tried the word “eider.” 

BINGO! 

There were 8 results representing 3 poems.  The first was “My life had stood a loaded gun.” I clicked on it and...

EUREKA! ​

Take a look at lines 15 and 16 in the fourth stanza, “’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s / Deep Pillow - to have shared.”

I returned to the Lexicon and typed in “Duck’s,” with the apostrophe.  What’s another triumphal cry like “Bingo” and “Eureaka”?  Hmm…how about…

Huzzah!  

By the way, “Eider” (but not “duck” or “duck’s”) also appears in “I cannot dance upon my toes” and “I went to Heaven.” 

Hmm...I wonder if Dickinson ever used the word "goose" in any of her poems?