Give Weigh

Yesterday (HERE) I mentioned a letter from Emily Dickinson to Thomas Wentworth Higginson  where she stated, 

“Two Editors of Journals came to my Father's House, this winter- and asked me for my Mind-and when I asked them ‘Why,’ they said I was penurious - and they, would use it for the World"

I also shared her poem “Publication is the auction.”

Of course whether published or not, Dickinson’s family, friends and neighbors recognized her brilliance, but what did she herself think about her talent, her way with words? In this same letter to Higginson – her second following his response to her initial inquiry – she also said this:  

“I could not weigh myself - Myself -

My size felt small - to me - I read your Chapters in the Atlantic - and experienced honor for you- “

I dunno.  I suspect Dickinson could “weigh” herself.  I imagine that she recognized in herself a unique quality of brilliance  – an uncommon mix of intelligence, observation, inventiveness, reasoning, understanding, imagination, awareness, perception, artistry, creativity and judgment. Is there a better word than “brilliance” to describe this amalgam of terms? 

Hmm…this called to mind a time when I’d visited a retrospective of Edward Hopper’s works, and I wondered – did he paint Nighthawks, step back, survey it, and think, “Now THAT is the iconic American painting of our time”?  I suspect he did, at the very least, recognize the painting's greatness. 

Then there are stories like this:  Tchaikovsky composed his opera “Iolanta” at the time he was working on The Nutcracker ballet.  The composer expressed to friends and family that he  was feeling very positive about the progress of the opera but not so with the music for The Nutcracker (he’d told a friend that the music was "infinitely worse" than that of The Sleeping Beauty).  Which of the two, though, is now a classic? 

​In the case of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, I cannot imagine that he designed and built the home without knowing it was a masterpiece. LOL – oh I’m sure Wright knew.

Then there’s the well-known story of George Bizet’s “Carmen.”  The poor man died thinking the opera was a flop.  Today it is the third most frequently staged opera in the world behind Verdi’s “La Traviata” and Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”

Am I rambling now?  Time to move on.  Before I go, though, I’ll leave you with two short poems by Dickinson.  The first, “I took one draught of life,” includes an image of being “weighed.”  The second, “Fame is a bee,” might provide some insight into the poet’s view of gaining prominence through publication.