 | Last week, I shared a poem by Dickinson which her early editor Mabel Loomis Todd entitled, “APRIL,” when she published the poem in 1891. The poem doesn’t include the word “April,” but it does list an inventory of springtime sights, sounds, and smells. In line 13, though, the poem takes a mysterious turn: What is it speaker cannot tell? And why the furtive look? And who is "you"? Back in 1842, Tennyson, reminded us in his poem “Locksley Hall,” that “In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love” – so, too, a young woman’s. And so I ask again, who is this “you” – and is there a secret shared with the poem’s speaker? Is this poem about Emily Dickinson and her friend and (by the time the poem was written) sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert Dickinson? The poem was composed in 1859. Susan married Austin in July, 1856 – and about the union I found this: “The marriage made Susan the sister-in-law of poet Emily Dickinson, with whom she maintained a complex, lifelong friendship.” Complex to be sure. |
| Two days before I’d published the post with the “APRIL” poem, I shared “The Heart asks Pleasure first,” a work penned in 1863. One excellent analysis of the poem is HERE, and it boils down to this: “Here the heart, thwarted at every step, finally wishes to die; seeks the ‘privilege’ of dying.” Hmm…I suspect (throughout the Heart’s stages) there were (as in APRIL) furtive looks and “more that can’t be told.” Could this be – again/possibly – a personal poem about Emily and Susan? For now, let’s move on. |  |
Now, at the time I prepared my post on “The Heart asks Pleasure – first,” I checked the online Dickinson Lexicon for her possible meanings associated with the word “Inquisitor,” and I spied with my little eye, the word “innominate.”
Innominate?
Okay, I confess – I’m not familiar with the word: “Unnamed; anonymous; without a name.”
Of course, my next step was to explore the poems Dickinson wrote using the word. There’s just one, an undated work – and what a doozy it is – and it expands the theme discussed herein, the very poems which more-than-hint at the “complex” relationship between Emily Dickinson and Susan Gilbert Dickinson. And concerning this particular work, the Dickinson archive states, “No autograph copy of this poem is known. It is here reproduced from a transcript made by Sue.”
Hmm…transcribed by Sue? Let’s take a look, shall we?
Okay, I confess – I’m not familiar with the word: “Unnamed; anonymous; without a name.”
Of course, my next step was to explore the poems Dickinson wrote using the word. There’s just one, an undated work – and what a doozy it is – and it expands the theme discussed herein, the very poems which more-than-hint at the “complex” relationship between Emily Dickinson and Susan Gilbert Dickinson. And concerning this particular work, the Dickinson archive states, “No autograph copy of this poem is known. It is here reproduced from a transcript made by Sue.”
Hmm…transcribed by Sue? Let’s take a look, shall we?
Is “she,” Susan? Is “me,” Emily?
Of course, “innominate” shows up at the end of line 7, and wow is its use ever brutal: by "her" (Susan?), the speaker of the poem (Emily?) was "innominate" – and in line 8, “something like a shame.”
I’d shriek “Egads!” but I’d best watch my phraseology, no? Instead, I’ll vociferate a heartfelt and robust “Zounds!” That’s gotta hurt! No wonder “that she forgot me” was “second pain” to feeling “innominate” and “worthy to forget.” And to be forgotten? Take a look at the poem below to understand Dickinson's feelings on being "forgot" – the “barbed syllables” which bear a sword:
Of course, “innominate” shows up at the end of line 7, and wow is its use ever brutal: by "her" (Susan?), the speaker of the poem (Emily?) was "innominate" – and in line 8, “something like a shame.”
I’d shriek “Egads!” but I’d best watch my phraseology, no? Instead, I’ll vociferate a heartfelt and robust “Zounds!” That’s gotta hurt! No wonder “that she forgot me” was “second pain” to feeling “innominate” and “worthy to forget.” And to be forgotten? Take a look at the poem below to understand Dickinson's feelings on being "forgot" – the “barbed syllables” which bear a sword:
So let's recap the three poems that came before: Secrets. Furtive looks. A clandestine liaison. Pain. Suffering. Forgotten. Innominate.
Hmm. I started up top with Tennyson, so lemme conclude here with the final words from Lord Alfred's threnody "In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII: 27":
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
How do think the Belle of Amherst would respond?
Below, left to right: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, Susan Gilbert Dickinson
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