Four Of A Kind

Yesterday I wrote about my visit to a branch of the public library in Cape Charles, VA, where I took a look at what they had on the shelves by Emily Dickinson. Yesterday’s post focused on a hefty anthology, “The Illustrated Library of World Poetry,” copyright 1970, that included no poems by Dickinson.  Say whhaaa?  Turns out the book was a reprint of an old anthology printed before Dickinson’s death (i.e., prior to the publication dates of her work).

Next, I perused another hefty tome, “World Poetry, An Anthology of Verse From Antiquity To Our Time,” copyright 1998, and it included four of Dickinson’s poems.

Hmm…if you were to choose four poems by Dickinson – of her nearly 1800 works – to include in an anthology of poetry, which four would you select?  That would be difficult to be sure, but I gotta say, I was surprised by the four included in this book.  This collection offered the following:

1. “Wild nights! Wild nights!”:

I wrote about “Wild nights! Wild nights!” at the end of July, HERE.

2. “Ample make this bed”:

If you’ve seen the movie “Sophie’s Choice,” then you might recall “Ample make this Bed.”  The poem is recited by the character Stingo at the end of the film, as he looks upon Sophie and Nathan on their deathbed. A link to a video clip of an earlier scene where Stingo reads the poem to Sophie is HERE. 

3. “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers”:  

When Dickinson first wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, she enclosed four poems.  One of them was "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers.”  The other three were "The nearest Dream recedes unrealized," "We play at Paste," and "I'll tell you how the Sun rose."      I wrote about “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers," HERE. 


4. “A narrow Fellow in the Grass”: 

​This poem, like a version of “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers,” was one of the ten poems by Dickinson published in her lifetime.  I wrote about this poem HERE.