Garden Path, Garden Plash

Do you happen to live in, around, or near Amherst, MA?  If so, the Emily Dickinson Museum is hosting two days of “Garden Days,” today and tomorrow.  Info is HERE. Ohhh…just saw that “Garden Days spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Space is limited” – so IF by chance you’re able to do this, check the link above and click on the “register” button.

Gardening was one of Dickinson’s favorite activities.  She wrote to her cousin Louise Norcross, “I was reared in the garden.”  The complete letter is HERE. 

Dickinson used the word “garden” in 19 different poems. One of the most popular of those poems is “A Bird came down the walk.”  I found a quick lesson on the poem on YouTube from an account called “Course Hero” (click the pic below to access the lesson):

Wow – I read that Course Hero is “an online learning platform where you can access over 25 million course-specific study resources contributed by a community of students and educators.”  Whoa – that’s a lot!  ; )  

Hmm…if you teach English, their videos might be worth a look!

And look what else I found (click the pic below to access the site).  The title is refers to the last line of the poem above.

I discovered this when looking up the definition for “plashless” and “plash.”  LOL – I was not aware of “plash.”  Splash, yes.  Plash, no.

Plish, plash, I was taking a bath?  LOL.

Well, I’ve gone from gardening to bathing – so I checked to see if ED ever used “birdbath” in a poem.  

Nope.  She did use “bathed” in two poems – but not about a bird bath.

Hmm...so how many times did Dickinson use "plash"?  Turns out she used "plashless" once -- in the poem above -- and "plash" twice, in "I've known a Heaven, like a Tent" and "A prison gets to be a friend."