In May 1866, Emily Dickinson wrote to Mrs. J. G. Holland:
“Friday I tasted life. It was a vast morsel. A circus passed the house - still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out.”
How cool is that? Dickinson watched a circus parade past her home. Johnson’s notes on her letter confirm, “A circus was in town on the third.”
Based on this. I wondered if Dickinson ever used the words “circus” or “parade” in any of her poems.
“Circus”? Nope, she never used the word “circus.”
“Parade”? Yes, the word “parade” appears in five poems; however, she used the term not so much as a celebratory procession, but more as a burial procession or a solemn cortege.
Interestingly, the online Dickinson Lexicon shows the etymology of “parade” as “< It. parata, a warding or defending, a dighting or garish setting forth.”
I have to admit, I had to look up “dighting”: gerund or present participle form of dight; make ready for a use or purpose; prepare; "let the meal be dighted.”
To be honest, when I typed in “define dighting,” Google showed me results for “sighting,” and asked, “Search instead for ‘define dighting’?”
One “parade” poem, “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House.” is a wonderfully grim and shadowy poem about – well, exactly about what the first line proclaims – there’s been a death at the house across the street.
“Friday I tasted life. It was a vast morsel. A circus passed the house - still I feel the red in my mind though the drums are out.”
How cool is that? Dickinson watched a circus parade past her home. Johnson’s notes on her letter confirm, “A circus was in town on the third.”
Based on this. I wondered if Dickinson ever used the words “circus” or “parade” in any of her poems.
“Circus”? Nope, she never used the word “circus.”
“Parade”? Yes, the word “parade” appears in five poems; however, she used the term not so much as a celebratory procession, but more as a burial procession or a solemn cortege.
Interestingly, the online Dickinson Lexicon shows the etymology of “parade” as “< It. parata, a warding or defending, a dighting or garish setting forth.”
I have to admit, I had to look up “dighting”: gerund or present participle form of dight; make ready for a use or purpose; prepare; "let the meal be dighted.”
To be honest, when I typed in “define dighting,” Google showed me results for “sighting,” and asked, “Search instead for ‘define dighting’?”
One “parade” poem, “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House.” is a wonderfully grim and shadowy poem about – well, exactly about what the first line proclaims – there’s been a death at the house across the street.
There’s so much to savor in this poem if you prefer a taste of the macabre: the numb look of “such houses,” the neighbors rustling in and out, the abrupt and mechanical opening of the window (which calls to mind the “mechanical” stupefaction in “After great pain, a Formal Feeling comes”), the discarded mattress which the children wonder about (and the use of the word “it” to refer to the recently departed), the rigid Minister, the “Man of the Appalling Trade” (i.e., the undertaker) – who must measure for “the House” (i.e., the coffin), and then – “There’ll be that Dark Parade” (made all-the-more creepier by separating the line from the fifth stanza so that it stands alone). LOL – it makes me shudder.
More about this poem tomorrow.
More about this poem tomorrow.
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