Green Lines

The other day I posted a poem by Dickinson about a bee, and I ended with this: “Oh – I have one final question re: line 4 of ‘His Feet are shod with Gauze’:  Who here knows what ‘Chrysophras’ is?”

@arthurpendragon (on Counter Social) wrote that “It's a bright , green/yellow-green gemstone associated with the heart chakra.”

@redenigma noted that “it's a form of chalcedony, usually green. it's very pretty”

​Obviously from the word choice – and so many others in Dickinson’s poetry – one can tell that she had quite the vocabulary and that she was quite an educated person (especially when it came to mathematics, geography, and various sciences – including geology).

Back to that chrysophras: The online Dickinson Lexicon states, “Golden-green precious stone; phosphorescent mineral; gem that people in the Middle Ages believed could shine in the dark (see Revelation 21:1920).”

The Miller edition of “Emily Dickinson’s Poems As She Preserved Them” provides this note:  “Chrysoprase is a rare and valuable leek- or apple-green type of chalcedony reputed to have properties that alleviate feelings of depression and anxiety; it is mentioned in the Bible.”

By the way, in “HIs feet are shod with Guaze,” Dickinson spells the stone as “chrysophras.”  However, she referred to it in one other poem, “The butterfly’s assumption gown,” but she spelled it as “chryrsoprase.”

For this poem, Miller provides a similar note: “Chrysoprase (a variety of chalcedony) is a greenish-gold gemstone, mentioned in Revelation 21:20 as the tenth foundational stone of the wall of Jerusalem. Additional copy retained (lost, transcribed variant) c. 1874.”

Hmm…maybe one of these days I’ll check the online Dickinson archive to see what other gemstones Dickinson mentioned.