In the example shown below, there are 43 entries for “ecstasy,” and I’ve sorted the poems in alphabetical order, and the list goes from “Betrothed to righteousness might be” to “COMPENSATION” to “Go not too near a House of Rose.” “For each ecstatic instant” is not included in the list.
When the poem was first published in 1891, the editor Mabel Loomis Todd gave the poem the name “COMPENSATION” – so unless you knew that, you would not know that “For each ecstatic instant” was included on the list.
When the poem was published in 1891 in the second series of poems by Dickinson released to the public, few editorial changes were made to the poem – except in the case of punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
Yep, as far as the spelling goes, Dickinson wrote “extatic” and “extasy.” Todd changed the spellings to “ecstatic” and “ecstasy.”
Does that really matter?
Well, in this case, maybe not (except changes like this can make internet searches a little tricky at times); but how/when should changes be made to Dickinson’s punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar? Can one tell when Dickinson was being deliberate vs. careless?
For example, in “Of Tribulation – these are they,” Dickinson deliberately spelled the word “ankle” as “ancle”
How do we know this choice was deliberate?
Sometimes in the past, though, early editors were a bit too ambitious with their editing of Dickinson. They changed words, rhymes, lines – even complete stanzas!
If the foolish call them 'flowers,'
Need the wiser tell?
If the savans 'classify' them,
It is just as well!