In 1891, the editor of New York’s The Independent published a favorable review of the newly published Poems by Emily Dickinson, and he then wrote to Mabel Loomis Todd to request additional poems to publish in his paper: “If there are any others that compare with the best ones in the volume, I should like much to publish them.”
Todd sent him four poems. He sent one back and said, “Three of them I will take and print as soon as I may. They are fresh and interesting. One of them I return. It seems to me so unsatisfactory in the way the last two verses are worked up. I am afraid I fail to catch the meaning except generally.”
In recent posts, I have shared information related to the three poems he accepted:
“I held a jewel in my fingers,” HERE.
“God made a little gentian,” HERE.
“Went up a year this evening,” HERE.
The poem he rejected was "Of Tribulation, these are they."
Dickinson included this poem in her July 1862 letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, where she called attention to the misspelling of “ancle.”
Todd sent him four poems. He sent one back and said, “Three of them I will take and print as soon as I may. They are fresh and interesting. One of them I return. It seems to me so unsatisfactory in the way the last two verses are worked up. I am afraid I fail to catch the meaning except generally.”
In recent posts, I have shared information related to the three poems he accepted:
“I held a jewel in my fingers,” HERE.
“God made a little gentian,” HERE.
“Went up a year this evening,” HERE.
The poem he rejected was "Of Tribulation, these are they."
Dickinson included this poem in her July 1862 letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, where she called attention to the misspelling of “ancle.”
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That’s right – she deliberately spelled the word “ankle” as “ancle,” and she knew full well how to spell “ankle.” For one thing, she used the word “ankle” – and spelled it correctly – in “It sifts from Leaden Sieves.” Plus, on the copy of the poem she’d sent to Higginson, she wrote, “I spelled ankle wrong.”
It turns out that the word "ancle" (i.e., “ankle”) appeared in older editions of the King James Bible, specifically in Ezekiel 47:3 (describing water ankle-deep) and Acts 3:7 (referring to the strengthening of a man's feet and ankles).
Although modern translations now use the word "ankle" instead of "ancle,” Dickinson’s Bible used “ancle,” and the poem references this – and she knew that Higginson, a minister himself, would understand her message when she wrote to him, “I spelled ankle wrong.”
The discussion of the poem on “White Heat,” HERE, mentions that the poem also “borrows heavily from the Book of Revelation, chapter 7, a page that Dickinson dog-eared in her Bible.”
Tomorrow: More on the letter Dickinson sent Higginson. It’s a fascinating one!
It turns out that the word "ancle" (i.e., “ankle”) appeared in older editions of the King James Bible, specifically in Ezekiel 47:3 (describing water ankle-deep) and Acts 3:7 (referring to the strengthening of a man's feet and ankles).
Although modern translations now use the word "ankle" instead of "ancle,” Dickinson’s Bible used “ancle,” and the poem references this – and she knew that Higginson, a minister himself, would understand her message when she wrote to him, “I spelled ankle wrong.”
The discussion of the poem on “White Heat,” HERE, mentions that the poem also “borrows heavily from the Book of Revelation, chapter 7, a page that Dickinson dog-eared in her Bible.”
Tomorrow: More on the letter Dickinson sent Higginson. It’s a fascinating one!
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