Yesterday I provided a link to a list of Emily Dickinson’s poems on Wikipedia, HERE.
The list provides lots of info related to each poem's first and later publication dates – plus most of the first lines link to each poem's text (usually its first publication) at Wikisource.
Why don’t all of them link?
Well, here are a few examples.
First, look at the poems “A brief but patient illness,” “In the name of the bee,” and “The Gentian weaves her fringes.”
All three of these poems are included in the Johnson edition as one poem, poem number 18. However, in Franklin, they appear as three separate poems, poem numbers 21, 22, and 23.
The list provides lots of info related to each poem's first and later publication dates – plus most of the first lines link to each poem's text (usually its first publication) at Wikisource.
Why don’t all of them link?
Well, here are a few examples.
First, look at the poems “A brief but patient illness,” “In the name of the bee,” and “The Gentian weaves her fringes.”
All three of these poems are included in the Johnson edition as one poem, poem number 18. However, in Franklin, they appear as three separate poems, poem numbers 21, 22, and 23.
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Then there are mysteries like “A chastened Grace is twice a Grace.” According to the list on Wikipedia, that two-line poem appears only in Franklin’s editions of Dickinson’s poetry, and it is not included on Wikisource’s database of Dickinson’s poems at all.
To be honest, when I saw Dickinson’s draft of this poem – extracted from a letter to a person by the name of Sarah Tuckerman – I wondered if it should even be included in Franklin’s edition of Dickinson’s poetry. It appears just to be additional lines from the letter.
To be honest, when I saw Dickinson’s draft of this poem – extracted from a letter to a person by the name of Sarah Tuckerman – I wondered if it should even be included in Franklin’s edition of Dickinson’s poetry. It appears just to be additional lines from the letter.
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It is included in Miller’s edition of poems (which was published in 2016) in the section “Poems not retained,” and Miller included the note, “Sent to ST 1 May 1865 with wishes for “a sweet May Day.”
A transcript of the letter is HERE.
It’s interesting to note that the letter to Tuckerman IS, in fact, included in Miller & Domhnall Mitchell’s 2024 book “The Letters of Emily Dickinson”; however, in the book’s “Index of Poems” (i.e., poems which were either sent as letters or enclosed with letters), the poem “A chastened Grace is twice a Grace” is not included – so does she count that as a poem or not?
The letter to Tuckerman appears on page 804 with this note: “AC 50. Pencil. Publication L (1894) Endorsed “Emilie Dickinson Easter 1885” but ED’s closing suggests May 1. “A chastened Grace”: M735, Fr1676. Only copy. ED begins the two-line poem as a continuation of her prose line.”
What do you think? Do those two lines from the letter – in your mind – comprise a stand-alone poem by Dickinson?
Next up is the poem “But that defeated accent” – but I’ll get to that one tomorrow! ; )
A transcript of the letter is HERE.
It’s interesting to note that the letter to Tuckerman IS, in fact, included in Miller & Domhnall Mitchell’s 2024 book “The Letters of Emily Dickinson”; however, in the book’s “Index of Poems” (i.e., poems which were either sent as letters or enclosed with letters), the poem “A chastened Grace is twice a Grace” is not included – so does she count that as a poem or not?
The letter to Tuckerman appears on page 804 with this note: “AC 50. Pencil. Publication L (1894) Endorsed “Emilie Dickinson Easter 1885” but ED’s closing suggests May 1. “A chastened Grace”: M735, Fr1676. Only copy. ED begins the two-line poem as a continuation of her prose line.”
What do you think? Do those two lines from the letter – in your mind – comprise a stand-alone poem by Dickinson?
Next up is the poem “But that defeated accent” – but I’ll get to that one tomorrow! ; )
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