If you check these posts out regularly then you might know of my “one man crusade” dealing with the Poetry Foundation – and believe it or not, it has finally been resolved.
In a nutshell, here’s the issue: There are five extant versions of Dickinson’s poem “They fall from Leaden Sieves.” The Johnson edition of “complete poems” includes a 5-stanza version and has it numbered as 311. The Franklin edition of Dickinson’s poems includes a 3-stanza version of the poem and has it numbered as 291.
In a nutshell, here’s the issue: There are five extant versions of Dickinson’s poem “They fall from Leaden Sieves.” The Johnson edition of “complete poems” includes a 5-stanza version and has it numbered as 311. The Franklin edition of Dickinson’s poems includes a 3-stanza version of the poem and has it numbered as 291.
 | If you check these posts out regularly then you might know of my “one man crusade” dealing with the Poetry Foundation – and believe it or not, it has finally been resolved. In a nutshell, here’s the issue: There are five extant versions of Dickinson’s poem “They fall from Leaden Sieves.” The Johnson edition of “complete poems” includes a 5-stanza version and has it numbered as 311. The Franklin edition of Dickinson’s poems includes a 3-stanza version of the poem and has it numbered as 291. The Poetry Foundation’s site has the Johnson version of the poem – but Franklin’s number. I contacted the Foundation several times dating back to last December or January. No response. |
I contacted them again in April and May. No response.
I called them and either left voice mail messages – OR – I gave the info to a Foundation receptionist who said they’d pass it along to the “right person.” No response.
I attempted to enlist the help of others at the Dickinson Museum in Amherst via email, and in each case – no response.
I was in Chicago in June, so I visited the Foundation on a Saturday morning. I told the receptionist the issue. Again, he said he’d pass it on to the “right person” – AND – he gave me his email address so that I could type out all the info as well. I told him I’d do this once I got home from my travels.
Once home, I emailed him. No response – from either my email or my in-person visit.
I DM’d the Poetry Foundation on their Instagram account, but I received an automated response stating that inquiries should use the email address I’d used all along. However, lo and behold, someone did respond; they appologized for having had such trouble in contacting them, and they gave me a different email address to use.
I emailed that address, and… no response.
Ten days after emailing the receptionist I had spoken to in person, I emailed him again to ask if he’d even received my email (wondering if my inquiry had ended up in a spam folder). This time he responded.
His answer came on a Monday. He said that yes, he had received my email, and yes he’d forwarded the info. He said he’d forward it again, and that if I did not hear anything “by the end of the week,” to contact him again.
That Wednesday, I heard from a digital archivist at the Foundation. He apologized for all the troubles I’d encountered, and he said this:
“I've looked into this a bit and want to make sure I'm seeing what you're seeing. The version of the poem that was reprinted in the archive is cited as from the Franklin Variorum Edition, Harvard UP, 1998. I took a photo of this poem printed in that edition, and it is correctly titled and numbered using version A of the poem (the earliest, sent in a letter in 1862); see the photo attached. As far as I can tell, it's all cited and reproduced correctly, but please let me know if I'm missing information about this poem's provenance (I'm not a Dickinson scholar).
Since Dickinson poems exist in many versions, do you think it would be helpful to readers for me to add a note that this version of the poem appeared in a letter from 1862? I'm happy to help clarify that in the citation info.”
Sooo…tomorrow I’ll conclude with how all of this was resolved.
I called them and either left voice mail messages – OR – I gave the info to a Foundation receptionist who said they’d pass it along to the “right person.” No response.
I attempted to enlist the help of others at the Dickinson Museum in Amherst via email, and in each case – no response.
I was in Chicago in June, so I visited the Foundation on a Saturday morning. I told the receptionist the issue. Again, he said he’d pass it on to the “right person” – AND – he gave me his email address so that I could type out all the info as well. I told him I’d do this once I got home from my travels.
Once home, I emailed him. No response – from either my email or my in-person visit.
I DM’d the Poetry Foundation on their Instagram account, but I received an automated response stating that inquiries should use the email address I’d used all along. However, lo and behold, someone did respond; they appologized for having had such trouble in contacting them, and they gave me a different email address to use.
I emailed that address, and… no response.
Ten days after emailing the receptionist I had spoken to in person, I emailed him again to ask if he’d even received my email (wondering if my inquiry had ended up in a spam folder). This time he responded.
His answer came on a Monday. He said that yes, he had received my email, and yes he’d forwarded the info. He said he’d forward it again, and that if I did not hear anything “by the end of the week,” to contact him again.
That Wednesday, I heard from a digital archivist at the Foundation. He apologized for all the troubles I’d encountered, and he said this:
“I've looked into this a bit and want to make sure I'm seeing what you're seeing. The version of the poem that was reprinted in the archive is cited as from the Franklin Variorum Edition, Harvard UP, 1998. I took a photo of this poem printed in that edition, and it is correctly titled and numbered using version A of the poem (the earliest, sent in a letter in 1862); see the photo attached. As far as I can tell, it's all cited and reproduced correctly, but please let me know if I'm missing information about this poem's provenance (I'm not a Dickinson scholar).
Since Dickinson poems exist in many versions, do you think it would be helpful to readers for me to add a note that this version of the poem appeared in a letter from 1862? I'm happy to help clarify that in the citation info.”
Sooo…tomorrow I’ll conclude with how all of this was resolved.
CONTINUED...
Finally, a resolution to an issue I’ve been involved with:
THE PROBLEM:
* There are five extant versions of “It sifts from Leaden Sieves” by Emily Dickinson.
* On its website, the Poetry Foundation includes the 5-stanza version found in Johnson’s edition of Dickinson’s “complete poems,” number 311.
* The Foundation has the poem numbered 291 – the number used in the Franklin edition of Dickinson’s poems.
* However, number 291 in Franklin is a 3-stanza version of the poem, and the only thing it shares in common with the 5-stanza version of the poem is the first stanza.
THE RESOLUTION:
Sooo…after many months of inquiry via email, telephone calls, DMs, on Instagram, and even a personal visit to the Foundation – all with no responses – I finally heard from a digital archivist at the Foundation who was willing to look into this matter.
Basically, there were three ways the problem could be resolved:
* The PF could change the number to 311 to match Johnson’s edition of Dickinson’s poetry; however, I believe they use Franklin’s numbering system for all of their other poems by Dickinson.
* The PF could change their version of the poem – from Johnson’s 311 to Franklin’s 291.
* Add a note to explain that the Franklin Variorum Edition includes all five versions of 291, and that they have published a 5-stanza version while Franklin’s readers edition includes another — and this is the option the Foundation landed on.
The digital archivist and I communicated a couple of times, a note has been added, and I have promised to deliver to him donuts and coffee when next I visit Chicago.
Finally, a resolution to an issue I’ve been involved with:
THE PROBLEM:
* There are five extant versions of “It sifts from Leaden Sieves” by Emily Dickinson.
* On its website, the Poetry Foundation includes the 5-stanza version found in Johnson’s edition of Dickinson’s “complete poems,” number 311.
* The Foundation has the poem numbered 291 – the number used in the Franklin edition of Dickinson’s poems.
* However, number 291 in Franklin is a 3-stanza version of the poem, and the only thing it shares in common with the 5-stanza version of the poem is the first stanza.
THE RESOLUTION:
Sooo…after many months of inquiry via email, telephone calls, DMs, on Instagram, and even a personal visit to the Foundation – all with no responses – I finally heard from a digital archivist at the Foundation who was willing to look into this matter.
Basically, there were three ways the problem could be resolved:
* The PF could change the number to 311 to match Johnson’s edition of Dickinson’s poetry; however, I believe they use Franklin’s numbering system for all of their other poems by Dickinson.
* The PF could change their version of the poem – from Johnson’s 311 to Franklin’s 291.
* Add a note to explain that the Franklin Variorum Edition includes all five versions of 291, and that they have published a 5-stanza version while Franklin’s readers edition includes another — and this is the option the Foundation landed on.
The digital archivist and I communicated a couple of times, a note has been added, and I have promised to deliver to him donuts and coffee when next I visit Chicago.
A link to the Foundation's page with the poem -- and note -- is HERE.
Sooo...it looks like I can cancel the nation-wide protest I had planed for next March 11 (i.e., 311 -- Johnson's number for the poem) had the issue not been resolved.
Okay...so what's the next matter of importance I need to tackle? : - D
Sooo...it looks like I can cancel the nation-wide protest I had planed for next March 11 (i.e., 311 -- Johnson's number for the poem) had the issue not been resolved.
Okay...so what's the next matter of importance I need to tackle? : - D
RSS Feed
