Yesterday I posted a three-line poem by Dickinson that reminded me of Frank Lloyd Wright’s view on religion: “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.” Here’s the poem:
In the name of the Bee -
And of the Butterfly -
And of the Breeze - Amen!
That is poem number 23 in R. W. Franklin’s 1998 edition of Dickinson’s “complete” poems.
However, if you check the index of Thomas Johnson’s 1955 edition of Dickinson’s “complete” poems, you won’t find that poem – BUT – the lines are in his book.
So what’s going on?
The Johnson edition includes a 19-line poem that begins “The Gentian weaves her fringes.” It’s number 18 in his book. The final three lines of that poem are “In the name of the Bee / And of the Butterfly / And of the Breeze – Amen!”
However, Franklin split those nineteen lines into three separate poems: Number 21 is “The Gentian weaves her fringes,” number 22 is “A brief, but patient illness,” and number 23 is “In the name of the Bee.”
In Cristanne Miller’s 2016 “Emily Dickinson’s Poems As She Preserved Them,” she shows the poems as three separate poems – and not only are they three individual poems, but these are the first three entries in the first fascicle (i.e., bound booklet) Dickinson created for her poetry.
Hmm…one of these days I’ll look into why Johnson combined the three poems.
Click the images below to enlarge:
In the name of the Bee -
And of the Butterfly -
And of the Breeze - Amen!
That is poem number 23 in R. W. Franklin’s 1998 edition of Dickinson’s “complete” poems.
However, if you check the index of Thomas Johnson’s 1955 edition of Dickinson’s “complete” poems, you won’t find that poem – BUT – the lines are in his book.
So what’s going on?
The Johnson edition includes a 19-line poem that begins “The Gentian weaves her fringes.” It’s number 18 in his book. The final three lines of that poem are “In the name of the Bee / And of the Butterfly / And of the Breeze – Amen!”
However, Franklin split those nineteen lines into three separate poems: Number 21 is “The Gentian weaves her fringes,” number 22 is “A brief, but patient illness,” and number 23 is “In the name of the Bee.”
In Cristanne Miller’s 2016 “Emily Dickinson’s Poems As She Preserved Them,” she shows the poems as three separate poems – and not only are they three individual poems, but these are the first three entries in the first fascicle (i.e., bound booklet) Dickinson created for her poetry.
Hmm…one of these days I’ll look into why Johnson combined the three poems.
Click the images below to enlarge:
| Johnson:  | Franklin:  | Miller:  |
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