Happy March, everyone!
Emily Dickinson used the word “March” in 19 different poems. However, not all of them were about the month of March. Some of the poems use the word as a verb.
Last year at this time, for each day of the first week of the month, I posted one poem about March, the month, and then posted a second poem with which to draw some sort of comparison, contrast, or correlation. You can re-visit those seven posts HERE.
Or – if you check out just one of the posts – take a look at this one about “The duties of the Wind are few,” the poem I’m highlighting today, HERE.
In Cristanne Miller’s volume “Emily Dickinson’s Poems as She Preserved Them,” she published the poems as Dickinson printed them in her forty fascicles; however, this poem, “The duties of the Wind are few,” is included in the section of the book entitled “Loose Poems.”
The poem is also included in Cristanne Miller’s recent, updated edition of “The Letters of Emily Dickinson.” Dickinson had sent a copy of the poem to her sister-in-law Susan in March of 1869, so it is included in the book. However, she sent only the first stanza to the poem to Susan – and it was that version of the poem that was first published in 1914 in “The Single Hound,” the collection of poems edited by Dickinson’s niece – Susan’s daughter – Martha Dickinson Bianchi.
The “loose” copy of the poem found in all of Dickinson’s papers included additional stanzas.
Emily Dickinson used the word “March” in 19 different poems. However, not all of them were about the month of March. Some of the poems use the word as a verb.
Last year at this time, for each day of the first week of the month, I posted one poem about March, the month, and then posted a second poem with which to draw some sort of comparison, contrast, or correlation. You can re-visit those seven posts HERE.
Or – if you check out just one of the posts – take a look at this one about “The duties of the Wind are few,” the poem I’m highlighting today, HERE.
In Cristanne Miller’s volume “Emily Dickinson’s Poems as She Preserved Them,” she published the poems as Dickinson printed them in her forty fascicles; however, this poem, “The duties of the Wind are few,” is included in the section of the book entitled “Loose Poems.”
The poem is also included in Cristanne Miller’s recent, updated edition of “The Letters of Emily Dickinson.” Dickinson had sent a copy of the poem to her sister-in-law Susan in March of 1869, so it is included in the book. However, she sent only the first stanza to the poem to Susan – and it was that version of the poem that was first published in 1914 in “The Single Hound,” the collection of poems edited by Dickinson’s niece – Susan’s daughter – Martha Dickinson Bianchi.
The “loose” copy of the poem found in all of Dickinson’s papers included additional stanzas.
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By the way, Miller’s updated tome of Dickinson’s letters, includes this note about the poem: “A storm in early March along the Atlantic coast destroyed fishing fleets and took several lives.”
I ran a few Google-searches about Atlantic storms in and around March 1869, but I came up dry (LOL – pun intended).
One last note: At Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s suggestion, Mabel Loomis Todd sorted Dickinson’s poems in her possession into three categories:
A: Those “of most original thought” and “in the best form.”
B: Those with “striking ideas” but “with too many of her peculiarities of construction.”
C: Those considered “too obscure” or “too irregular in form.”
She placed “The Duties of the Wind are few” in the “B” group, but I don’t know if she had a copy of the one-stanza poem or the four-stanza poem.
I ran a few Google-searches about Atlantic storms in and around March 1869, but I came up dry (LOL – pun intended).
One last note: At Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s suggestion, Mabel Loomis Todd sorted Dickinson’s poems in her possession into three categories:
A: Those “of most original thought” and “in the best form.”
B: Those with “striking ideas” but “with too many of her peculiarities of construction.”
C: Those considered “too obscure” or “too irregular in form.”
She placed “The Duties of the Wind are few” in the “B” group, but I don’t know if she had a copy of the one-stanza poem or the four-stanza poem.
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