ED-LarryB

Variant A. Sent to Sue; signed Emily; Lines 1-10 (first leaf) missing.
(ED’s alternative words in parentheses)

Nor Myself to Him, by accent
Forfeit probity.
Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a particle, of Space’s
Vast society –
Neither if He visit other –
Do He dwell or nay
Know I – just (But) instinct esteem Him
Immortality

Variant B

Conscious am I in my Chamber –
Of a shapeless friend –
He doth not attest by Posture –
Nor confirm – by Word –

Neither Place – need I present Him –
Fitter Courtesy
Hospitable intuition
Of His Company –

Presence – is His furthest license –
Neither He to Me
Nor Myself to Him – by Accent –
Forfeit Probity

Weariness of Him, were quainter
Than Monotony
Knew a Particle – of
Space’s Vast Society –

Neither if He visit Other –
Do He dwell – or Nay – know I-
But Instinct esteem Him (Report Him)
Immortality –

772.1863.Essential Oils – are wrung –

Essential Oils – are wrung –
The Attar from the Rose
Be not expressed by Suns – alone –
It is the gift of Screws –

The General Rose – decay –
But this – in Lady’s Drawer Make Summer –
When the Lady lie
In Ceaseless Rosemary –

An interpretation of ‘Essential Oils – are wrung –’, Fr772:

Great poems, like attar from the rose, are not composed by inspiration alone, they are the gift of pain and toil.

Ordinary poems die young, but great poems shed warm light after their poet dies.

ED probably composed ‘Essential Oils – are wrung –’ to honor her favorite poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who died in 1861.

771.1863.We miss her not because we see
(Possessive pronoun, it’s, corrected in Line 3. ED’s alternative words used in Lines 4, 5, 8.)

We miss Her, not because We see –
The Absence of an Eye –
Except (its) Mind accompany
(Deprive) Society

As slightly as the (Flights) of Stars –
Ourselves – asleep below –
We know that their superior Eyes
(Convey Us -) – as they go –

An interpretation:

We miss Her not because we notice the absence of her Eye (Body), but because her death has deprived Society of her Mind (Soul).

We miss her Eye (body) as slightly as the Flights of Stars passing overhead while we sleep. We know that their superior Eyes convey our souls (Minds) as they go.

This poem (F771) is probably about Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), ED’s favorite poet.

Strong Draughts of Their Refreshing Minds
To drink – enables Mine
Through Desert or the Wilderness
As bore it sealed Wine

To go elastic – Or as One
The Camel’s trait – attained –
How powerful the stimulus
Of an Hermetic Mind –

The “it” in Line 4 refers to “Mine” (my mind) in Line2. Line 4 translates as “As if my mind bore sealed Wine”. The “Hermetic Mind” in Line 8 refers to and slant rhymes with “sealed Wine” in Line 4.

“Hermetic” in Line 4 implies a mind sealed in both directions, in and out. ED probably did not mean a closed mind, but that’s what her words imply. Possibly she meant a mind resistant to the latest fashions in public discourse, poetic styles, or religious dogma. David Preest lists Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot as likely leaders on Emily’s List of “Hermetic Minds”.

 ED has convinced me that virtually all of her poems have two or more levels of meaning: poetic and historical. These levels cannot be separated into two ivory towers, as most academics do.

The reason for her instant and continuing public adulation (1890-present) was and is, by far, poetic. She is one of the “Greats” that she always dreamed to be, despite her lifelong refusal to publish. That refusal freed her from criticism and allowed her to explore the outer boundaries of poetic power.

Her refusal to publish was only possible because of the lifelong financial and daily social/housekeeping support of her family, especially her father and sister, respectively. Throughout her life, the Dickinsons hired servants, first Negro and later Irish, some of whom became much more than housekeepers for ED.

My point is that our appreciation and love of ED’s poems can be enriched by understanding both poetic and historical levels of her sound and sense. We impoverish ourselves if we ignore their historical base.

769.1863.These saw visions
(ED’s alternative words accepted)

These – saw Visions –
(Bind) them softly –
These – held Dimples –
Smooth them slow –
This – addressed departing accents –
(Soon) – Sweet Mouth – to miss thee so –

This – we stroked –
Unnumbered – Satin –
These – we (fondled in) our own –
Fingers of the Slim Aurora –
Not so arrogant – this Noon –

These – adjust – that ran to meet Us –
Pearl – (the) stocking – Pearl (the) Shoe –
Paradise – the only Palace
Fit for Her reception – now –

Amazing prescience. In 1886 Sue prepared ED’s body for funeral and burial. ED described her body as she would like Sue to see it.

Her eyes had seen visions, her cheeks shown dimples, her lips had said goodbye. “Sweet Mouth”, I’ll miss thee so.

This hair I stroked like satin, these fingers I fondled in my own. They aren’t arrogant this noon.

These feet that ran to meet me wear pearl stockings and pearl shoes, fit only for heaven now.

768.1863. The Mountains – grow unnoticed –

The Mountains – grow unnoticed –
Their Purple figures rise
Without attempt – Exhaustion –
Assistance – or Applause –

In Their Eternal Faces
The Sun – with just delight
Looks long – and last – and golden –
For fellowship – at night –

When ED composed this poem, five miles of farmland lay between her second-floor south-facing window and the Holyoke Mountain Range. The Range stretches east-west seven miles, and five peaks rise 800 feet above the farmland. These hills were ED’s “Sweet Mountains” of poem F745 (TPB Comment 2). Today, trees on her father’s former hayfield across Main Street would block her view, but in 1863 the setting Sun cast a golden glow on their framed faces.

In a former life as a National Park Ranger, I lived for a year in a Park Service apartment ten miles east of the Teton Mountain Range. The Grand Teton loomed a mile high, framed perfectly in our picture window. For the first month, I couldn’t take my eyes off its massive peaks, but gradually I grew accustomed to my daily view until it became part of my brain’s expected landscape.

No doubt, the same happened with Amherstites and their comparatively miniscule Holyoke Mountain Range. For ED, however, the Holyoke peaks became close friends with sunset-golden faces, her “Strong Madonnas” who “Cherish still – // The Wayward Nun–beneath the hill –”.

Like Shakespeare’s fair friend of Sonnet 18, so long as ED’s poems F745 and F768 live, they give life to her “Sweet Mountains”: