ED-LarryB

I meant to have but modest needs —
Such as Content — and Heaven —
Within my income — these could lie
And Life and I — keep even —

 

But since the last — included both —
It would suffice my Prayer
But just for One — to stipulate —
And Grace would grant the Pair —

 

And so — upon this wise — I prayed —
Great Spirit — Give to me
A Heaven not so large as Yours,
But large enough — for me —

 

A Smile suffused Jehovah’s face —
The Cherubim — withdrew —
Grave Saints stole out to look at me —
And showed their dimples — too —

 

I left the Place, with all my might —
I threw my Prayer away —
The Quiet Ages picked it up —
And Judgment — twinkled — too —
That one so honest — be extant —
It take the Tale for true —
That “Whatsoever Ye shall ask —
Itself be given You” —

 

But I, grown shrewder — scan the Skies
With a suspicious Air —
As Children — swindled for the first
All Swindlers — be — infer —

 

An interpretation

Stanza 1

The poet imagines a perfect plan for the remainder of her life: contentment “within her income” and “Heaven”, which for her would be continued correspondence with Charles Wadsworth living in Philadelphia, close enough for him to occasionally visit, as he did in 1860 and possibly 1861.

Stanza 2

On second thought, she deletes “Content” from her “Prayer”, because if she had “Heaven” as described, she would be content. And she could have that Heaven if just one person, Wadsworth, would so “stipulate”, “And Grace would grant the Pair –”, both contentment and Heaven.

Stanza 3

She asks little in her “Prayer”, and she asks in an endearing way:

“Great Spirit -Give to me
A Heaven not so large as Yours,
But large enough -for me –”

Stanza 4 [brackets mine]

“A [paternalistic] Smile suffused Jehovah’s face –
The Cherubim [young angels attending God]-withdrew –
Grave Saints [Severe old men] stole out to look at me –
And showed their dimples – too –” [also smiled in amusement]

Stanza 5 [brackets mine]

Disgusted by Heaven’s pseudo-smile paternalism, ED stormed out of “the Place – with all my might –” and “threw my Prayer away -”. For ages Christian readers “picked it up” and read her prayer approvingly. Even St Peter at the pearly gates “twinkled” with approval because there had been one living person so honest [gullible] that she took “the Tale for true -”

Stanza 6

“The Tale”, told twice, in Matthew 21: 21-22 & John 14: 12-14, was:

“Whatsoever Ye shall ask –
Itself be given You” –

As a child ED believed that promise lock, stock, and barrel, but when her prayers went unanswered, she grew skeptical of Resurrection, Heaven, and the Judeo-Christian God, and, like a swindled child, now infers all such promisers are swindlers, including God and Wadsworth.

Matthew 21:21-22:

21: Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
22: And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

John 14: 12-14:

12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Biographic History of Emily Dickinson and Reverend Charles Wadsworth

While visiting a friend in Philadelphia in March1855, ED, age 24, heard Rev. Wadsworth deliver a sermon at his church, Arch Street Presbyterian. Apparently, Wadsworth’s sermon, and his deep voice, lit an emotional and intellectual fire in ED that resulted in a two-way correspondence and an 1860 visit by Wadsworth to her home in Amherst. That sermon, their correspondence, and his visit may help explain ED’s manic burst of productivity during the next five years, 1861-1865: a total of 937 poems, more than half her oeuvre of 1789 poems in 37 years of composition, 1850-1886.

Before ED’s death in 1886, she asked her sister, Vinnie, to burn all her correspondence. Vinnie complied except for one undated letter from Wadsworth to ED and three drafts of letters from ED to “Master”. His letter to her probably predates his first visit to Amherst because he misspells her name in its salutation and his stationary bears a monogram he stopped using in 1862:

“My Dear Miss Dickenson [sic] —

I am distressed beyond measure at your note, received this moment, — I can only imagine the affliction which has befallen, or is now befalling you.

Believe me, be what it may, you have all my sympathy, and my constant, earnest prayers.

I am very, very anxious to learn more definitely of your trial — and though I have no right to intrude upon your sorrow yet I beg you to write me, though it be but a word.

In great haste
Sincerely and most
Affectionately Yours —”

Wadsworth underlined the word, “Yours”, but did not sign the letter.

The tone of his letter is sincere ministerial concern for her, but given ED ‘s attraction to him, how did she interpret that underlined “Yours”? Why Wadsworth suddenly resigned his Philadelphia position in early 1862 and moved to San Francisco and how that personally affected ED’s life begs explanation.

Wadsworth’s charismatic sermons had filled Arch Street Presbyterian pews since his arrival in 1850, but his belief that the Bible condoned slavery did not sit well with his mostly anti-slavery congregation. When the Civil War began in April 1861, Wadsworth stood firmly for preserving the United States as one nation and thus sided with the Union in his sermons, but that didn’t satisfy his anti-slavery congregation. Friction followed, and he resigned his position at Arch Street Presbyterian in early 1862.

Simultaneously, in San Francisco, the struggling congregation of the 10-year-old Calvary Presbyterian Church grew increasingly dissatisfied with their Reverend William Scott, who supported both slavery and secession of slave states in his sermons. Threats followed. Scott resigned in July 1871 and sailed to Birmingham, England where he pastored John Street Presbyterian Church for two years.

Scott had known Wadsworth in seminary, and “After resigning in July 1861, Scott may have asked his friend to consider a call from Calvary Church as his successor; their friendship probably contributed to Wadsworth’s being chosen to replace Scott at a meeting of the congregation on 9 December 1861.” (Lease 1990). Wadsworth accepted, resigned from Arch Street Presbyterian, and moved to San Francisco in May 1862.

Apparently, in September 1861 ED learned of Wadsworth’s impending decision to move and felt terror of abandonment, which may explain her cryptic comment to Higginson in a letter dated April 28, 1862: “I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground, because I am afraid”. At that time, ED apparently knew nothing about the real reason why Wadsworth decided to leave the east coast. (Johnson letter J-L261, Miller and Mitchell letter M&M-L338)

In her last “Calvary” poem (F1485, 1879), ED affirmed her enduring concern and now platonic love for Wadsworth in a quatrain, ‘Spurn the temerity’:

Spurn the temerity –
Rashness of Calvary –
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of thee –

ED Lexicon defines “Gethsemane” metaphorically as “Scene of agony; circumstance of unimaginable pain; situation of extreme anguish”, which pretty well describes ED’s mental state during 1861-1863 and perhaps longer.

If “Calvary” codes for Wadsworth and “Gethsemane” for ED, F1479 translates line by line:

“Ignore my brash boldness,
My rashness when you accepted pastorship of Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco.
I would be gay now
If I knew how you are doing.”

It would not surprise me if she mailed this poem, F1485, to Wadsworth in 1879, though we have no hard evidence that happened. At any rate, the next year, during summer 1880, he showed up unannounced at her front door.

Wadsworth died two years later, on April 1, 1882. In August 1882 ED wrote his best friend, James Clark, asking for memories of him (L994). By pure chance, ED’s father had introduced her to James in 1859. He and his brother, Charles, lived during summers at the Clark family home in Northampton, MA, 12 miles southwest of Amherst.

Her letter speaks for itself:

“August 1882

Dear friend,

Please excuse the trespass of gratitude. My Sister [Vinnie] thinks you will accept a few words in recognition of your great kindness.

In a [sic] intimacy of many years with the beloved Clergyman, I have never before spoken with one who knew him, and his Life was so shy and his tastes so unknown, that grief for him seems almost unshared.

He was my Shepherd from “Little Girl”hood and I cannot conjecture a world without him, so noble was he always – so fathomless – so gentle. [Actually, ED was 24 when she attended his sermon, March 1855]

I saw him two years since [summer 1880] for the last time, though how unsuspected!

He rang one summer evening to my glad surprise – “Why did you not tell me you were coming, so I could have it to hope for,” I said – “Because I did not know it myself. I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train,” was his quiet reply. . . . . . He [had] spoken on a previous visit [1860] of calling upon you [James Clark], or perhaps remaining a brief time at your Home in Northampton. . . . . . . .

E Dickinson.”

James Clark died in 1883. Two years later in mid-April 1886, four weeks before her own death, ED wrote Clark’s brother, Charles, describing Wadsworth’s 1880 visit with her in Amherst (Johnson letter L1040, Miller and Mitchell letter, L1298):

“Thank you [for a previous letter], Dear friend, I am better. The velocity of the ill, however, is like that of the snail. . . . . .

I could hardly have thought it possible that the scholarly Stranger [James Clark] to whom my Father introduced me [in 1859] could have mentioned my Friend [Charles Wadsworth] . . . . .

With the exception of my Sister [Vinnie] who never saw Mr Wadsworth, your Name alone [now] remains.

Going Home” [dying], was he not an Aborigine of the sky? The last time he came in Life [summer 1880], I was with my Lilies and Heliotropes, said my sister to me, “[T]he Gentleman with the deep voice wants to see you, Emily,” hearing him ask of the servant. “Where did you come from,” I said, for he spoke like an Apparition.

“I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train” was [his] simple reply, and when I asked “how long,” “Twenty Years” [1860-1880] said he with inscrutable roguery – but [his] loved Voice has ceased, and to someone who [heard] him “Going Home,” it was sweet to speak. . . . . . Excuse me for the [my] Voice, this moment immortal. . . . .”

E Dickinson.”

1. Johnson, T.H. 1958. The Letters of Emily Dickinson
2. Lease, Benjamin, 1990, Emily Dickinson’s Readings of Men and Books
3. Miller, Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, 2024, The Letters of Emily Dickinson

 

During her lifetime ED composed 12 “Calvary” poems:

“Calvary” Poems

Year      Fr#         “Calvary” lines
1861     194        Empress of Calvary
1862     283        The Palm -without the Calvary –
1862     325        Justified-through Calvaries of Love-
1862     347        The Queen of Calvary-
1862     398        Key of Calvary-
1862     431        In Calvary-
1863     550        In passing Calvary-
1863     652        But Calvary
1863     670        One Calvary-exhibited to Stranger
1863     686        For passing Calvary-
1863     749        Cashmere-or Calvary-the same
1879    1485       Rashness of Calvary-

Summary of Calvary poem occurrences:

Years               Time (yrs)      Poems        F#s
1850-1860             11               0              F1-F193
1861-1863              3              11             F194-F7491
1864-1978            15               0              F750-F1485
1879                        1               1              F779
1880-1886              7               0              F1486-F1789

833.1864.Pain — expands the Time —

Alternate words in Lines 2, 7, 8 – I prefer ED’s original word, “coil”, in Line 2 and her alternate words, “Triplets” and “Flit” in Lines 7 & 8 (emended).

Pain — expands the Time —
Ages (coil) within
The minute Circumference
Of a single Brain —

Pain contracts — the Time —
Occupied with Shot
(Triplets) of Eternities
(Flit) [by] as [if] they were not [eternities].—

 

EDLex, Definitions 4 & 6 of “Shot”: “gunshot flak” [incoming miniballs].
EDLex Definition 1 of “Pain”: “Emotional agony”.

 

My literal interpretation of Fr833, 1864, ‘Pain — expands the Time’:

Pain expands time: while you’re waiting in your trench for a rebel attack, hours drag by.

Pain contracts time: when rebels scream their rebel yell and charge your trench, and miniballs whiz by your head, hours pass like seconds.

 

My metaphorical interpretation of Fr833, 1864, ‘Pain — expands the Time’:

1. Emotional agony makes one minute feel like hours. In that one minute, entire ages coil in my tortured brain.
2. In “late 1861” when I composed ‘There came a Day at Summer’s full’ (Fr325), I was remembering that “summer day” in 1860 when Wadsworth came to visit me in Amherst. My emotional agony contracted the hours I spent with him to minutes. As I said in ‘There came a Day’ (Stanza 5):

“The Hours [of that summer day in 1860] slid fast—as Hours will—
Clutched tight—by [our] greedy hands—
So—faces [Wadsworth’s and mine] on two Decks—look back—
Bound to opposing Lands [Amherst, MA, and San Francisco, CA] —”

832.1864.’Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — Hast Thou

10 April 2026
No alternate words

‘Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — Hast Thou
No Station in the Day?
‘Twas not thy wont, to hinder so —
Retrieve thine industry —

‘Tis Noon — My little Maid —
Alas — and art thou sleeping yet?
The Lily — waiting to be Wed —
The Bee — Hast thou forgot?

My little Maid — ‘Tis Night — Alas
That Night should be to thee
Instead of Morning — Had’st thou broached
Thy little Plan to Die —
Dissuade thee, if I could not, Sweet,
I might have aided — thee —

My interpretation of ‘’Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — (Fr832)

1. ‘Tis Sunrise — Little Maid — Hast Thou
   No Station in the Day?
   ‘Twas not thy wont, to hinder so —
   Retrieve thine industry —
   .
   I’m your father, Emily. It’s sunrise and you have bread to make and poems to write! It’s not like you to sleep so late. It’s time to rise and shine!

 

2. It’s Noon — My little Maid —
   Alas — and art thou sleeping yet?
   The Lily — waiting to be Wed —
   The Bee — Hast thou forgot?
   .
   It’s noon, Emily! It’s me, your father, again, and you’ve slept all morning!! What’s wrong? Why are you still in bed? The lilies in your garden are waiting to be fertilized by the bees. Why have you forgotten your garden and your poems?

 

3. My little Maid — ‘Tis Night — Alas
   That Night should be to thee
   Instead of Morning — Had’st thou broached
   Thy little Plan to Die —
   Dissuade thee, if I could not, Sweet,
   I might have aided — thee —
   .

Emily, I’m your soul. You’re dead and I’m really sad. If only you had talked to me about your suicide plans, I might have dissuaded you. If I could not dissuade you, Emily, I might have helped you to do it.

”””””””””””’

As background for my interpretation, here is an early poem about ED’s father waking her at 3:00 AM each morning by knocking on her bedroom door. Apparently, in 1858, ED and her sister, Vinnie, were expected to start morning chores and cook breakfast. The poem below (Fr35, 1858) is about a deal ED brokered with her father to hire a maid so that she could have more time to write poetry:

35.1858.Sleep is supposed to be

Sleep is supposed to be
By souls of sanity
The shutting of the eye.

Sleep is the station grand
Down wh’, on either hand
The hosts of witness stand!

Morn is supposed to be
By people of degree
The breaking of the Day.

Morning has not occurred!

That shall Aurora be—
East of Eternity—
One with the banner gay—
One in the red array—
That is the break of Day!

Here is an excerpt about Fr35 (1958) from Susan Kornfeld’s 2011 explication of ‘Sleep is supposed to be’ on the ‘The Prowling Bee’ blog

https://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2011/07/f-35-1848.html

“[T]his poem was described by Dickinson in a letter (JL198) to her friends the Hollands as a note to her father who apparently used to knock on her door before daylight to wake her up. [ED] prefaced the poem by writing:

To my Father –
 to whose untiring efforts in my behalf, I am indebted for my morning hours
       – viz – 3.AM to 12. PM. These grateful lines are inscribed by his aff. Daughter.’ (L198)”

In 1854, in a letter to the same “Hollands”, she mentions her father “rapping” on her door to wake her :

To Dr. and Mrs. J. G. Holland, 26 November 1854 (JL175)

“Dear Friends,

. . . When father rapped on my door to wake me this morning, I [dreamed I] was walking with you in the most wonderful garden, and helping you pick- roses, and though we gathered with all our might, the basket was never full.

Affectionately, Emily

……………………………………………

831.1864.Till Death—is narrow Loving—

Till Death—is narrow Loving—
The scantest Heart extant
Will hold you till your privilege
Of Finiteness—be spent—

But He whose loss procures you
Such Destitution that
Your Life too abject for itself
Thenceforward imitate—

Until—Resemblance perfect—
Yourself, for His pursuit
Delight of Nature—abdicate—
Exhibit Love—somewhat—

My interpretation of ‘Till Death—is narrow Loving—’, Fr831:

Stanza 1

Till Death—is narrow Loving—
The scantest Heart extant
Will hold you till your privilege
Of Finiteness—be spent—

 

To love someone “till death” is “narrow loving”. Even the “scantiest heart”, the heart least capable of love, can keep a you in a relationship “Till Death”. All you have to do is stay together. If married, don’t divorce even if time proves you and your partner incompatible. But prolonging unresolved incompatibility often results in unhappy or even bitter final years “till your privilege / Of Finiteness—be spent—”. If married, the older you get, the more difficult it is to separate because of children, grandchildren, and finances.

 

Stanza 2

But He whose loss procures you
Such Destitution that
Your Life too abject for itself
Thenceforward imitate— (enjambed with Stanza 3)

ED hopelessly loved Wadsworth, and he moved to San Francisco in May 1862. Her life felt “Destitute”. ED believed when Wadsworth visited her in 1860, he had promised they could meet and marry in Heaven, but she didn’t want to wait that long to see him. Her life felt “too abject for itself”. “Thenceforward” she would “imitate” (enjambed with Stanza 3) Wadsworth by following his exhortations in his sermons.

It’s significant that after Wadsworth left the east coast, ED felt horrible terror, as she told Higginson in JL261, dated April 25, 1862:

“I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground – because I am afraid. “

She could either commit suicide (see Fr305 below) or sing poems like this one, ‘Till Death—is narrow Loving’. ED chose to sing poems, but she still worshiped Wadsworth. .  and tried to emulate the exhortations

It’s also significant that Eliza Coleman, ED’s second cousin and close friend, lived in Philadelphia, attended Wadsworth’s  Arch Street Presbyterian Church, and took ED to hear his sermon in late March of 1855. Eliza knew ED had strong feelings for Wadsworth and mailed her copies of his sermons until 1862. Presumably, ED tried to imitate his admonishings (enjambed) . . . .

 

Stanza 3

Until—Resemblance perfect—
Yourself, for His pursuit
Delight of Nature—abdicate—
Exhibit Love—somewhat—

. . . . Until she perfected a “Resemblance” to him in her life. Sadly, in her obsessive attempt to live his sermons’ exhortations, ED “abdicate[d]” her former “Delight of Nature”. She had hoped her imitation, her sacrifices for her imagined marriage to Wadsworth, “Exhibited Love” for him. Sadly, she knew she was only fooling herself, hence the final “somewhat”.

 305.1862.What if I say I shall not wait!

 What if I say I shall not wait!
What if I burst the fleshly Gate—
And pass Escaped—to thee!

What if I file this Mortal—off—
See where it hurt me—That’s enough—
And wade in Liberty!

They cannot take me—any more!
Dungeons can call—and Guns implore
Unmeaning—now—to me—

As laughter—was—an hour ago—
Or Laces—or a Travelling Show—
Or who died—yesterday!

. . . . . . . . . .

Billy Collins had this to say about poetry fans like me who want to know the historical seed that gestated into a poem, in this case Emily Dickinson’ poems:

 

“INTRODUCTION TO POETRY

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.”

 

I think Collins (1988) overstates his case, but his poem is delightful.

William James Collins (1941- ) is an American poet who served as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003.^[1] He was a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York for 30 years, retiring in 2016.

Billy Collins, 1988, The Apple that Astonished Paris, University of Arkansas Press.

830.1864.The Admirations—and Contempts—of time—

The Admirations—and Contempts—of time—
Show justest—through an Open Tomb—
The Dying—as it were a Height
Reorganizes Estimate
And what We saw not
We distinguish clear—
And mostly—see not
What We saw before—

‘Tis Compound Vision—
Light—enabling Light—
The Finite—furnished
With the Infinite—
Convex—and Concave Witness—
Back—toward Time
And forward—
Toward the God of Him—

My interpretation of the two stanzas:

After I die, the admirations and contempts of time will be “justest”. Then my readers will reorganize their estimates of my poems’ worth, and what was obscure before my death will afterward make sense.

Each generation of readers enlightens the next on the meanings of my poems, and they, in turn, enlighten the following generation to see ever deeper, compounding understanding. Each generation’s vision is finite, but their ultimate vision is infinite. That infinite vision bears witness in space, both outward and inward, and in time, both backward and forward, toward the God of Him.

 

ED had someone special in mind when she capitalized that last “Him”. She reserved capitalized pronouns for only God, Jesus, and Charles Wadsworth. Clearly, “Him” is not God, and the context of the poem doesn’t suggest Jesus, leaving us with Wadsworth. If so, who was the God of Wadsworth? ED seems to suggest that she, in her poems, and he, in his sermons, were converging on the same God.

 

The word “justest” is ED at her finest, an original adjective of superlative degree. I could not find “justest” in any dictionary.

829.1864.Between My Country — and the Others —

There are no alternate words in Fr829:

1. Between My Country — and the Others —
2. There is a Sea —
3. But Flowers — negotiate between us —
4. As Ministry.

 

My interpretation of Fr829:

Between my home, “Homestead”, and Sue’s home, “Evergreens”, there is a meadow of grass and wildflowers and a footpath about 100 yards long:

1. Between My Country — and the Others —
2. There is a Sea —

Sue and I share our love of poetry by sending my poems back and forth by messengers, either our hired housekeepers or by Sue’s children. First, I send the poem to her, and she replies with her comments on the poems:

3. But Flowers — negotiate between us —
4. As Ministry.

Usually when I interpret a poem, I start with the literal first level, then dig deeper for universality. Continuing with the digging metaphor, a good poem has at least one level below the literal, which we label “second level”, even though we are digging downward. This is confusing because an elevator goes up to get to the second level.

For me, the words we read on the page comprise the second level of meaning and our job as readers is to guess their literal meaning, so here are five (5) words that we must interpret in reverse: “Country”, “Others”, “Sea”, “Flowers”, and “Ministry”. (Lest my quotation-mark punctuation confuses, I prefer British rules, which put periods and commas outside quotation marks when they logically belong there.)

1. “My Country” means “Myself” or “Me”. Not including first words in lines, ED capitalized Myself and Me many times in her poems, e.g., Fr14 (last line), Fr255, Fr273, Fr310, Fr332, Fr426 (Line 1), Fr455, Fr481 (twice), Fr553, Fr570, and many more.
   .
2. Line 1 in this poem (Fr829), “Between My Country — and the Others”, leaves us wondering, If “My Country” is ED or her home, “Homestead”, who are “the Others”? My immediate guess is Sue and Austin, who live in their newly built home, “Evergreens”. “Between” the two houses is 100 yards of meadow. But “Others” may also include anyone who reads ED’s poems.
   .
3. In ED’s poem that meadow is a “Sea” of grass and wildflowers. In an 1858 poem, ED told us “One Sister [Vinnie] have I in the house – / And one [Sue] a hedge away”. ED neglected to tell us that “a hedge away” meant 100 yards “Between” Homestead and Evergreens. And if “Others” is anyone who reads her poems, then the “Sea” is the literal or metaphorical distance from Homestead to wherever the reader happens to be.
   .
4. That meadow may be full of grass and wildflowers, but in this poem (Fr 829), “Flowers” probably means “Poems”, which “negotiate” between Sue and ED, especially during their 15-year hiatus when ED did not step foot into “Evergreens”.
   .
5. Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines “Ministry” as “A government department headed by a minister; a departmental minister together with his or her associated staff; [or] the building occupied by a government department.” (Def, 1.5.c.)”. Ministers often personally carried important letters from one country to another. I suppose the word “Ministry” in the poem could be the employees or children that carried the poems back and forth across the “Sea” of meadow.

 

Historical perspective: Sue summarized her relationship with ED in a poem she wrote about 1891, five years after ED died:

1. Minstrel of the passing days
2. Sing me the song of all the ways
3. That snare the soul in the October haze
4. Song of the dark glory of the hills
5. When dyes are frightened to dull hues
6. Of all the gaudy shameless tints
7. That fire the passions of the prince
8. Strangling vines clasping their Cleopatras
9. Closer than Antony’s embrace
10. Whole rims of haze in pink
11. Horizons be as if new worlds hew
12. Shaping off our common quest –

ED was the minstrel who sang songs (sent poems):

2. “. . . . of all the ways
3. That snare the soul in the October haze”

As young women, Sue and ED read Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ together, with ED reading the part of Antony and Sue Cleopatra. In Fr829, ED’s poems sang:

6. “Of all the gaudy shameless tints
7. That fire the passions of the prince”.

The reason the two did not meet in person was that Sue felt strangled by ED’s neediness for love:

8. Strangling vines clasping their Cleopatras
9. Closer than Antony’s embrace

Sue recognized ED’s genius and understood her poems:

11. Horizons be as if new worlds hew
12. Shaping off our common quest –

Their “common quest” was their shared love of poetry.