768.1863. The mountains – grow unnoticed –

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”:

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

767 One blessing had I than the rest

767 One blessing had I than the rest (Late 1863)

ED’s alternative words in parentheses

One Blessing had I than the rest
So larger to my Eyes
That I stopped guaging – satisfied –
For this enchanted size –

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Contented as Despair –

I knew no more of Want – or Cold –
Phantasms (fictitious) both become
For this new Value (fortune -• portion -) in the Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –

The Heaven below the Heaven above
Obscured with ruddier (nearer• comelier) Blue –
Life’s Latitudes leant over – full –
The Judgment perished – too –

Why Bliss so scantily disburse –
Why Paradise defer –
Why Floods be served to Us – in Bowls
I speculate no more

ED’s “Blessing” // “was so larger than the rest” that only two possibilities come to mind: an intense mystical experience or an overwhelming moment of love. For me, a poem’s “Sense” undergirds its “Sound”, and faith assures me that ED’s poems make sense. In that light, ‘One Blessing had I than the rest’ translates as a combination: mystical love.

The word “mystic” occurs only four times in ED’s poems: mystic green (F13), mystic mooring (F33), mystic creature (F315), mystic bread (F1106); “love”, or its derivatives, appear 141 times. However, 31 years after ED’s death, William James (1917) coined the phrase “mystical experience”, and TPB denizens have used that phrase time after time in explications and comments.

A translation:

One mystical experience had I
That was so larger than the rest
That I stopped gauging them, satisfied
With its enchanted size

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Enduring as Despair

I knew no more of Want – or Cold –
Fictitious both became
For this new Fortune – in the Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –

The blue heaven below God’s Heaven,
Obscured by ruddier hue –;
Spilled over – full –,
God’s Judgement perished – too –

Why Bliss so scantily disbursed
Why Paradise deferred til Death –
Why mystic Floods be served to Us – in such small Bowls –
I speculate no more

766.1863.No bobolink reverse his singing

766.1863.No bobolink reverse his singing

No Bobolink – reverse His Singing
When the only Tree
Ever He minded occupying
By the Farmer be –

Clove to the Root –
His Spacious Future –
Best Horizon – gone –
Brave Bobolink –
Whose Music be His
Only Anodyne –

ED’s second letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, L338, dated April 28, 1862, included this sentence:

“Mr Higginson, . . . 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 –. . . . ”

For ED, 1861-1863 were traumatic but extremely productive years. She “sang” 698 poems, 39% of her total oeuvre of 1789 poems from 1850-1886. If we believe her darkest poetry, composing may have saved her from mental collapse or worse. In that context, I interpret “Brave Bobolink”:

No poet – reverse her Singing
When the only heart
She ever wanted to occupy
By its Owner be
Closed to the Root

Her Spacious Future,
Her best Horizon – gone
Her Song Her
Only Anodyne –
Brave Bobolink

The logical syntax for this poem is two cinquains, as in my interpretation, but ED clearly split the manuscript into a quatrain and a sestet. Careless or intentional? Who knows?

The manuscript that ED stitched into Fascicle 34 has “Brave Bobolink” as the last line (Line 10), which is how Johnson (1955) published it. That sharp B-B alliteration closes the poem nicely. As an alternative, ED suggested “Brave Bobolink” be Line 8 and “Only Anodyne” Line 10.

Why did Franklin (1999), contrary his usual protocol of omitting alternative words, publish ED’s alternative line arrangement in Stanza 2? And why did he ignore the illogical syntax of stanza structure by leaving Line 5, “Clove to the Root”, in Stanza 2?

765.1863.The Sunrise runs for Both

765.1863.The Sunrise runs for Both

The Sunrise runs for Both –
The East – Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill –
The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two –
Remotest – still –

Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each – to set –
Wicks wide away –
The North – Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine –
Till Both – can see –

The Midnight’s Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie –

 

Franklin dates ED’s fascicle copy of ‘The Sunrise runs for Both’ (F765) “about late 1863”. On December 21, 1863, sunrise in Amherst was 7:16 AM (night’s “Hem”), but 7:16 AM in Amherst was 4:16 AM in San Francisco (night’s bosom).

When ED obsessed over Wadsworth, she wished she could share what he was doing each moment, so she adjusted for the three-hour time difference. When she was waking up in Amherst, in San Francisco Wadsworth would have been snoring on night’s “Bosom”:

“And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie -”

“Her” refers to “Night” in Stanza 3, but no doubt ED wished it referred to “Her Bosom”.

PS. Thank you, David Preest, wherever you are, for the time-zone clue.

When ED composed this poem in 1863, there were 300 different local times in the US, each based on Local Meridian Time (LMT) for a nearby city. Noon was when the Sun was directly over the local city , and nearby areas used that city’s LMT. That ancient scheme worked until railroad companies tried to print schedules for arrivals and departures. Finally, in 1883 the US adopted four times zones, each differing by one hour.

764.1863.My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —

F764.1863.My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —

ED’s alternate words in (parentheses), Franklin’s spelling corrections in <angle brackets>, LB’s comments in [brackets]

My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —
In Corners — till a Day
The Owner passed — identified —
And carried Me away —

[In ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun’ (F764, late 1863), ED was a “Loaded Gun” who “stood in Corners” waiting “till a Day” when her “Owner passed – identified – and carried Me away”.]

And now We roam in (the) Sovreign <Sovereign> Woods —
And now We hunt the Doe —
And every time I speak for Him —
The Mountains straight reply —

[In ED’s incredible imagination, she and her “Owner”, Charles Wadsworth, roam the world, making Mountains echo each time he pulls her trigger].

And do I smile, such cordial light
Opon <Upon> the Valley glow —
It is as [if] a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through —

[And does she smile each time he pulls her trigger? You bet! Her Vesuvian face lights with pleasure that makes her “Valley glow”.]

And when at Night — Our good Day done —
I guard My Master’s Head —
‘Tis better than the Eider-Duck’s
Deep (low) Pillow — to have shared —

[And then at night, “Our” gunshots  “done”, I guard “My Master’s Head / ‘Tis better than” sharing a “Deep” eider-down pillow.]

To foe of His — I’m deadly foe —
None stir (harm) the second time —
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye —
Or an emphatic Thumb —

[To “His” foes – “I’m deadly foe –”. When I fire my poetic minie-balls, “None stir a second time –”.]

Though I than He — may longer live
He longer must — than I —
For I have but the power to kill,
Without — the power (art) to die —

[“He” may die before I do, but he must enter Heaven. My poems have power to kill on Earth, but, unless “He” intercedes, they have no power for resurrection into Heaven where we agreed to meet and marry.]

 

Talk about a capitalized “Swoon”!! (F194, 1861):

“Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign  –
Acute Degree conferred on me  –
Empress of Calvary  –
Royal, all but the Crown  –
Betrothed, without the Swoon
God gives us Women –”

763.1863.I had no time to Hate

763.1863.I had no time to Hate

I had no time to Hate –
Because
The Grave would hinder me –
And Life was not so
Ample I
Could finish – Enmity -;

Nor had I time to Love –
But since
Some Industry must be –
The little Toil of Love –
I thought
Be large enough for Me –

‘I had no time to Hate’ seems a strange poem. ED was 32, past her prime, prone to illness, and slim prospects of reaching three score and ten. The two human loves of her life had failed: intimacy with Sue was just a memory, and Wadsworth had moved to San Francisco.

Stanza 1 leaves us hopeful because she knew life was too short for hate or enmity. Suddenly, in Stanza 2, ED switched gears. She realized her feelings for Rev. Wadsworth were not real “Love”: “Nor had I time to Love -”. What she truly loves is poetry, her “little Toil of Love -”.

 

This poem, ‘763.1863.I had no time to Hate’, reminds me of Stanza 2, F602:

“When Choice of Life — is past —
There yet remains a Love
Its little Fate to stipulate —
How small in those who live —”

For ED, death happened twice, first on May 1, 1862, when Rev. Charles Wadsworth embarked from New York harbor, bound for San Francisco. ED tells us her “little Fate” 161 poems later:

F763, Stanza’s 1 & 2

“I had no time to Hate— //
Nor had I time to Love—
But since
Some Industry must be—
The little Toil of Love—
I thought
Be large enough for Me—”

ED’s “little Toil of Love”, her “little Fate”, was composing 1026 more poems before her second death, on May 15, 1886.

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 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 foundations.

762.1863.Promise This – When You be Dying –

762.1863.Promise This – When You be Dying –

Franklin’s (1999) Reading Version.
ED’s alternate words (in parentheses).

Promise This – When You be Dying –
Some shall (Some one) summon Me –
Mine belong Your latest Sighing –
Mine – to Belt Your Eye –

Not with Coins – though they be Minted
From An Emperor’s Hand –
Be my lips – the only Buckle
Your low (meek -) Eyes – demand-

Mine to stay – when all have wandered –
To devise once more
If the Life be too surrendered –
Life of Mine – restore –

Poured like this – My Whole (best) Libation –
Just that You should see
Bliss of Death – Life’s Bliss extol thro’
Imitating You –

Mine – to guard Your Narrow Precinct –
To seduce (entice – • persuade) the Sun
Longest (Latest) on Your South, to linger,
Largest (newest – • freshest) Dews of Morn

To demand, in Your low favor –
Lest the Jealous Grass
Greener lean – Or fonder cluster (later linger)
Round some other face –

Mine to supplicate Madonna –
If Madonna be
Could behold (regard) so far (small – dim) a Creature –
Christ – omitted -Me –

 

EDLex defines Madonna as Mary, a “holy woman who serves as an intermediary between humanity and Jesus Christ.” The speaker isn’t sure if Madonna exists, but if she does,

“Could [she intercede for] so (small) a Creature –
[Because] Christ – omitted – Me [from Heaven] -”

 

Johnson (1955) had this to say about ED’s manuscript:

“Unless the suggested changes be entirely ignored the poem remains so unfinished that ED’s final intent is beyond editorial construction. All suggested changes are written at the end of the poem and occupy two-thirds of a page. They are not in sequence and it may be questioned whether the choices here editorially sorted out have been given their correct association in every instance.”

 

Preest (2014) offers this explication. [Brackets] mine:

“In poem [J]622 [F688] Emily had eagerly asked for details of some unnamed person’s deathbed. In this poem she asks her beloved to promise that he will have herself summoned to his deathbed as the chief mourner.

“She wants to be the one who hears his last sigh and closes his eyes, though with her lips and not with the coins put on the eyes of the dead.

“She wants to stay when all else have gone, to see if she can restore him to life.

“She would pour herself out in weeping for him, so that he would see her praising him by pouring out her life’s bliss for him, just as he had poured out his lifeblood in death’s bliss.”

ED’s presumptuous imperative, “Promise this – when you be dying [in San Francisco] / You’ll send someone – to summon me”, without hint of grief, sounds me-centered. Ignoring Wadsworth’s wife and family, ED wants to be there when death happens because Wadsworth’s “latest sighing” [death rattle?], belongs to “Me”, “Mine”, as does the right to close his eyes, not with coins, but with my kiss.

 

  • Franklin, R.W. 1999. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition, Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.
  • Preest, David. 2014. ‘Emily Dickinson: Notes on All Her Poems’. 672 pp. [For Preest’s entire PDF of 1775 commentaries (Johnson 1955) free of charge, go to:
    https://studylib.net/download/8773657
    Click “Not a Robot”, and download PDF.
  • Dickinson, Emily. Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them . Harvard University Press.
  • Johnson, T.H., ed., 1955 The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. Little, Brown and Co.