Valentine week, 1850
Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,
Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!
Oh the Earth was made for lovers, for damsel, and hopeless swain,
For sighing, and gentle whispering, and unity made of twain
All things do go a courting, in earth, or sea, or air,
God hath made nothing single hut thee in His world so fair!
The bride, and then the bridegroom, the two, and then the one,
Adam, and Eve, his consort, the moon, and then the sun,
The life doth prove the precept, who obey shall happy be,
Who will not serve the sovereign, he hanged on fatal tree.
The high do seek the lowly, the great do seek the small,
None cannot find who seeketh, on this terrestrial ball;
The bee doth court the Rower, the Rower his suit receives,
And they make merry wedding, whose guests are hundred leaves;
The wind doth woo the branches, the branches they are won,
And the father fond demandeth the maiden for his son.
The storm doth walk the seashore humming a mournful tune,
The wave with eye so pensive, looketh to see the moon,
Their spirits meet together, they make their solemn vows,
No more he singeth mournful, her sadness she doth lose.
The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride,
Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide,
Earth is a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true.
And Earth is quite coquettish, and heseemeth in vain to sue.
Now to the application, to the reading of the roll,
To bringing thee to justice, and marshalling thy soul:
Thou art a human solo, a being cold, and lone,
Wilt have no kind companion, thou reap’st what thou hast sown.
Hast never silent hours, and minutes all too long,
And a deal of sad reflection, and wailing instead of song?
There’s Sarah, and Eliza, and Emeline so fair,
And Harriet, and Susan, and she with curling hair!
Thine eyes are sadly blinded, but yet thou mayest see
Six true, and comely maidens sitting upon the tree,
Approach that tree with caution, then up it boldly climb,
And seize the one thou lovest, nor care for space, or time!
Then bear her to the greenwood, and build for her a bower,
And give her what she asketh, jewel, or bird, or flower –
And bring the fife, and trumpet, and beat upon the drum –
And bid the world Goodmorrow, and go to glory home!
Elbridge Bowdoin, Edward Dickinson’s junior law partner (1847-1855), was about the same age (mid-20s) as Benjamin Newton, Edward’s intern and ED’s mentor, but Newton was married and Bowdoin was not. Bowdoin, a lifelong bachelor, kept this Valentine poem for 40 years. Given its boldly sensual nature, we know where Emily’s mind was at age 19. But, since childhood, ED has also had something else on her mind – death:
“The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride”
This early Valentine poem also tells us that Susan Gilbert, an orphaned newcomer to Amherst in 1847, had joined ED’s inner clique of friends by 4 March 1850. Their acquaintance began Fall 1847 when Susan enrolled for one semester at Amherst Academy. Their romantic love probably began summer 1850: “I love you as dearly, Susie, as when love first began, on the step at the front door, and under the Evergreens, and it breaks my heart sometimes, because I do not hear from you” (L181, January 1855). In later poems it may help to know that ED had “curling hair”.