786.1863.Autumn — overlooked my Knitting —

786.1877.Autumn — overlooked my Knitting —

ED’s alternate words and phrase in parentheses (Lines 3,4,6,8).

Autumn — overlooked my Knitting —
Dyes — said He — have I —
Could disparage (dishonor) a Flamingo —
Show Me them (Give them Me)— said I —

Cochineal — I chose — for deeming
It (That) resemble Thee —
And the little Border — Dusker —
For resembling (That resemble) Me —

In Stanza 1, I prefer ED’s original words, but I much prefer her alternate word and phrase in Stanza 2.

Capitalized “He” in Line 2 logically refers to Autumn but metaphorically may also refer to the referent of “Thee” in Line 6.

Capitalized “Thee” in Line 6 probably refers to ED’s revered “Master”, not “Autumn”, because “Thee” in Line 6 is probably Reverend Charles Wadsworth, whose brilliant words burned brighter in her mind than her “little Border — Dusker —”. Wadsworth’s mesmerizing sermons overfilled his churches every Sunday.

Since her death in 1886, ED too has filled her church of readers, and her words are not “Dusker”, despite her self-deprecating claim in Lines 7-8.

PS1: It’s nice to see ED’s early infatuation with Wadsworth becoming a revered friendship that lasted until she died (JL1040 to Charles Clark, April 15, 1886).

PS2: In contrast to American grammar, British grammar logically places commas outside quote marks unless they logically belong inside, which is my preference also. An example is [“Master”,] in the last paragraph of the above explication.

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After commenting on Poems 1-763 (Franklin) on The Prowling Bee’, I am convinced that (virtually) all of Emily Dickinson’s (ED’s) poems have a factual historical level in addition to their various poetic levels of meaning. 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.

More than a century of scholarly research has resulted in somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 books and published academic papers about ED. A large majority of these publications focus only on the “poetic levels” of one or more of ED’s poems. Publications that consider both the “historic level” and “poetic levels” comprise a small minority. Publications that focus only on the factual history of her life probably number less than 100. (All numbers in this paragraph are my estimates.)

Unfortunately for ED’s universe of readers, these two basic levels (historical and poetic) cannot be separated into two ivory towers. Every history-level publication that I know of includes at least some discussion of the poetic level(s).

The reverse is not true. In fact, authors of the “poetry-level” school seem to avoid commenting on the historical level, sometimes admonishing that a poem must stand on its own, without concern for its historical roots. To my knowledge, there are (virtually) no published “history-level” books or articles that totally ignore ED’s poems and their poetic levels.

Of course, ED’s refusal to publish her poems was only possible because of lifelong financial and daily social/housekeeping support by her family, especially her father and sister, respectively. In addition, 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 of ED's poems can be enhanced by understanding both poetic and historical levels of her sound and sense. We impoverish ourselves if we ignore their historical base.