Year: 2025

The Wind begun to knead the Grass –
As Women do a Dough –
He flung a Hand full at the Plain –
A Hand full at the Sky –
The Leaves unhooked
themselves from Trees –
And started all abroad –
The Dust did scoop itself like Hands –
And throw away the Road –
The Wagons quickened on the Street –
The Thunders gossiped low –
The Lightning showed a Yellow Head –
And then a livid Toe –
The Birds put up the Bars to Nests –
The Cattle flung to Barns –
Then came one drop of Giant Rain –
And then, as if the Hands
That held the Dams – had parted hold –
The Waters Wrecked the Sky –
But overlooked my Father’s House –
Just Quartering a Tree –

ED may be revisiting Hurricane Expedition, which crossed Massachusetts on November 3, 1861. Its western side, the most destructive, passed over Amherst. She immortalized that storm in an earlier poem, F224 (1861), which shares a tone of awe with this poem, Fr796 (1864).

An awful Tempest mashed the air –
The clouds were gaunt and few –
A Black – as of a spectre’s cloak
Hid Heaven and Earth from view.

The creatures chuckled on the Roofs –
And whistled in the air –
And shook their fists –
And gnashed their teeth –
And swung their frenzied hair –

The morning lit – the Birds arose –
The Monster’s faded eyes
Turned slowly to his native coast –
And peace – was Paradise!

ED must have liked ‘The Wind begun to knead the Grass’. Over a span of 19 years, 1864-1883, she composed five variants, each with alternate words and phrases. Recipients were Elizabeth Holland (Variant A, 1964), Sue Dickinson (Variant B, 1866), Retained for her record (Variant C, 1876), T.W. Higginson (Variant D, 1876), Thomas Niles (Variant E, 1883).

Franklin (1998) provides a 10-row, 6-column table of 60 combinations of variations in his 3-volume ‘Variorum’:

Stanza structure varies along with words: Variant A (1864), Variant B (1865), and Variant E (1883), one stanza; Variants C and D (1873) five quatrain stanzas.

My guess is that ED’s last variant, Variant E, gets closest to her original intentions:

The Wind begun to rock the Grass
With threatening Tunes and low
He threw a Menace at the Earth –
Another, at the Sky –
The Leaves unhooked themselves from Trees
And started all abroad
The Dust did scoop itself like Hands
And throw away the Road-
The Wagons quickened on the streets
The Thunder hurried slow –
The Lightning showed a yellow Beak
And then a livid Claw –
The Birds put up the Bars to Nests
The Cattle clung to Barns
Then came one Drop of Giant Rain
And then as if the Hands
That held the Dams, had parted hold,
The Waters wrecked the Sky,
But overlooked My Father’s House
Just quartering a Tree –

On first, second, and third read, ‘The Wind begun to rock the Grass’ seems to describe a sudden serious thunderstorm, possibly the opening onslaught of the 1861 “Expedition Hurricane” (so named because it interfered with a Union naval expedition to capture Port Royale, North Carolina.). In any case, assuming an ED poem has only a surface-level usually proves perilous.

On the other hand, as Adam DeGraff warned in his April 29, 2024 comment on ‘Me from Myself – to banish’ (F709) in The Prowling Bee, “It’s one thing to make the poems personal, but it’s another thing to bend them out of shape to do it.” Balancing Adam’s caveat against ED’s sage advice, “Much Madness is divinest Sense” (F620, 1863), I venture out the proverbial (and divinest?) limb, beginning with my reasons:

Why would ED compose two surface-level descriptions of a memorable storm? Her first, ‘An awful Tempest mashed the air’, printed above, succeeded admirably. And if the current poem, F796, were simply a description of a storm, why did she compose five variants of it over 19 years and send them to her surrogate mother, Elizabeth Holland (1864); her trusted reader/commentor, Susan Dickinson (1865); her faithful if clueless mentor and editor of The Atlantic Monthly, T. W. Higginson (1876); and a prominent Boston publisher who solicited ED’s poems for a book, Thomas Niles (1883)? She sent Niles at least six poems, including this one, but eventually turned him down.

My hypothesis is that ‘The Wind begun to rock the Grass’ is a unified metaphor for ED’s lifechanging personal experience that began in 1847 with her public refusal to accept Christ as her savior, despite the demands of the head-mistress at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary:

“The Wind begun to rock the Grass
With threatening Tunes and low
He threw a Menace at the Earth –
Another, at the Sky -”

In 1855, after eight years of personal doubt that included urges from her friends and family to accept Jesus, ED heard a charismatic minister in Philadelphia deliver a sermon that captured her head and her heart. She felt as if

“The Leaves unhooked themselves from Trees
And started all abroad
The Dust did scoop itself like Hands
And throw away the Road-
The Wagons quickened on the streets
The Thunder hurried slow –
The Lightning showed a yellow Beak
And then a livid Claw -”

After she returned to Amherst from Philadelphia, ED tried to resist:

“The Birds put up the Bars to Nests
The Cattle clung to Barns”

Then she allowed herself one note to Reverend Charles Wadsworth, perhaps complimenting his sermon and seeking his advice about helping her mother, who was rapidly becoming an invalid. His pastoral response struck a chord. She sent a second note,

“Then came one Drop of Giant Rain
And then as if the Hands
That held the Dams, had parted hold,
The Waters wrecked the Sky”

His pastorally appropriate replies and her responses continued, becoming more EDishly quirky. Finally, he sent her the one surviving letter we have from their correspondence:

“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 –”

That final “Yours” was underlined. How did ED interpret the underline? And why didn’t Wadsworth sign the letter with his name?

ED’s correspondence with friends confirms that sometime before 1860, ED invited Wadsworth to take the twelve-mile train trip from Northampton, MA, to her home the next time he visited his best friend, James D, Clark, who lived there. During summer 1860, he did visit, but ED had to minimize her family’s knowledge of her burgeoning relationship with Wadsworth:

“But overlooked my Father’s House –
Just Quartering a Tree –”

That capitalized “Quartered Tree” was ED.

During the following five years, 1861-1865, ED composed 937 poems, a maniacal rate of one poem every two days for five straight years and more than half her lifetime total of 1789 poems.

I rest my case.

795.1864.Truth — is as old as God —

Two variants: Variant A (1864) is a single eight-line stanza and Variant B (1865) is two quatrains, with an alternate word, “Himself”, in Line 6.

I prefer eight-line Variant A and her original phrase in Line 6, “That he”, because of its clarity of meaning:

Truth — is as old as God —
His Twin identity
And will endure as long as He
A Co-Eternity —
And perish on the Day
That he (Himself) is borne away
From Mansion of the Universe
A lifeless Deity.

EDLex defines “Truth” as:

1. Reality; facts; actual state of things.
2. Being; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be.
3. Wisdom; verity; orthodoxy; real doctrine; sound philosophy; veracious principles; true religious belief.
4. Veracity; purity from falsehood.
5. Fact; principle; essence, as distinguished from an imitation.
6. Sincerity; practice of speaking truth; habitual disposition to speak correct principles.
7. Constancy.
8. Correct opinion.

OED Definitions of “Truth” stretch 38 pages and 8800 words.

“Truth” is an early Old English word and most of the OED definitions are now obsolete. Here are two OED definitions that are not obsolete:

1. Def II.5.c. Understanding of nature or reality; the totality of what is known to be true; knowledge.
2. Def II.6.a. Religious sense: spiritual reality as the subject of revelation or object of faith

Objective “truth” changes with new discoveries in science. In the religious sense, we like to think “truth” doesn’t change, but it does. For example, the Old Testament focuses on God as vengeful; the New Testament on God as loving and forgiving. They can’t both be true.

Clearly, there is no such thing as immutable “Truth”, either in the objective or religious sense. Our problem is deciding whether ED meant “Truth” in a mutable or immutable sense.

My take on this poem is that ED intended the latter, immutable sense, which seems wishful thinking.

An interpretation in one prose paragraph:

God is Truth and Truth is God; their identities are twins. Truth will endure as long as God endures, a co-eternity, and perish on the day that Death carries Wadsworth [lowercase “h” in “he” in Variant A and uppercase “H” in “Himself” in Variant B] away, a lifeless deity, from mansions of the universe [Earth?]

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.

785.1863.It dropped so low — in my Regard —

It dropped so low — in my Regard —
I heard it hit the Ground —
And go to pieces on the Stones
At bottom of my Mind —

Yet blamed the Fate that flung it — less
Than I denounced Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf —

ED’s original 1863 ink copy in Fascicle 37 and 1880 penciled alternatives in parentheses:

It dropped so low — in my Regard —
I heard it hit the Ground —
And go to pieces on the Stones
At bottom of my Mind — (in the ditch)

Yet blamed the Fate that fractured (flung it) — less
Than I reviled (denounced) Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf —

For the first time, ED did not copy her alternative words and phrases in ink at the same time she copied her poem. Instead, she waited 17 years (1880) and then penciled her alternatives between her original ink lines.

Both Johnson (1955, ‘Complete Poems’) and Franklin (1998, ‘Poems of Emily Dickinson’) published Line 4 without using ED’s 1880 alternate phrase, which was their standard protocol, but they published her 1880 alternates in Lines 5 and 6, which was definitely not their usual protocol. They may have been “protecting Emily” by ignoring protocol in Lines 5 and 6 and not in Line 4. Whatever their reasons, they improved her poem:

Original Stanza 1 sounds better than

“It dropped so low — in my Regard —
I heard it hit the Ground —
And go to pieces (in the Ditch)
At bottom of my Mind —”

And modified Stanza 2 sounds better than her original (above):

“Yet blamed the Fate that (flung it) — less
Than I (denounced) Myself,
For entertaining Plated Wares
Upon My Silver Shelf —”

Line 6, “Than I reviled myself”, may reveal how ED felt in 1863, but apparently she had mellowed by 1880.

The postcendant of “It” (Line 1) is “Plated Wares” (Line 7), a metaphor for “anything you once fell for” but no longer revere (Adam DeGraff, AKA d. scribe). “It” may be ED’s adolescent romantic infatuation (at age 25-32) with Rev. Charles Wadsworth, which I think is the seed of this poem, or the unfinished quality of the poem itself, which ED apparently realized in 1880, or, something else.

There must be a reason ED would juxtapose this poem, F785 (Poem 13), an initially flawed text but objective truism, with F784 (Poem 12), a “Mulling Suicide” poem that seems a painful cry for help,  Perhaps she’s reminding herself of where she’s been (sidetracked by infatuation, “Plated Wares”) and where she wants to go (poetic immortality). It’s inconceivable to me she composed these two poems contemporaneously, despite their copied  juxtaposition in Fascicle 37 and identical estimated copy dates (“about late 1863”).

784.1863.I sometimes drop it, for a Quick –

 I  sometimes drop it, for a Quick –
The Thought to be alive –
Anonymous Delight to know –
And Madder – to conceive –

A Reef – crawled easy from the Sea
Eats off the Brittle Line –
The Sailor doesn’t know the Stroke –
Until He’s past the Pain –

“Delirium – diverts the Wretch / For Whom the Scaffold neighs –”:

Occam’s Razor suggests “neighs –” is simply ED’s notorious misspelling of “nighs”.

ED’s father championed building “Insane Asylums”, a euphemism for “Mad House”, as they were then termed. Good thing he didn’t see ED’s poem, which we might dub ‘Mulling Suicide’.

An interpretation of ‘I sometimes drop it, for a Quick –’:

ED offers no alternate words. Parenthesized words are definitions from ED Lexicon; square brackets are my edits.

I sometimes drop [mulling suicide], for a Quick [respite from Wo] –
The Thought to be alive  –
(Unknown) Delight to know –
And (Insaner)– to conceive –

[“The Thought to be alive”] (Relieves) a Wo so monstrous
That did it (weep) all Day
Without an instant’s Respite –
[Death would look too far – to wait – ]

(Insanity) – diverts the Wretch
For Whom the Scaffold neighs [nighs]
The Hammock’s motion lulls the Heads
So close on Paradise –

(Adversity) – crawled easy from the Sea
Eats off the (Feeble Cable) –
The Sailor doesn’t know the (End) –
Until He’s past the Pain –

I think the postcendant of “It” (Line 1) is “Plated Wares” (Line 7), a metaphor for “anything you once fell for” but no longer revere (Adam DeGraff, AKA, d. scribe). “It” may be ED’s adolescent romantic infatuation (at age 25-32) with Rev. Charles Wadsworth, which I think is the seed of this poem, or the unfinished quality of the poem itself, which ED apparently realized in 1880.

There is a reason ED would juxtapose in Fascicle 37 this poem, F785 (Poem 13), an initially flawed text but objective truism, with F784 (Poem 12), a painful cry for help, a “Mulling Suicide” poem. It’s inconceivable to me she composed these two poems contemporaneously, despite their consecutive positions and estimated copy date (about late 1863). Perhaps she’s reminding herself of where she’s been sidetracked by infatuation, “Plated Wares”, and where she wants to go, poetic immortality.

783.1863. Never for Society

 ED’s alternative words in parentheses

 Never for Society
He shall seek in vain—
Who His own acquaintance
Cultivate—Of Men

Wiser Men (One, Ear) may weary—
But the Man within
Never knew Satiety—
Better (Braver) entertain

Than could Border Ballad—
Or Biscayan Hymn—
Neither introduction.
Need You—unto Him—

I prefer ED’s published words in both lines with alternates, L5 & L8.

Adam DeGraff, blogmeister of The Prowling Bee, provides an excellent explication of this poem, especially his sentence:

“A majority of the poems written before this one in Dickinson’s oeuvre exhibit a painful yearning for a Beloved. In this one the Beloved has been internalized as Self” marks a watershed moment.”

ED probably paired this poem, Fr783 (Fascicle 37 Poem 11), with the previous one, ‘Renunciation—is a piercing Virtue—’ (Fr782, Fascicle 37 Poem 10), as a celebration of this watershed moment. She pledges herself as only she could, encrypted with a pronoun switch:

Renunciation—is the Choosing
Against itself [myself]—
Itself [myself] to justify
Unto itself [myself]—