788.1863.Publication – is the Auction

No alternate words or phrases.

Publication – is the Auction
Of the Mind of Man –
Poverty – be justifying
For so foul a thing

Possibly – but We – would rather
From Our Garret go
White – unto the White Creator –
Than invest – Our Snow –

Thought belong to Him who gave it –
Then – to Him Who bear
It’s Corporeal illustration – sell
The Royal Air –

In the Parcel – Be the Merchant
Of the Heavenly Grace –
But reduce no Human Spirit
To Disgrace of Price –

Adam DeGraff’s explication at The Prowling Bee leaves little to be said, except perhaps for Stanza 2:

“. . . . We – would rather
From Our Garret go
White – unto the White Creator –
Than invest – Our Snow –”

EDLex defines “White” (Line 7) as both an adjective and a noun. Among the EDLex adjective definitions of “white” are “virginal, innocent, chaste, pure, clean, untainted”. Among its noun definitions are “purity, virtue, goodness”.

Among the noun definitions of “Snow (Line 8)” are “purity, innocence, good reputation”.

Given those connotations, I would translate Stanza 2 into the prose sentence:

I [ED] would rather emerge from my bedroom innocent and chaste than “sell” my innocence and good reputation for the “Disgrace of Price”.

Translated, ED seems to equate selling her poetry with prostituting her body, “so foul a thing”, except “Possibly” for “Poverty”.

That last exception, “Possibly” for “Poverty”, softens the judgmental tone of this poem for me. ED might consider selling her poems, if not selling meant “Poverty”.

A translation of Fr788’s four stanzas in four sentences:

Publication is the auction of the mind of man; only poverty justifies so foul a thing, possibly.

I would rather emerge from my bedroom innocent and chaste than sell my innocence and good reputation for the disgrace of price.

Thinking belongs to God who gave it to us, then to Christ who bore its corporeal illustration to sell God’s royal plan.

In that plan resides Christ, who illustrated God’s grace to us; don’t reduce our human spirit to disgrace of price.

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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.