842.1864.Patience—has a quiet Outer—

842.1864.Patience—has a quiet Outer—

Patience—has a quiet Outer—
Patience—Look within—
Is an Insect’s futile forces
Infinites—between—

‘Scaping one—against the other
Fruitlesser to fling—
Patience—is the Smile’s exertion
Through the quivering—
……………………………………………………………………………..

ED lists two alternate words in Line 7 and two alternates, Lines 7-8 {in curly brackets}. I prefer ED’s original words and phrase.

My biographical interpretation of ‘Patience—has a quiet Outer—’:

My family sees my outward quiet appearance, but that is superficial. If they could look within, they would see a futile struggle between infinite forces.

If I escape the pain of living life, the pain of separation from Him descends, ripping open my healing wound. He told me we would meet and marry in Heaven, so I force a smile, though my lips are quivering.
………………………………………………………………………………………………..

ED lists two alternate words in Line 7 and two alternates, Lines 7-8 {in curly brackets}. I prefer ED’s original words and phrase:

Line 7:

Patience—is the Smile’s {Mouth’s; Love’s} exertion

Lines 7- 8:

Smile’s exertion {Mean of forces} —
Through the quivering {Stand by Her Wing}
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In Master Letter 1 (JL187, draft, spring 1858), ED invited Reverend Wadsworth to visit her in Amherst:

“Listen again, Master. I did not tell you that today had been the Sabbath Day.

“Each Sabbath on the Sea, makes me count the Sabbaths, till we meet on shore ¬¬─ and (will the) whether the hills will look as blue as the sailors say. I cannot talk any more (stay any longer) tonight (now), for this pain denies me.

“How strong when weak to recollect, and easy, quite, to love. Will you tell me, please to tell me, soon as you are well.”

ED knew that Wadsworth was nationally known for his powerful, pew-filling sermons and probably did not expect him to come. Wadsworth probably knew from ED’s previous letters that she had heard him deliver a sermon in March 1855 and probably guessed, correctly, that his deep bass voice and oratorical skills had stolen her heart.

Wadsworth was the love of ED’s life. He probably knew how she felt because her feelings were obvious in her Master Letter Drafts ML1 (JL187, Spring 1858), ML2 (JL248, early 1861), and ML3 (JL233, Summer 1861).

ED’s poems honor Wadsworth by capitalizing all his pronouns, just as she capitalized God’s. In fact, ED seems to think of Wadsworth as God’s doppelgänger.

“Fruitlesser” (Line 6) is an ED original, a humdinger comparative adjective.

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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.