847.1864.Her final Summer was it—
Her final Summer was it—
And yet We guessed it not—
If tenderer industriousness
Pervaded Her, We thought
A further force of life
Developed from within—
When Death lit all the shortness up
It made the hurry plain—
We wondered at our blindness
When nothing was to see
But Her Carrara Guide post—
At Our Stupidity—
When duller than our dullness
The Busy Darling lay
So busy was she—finishing—
So leisurely—were We—
………………………………………………………………….
ED suggested one alternate line, three alternate words, and one alternate phrase. I prefer:
L2. Alternate line, “Yet we suspected not”, because the original Line 2, “And yet We guessed it not,” began with “And”, which feels weak, while “Yet” sounds strong, signifies time, and implies “however”
L5. Alternate word, “Fund” , over the original word “Force” because fund implies an amount of something, in this case time, and it’s running out.
L4 and L5 enjamb Stanzas 1 and 2:
“We thought / A further Fund of Life”
L7. Alternate word “limit” over original “shortness” because the woman’s “Fund” of life [Line 5] is limited [Line 7].
L7 Alternate word, “brevity” in place of the phrase “shortness up” because it’s one word in place of the clunky phrase.
I use these preferences {in curly brackets} in my stanza by stanza interpretation of the poem:
Stanza 1
Her final Summer was it—
{Yet we suspected not}
If tenderer industriousness
Pervaded Her, {We thought
S1.
During summer, she knew she was dying but didn’t tell us. She seemed more industrious than usual putting her affairs in order. We thought
Stanza 2
A further} {Fund} of life
Developed from within—
When Death lit all the {brevity}
It made the hurry plain—
S2
she had found a fund of life deep inside her, so we were surprised when she visibly began to die. That explained why she had been hurrying.
Stanza 3
We wondered at our blindness
When nothing was to see
But Her Carrara Guide post—
At Our Stupidity—
S3
We wondered at our blindness, but she showed us nothing that would make us suspect her death was near. Her face was calm as Carrara marble. We can’t believe we were so blind to the truth.
Stanza 4
When duller than our dullness
The Busy Darling lay
So busy was she—finishing—
So leisurely—were We—
S4
Even when she began to fade we could not believe the end was near. We took our time when she asked for help and now regret our leisureness. On her deathbed she finished her final legal documents and gave instructions for her funeral.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
847.1864.Her final Summer was it—
Her final Summer was it—
And yet We guessed it not—
If tenderer industriousness
Pervaded Her, We thought
A further force of life
Developed from within—
When Death lit all the shortness up
It made the hurry plain—
We wondered at our blindness
When nothing was to see
But Her Carrara Guide post—
At Our Stupidity—
When duller than our dullness
The Busy Darling lay
So busy was she—finishing—
So leisurely—were We—
………………………………………………………………….
ED suggested one alternate line, three alternate words, and one alternate phrase. I prefer:
L2. Alternate line, “Yet we suspected not”, because the original Line 2, “And yet We guessed it not,” began with “And”, which feels weak, while “Yet” sounds strong, signifies time, and implies “however”
L5. Alternate word, “Fund” , over the original word “Force” because fund implies an amount of something, in this case time, and it’s running out.
L4 and L5 enjamb Stanzas 1 and 2:
“We thought / A further Fund of Life”
L7. Alternate word “limit” over original “shortness” because the woman’s “Fund” of life [Line 5] is limited [Line 7].
L7 Alternate word, “brevity” in place of the phrase “shortness up” because it’s one word in place of the clunky phrase.
I use these preferences {in curly brackets} in my stanza by stanza interpretation of the poem:
Stanza 1
Her final Summer was it—
{Yet we suspected not}
If tenderer industriousness
Pervaded Her, {We thought
S1.
During summer, she knew she was dying but didn’t tell us. She seemed more industrious than usual putting her affairs in order. We thought
Stanza 2
A further} {Fund} of life
Developed from within—
When Death lit all the {brevity}
It made the hurry plain—
S2
she had found a fund of life deep inside her, so we were surprised when she visibly began to die. That explained why she had been hurrying.
Stanza 3
We wondered at our blindness
When nothing was to see
But Her Carrara Guide post—
At Our Stupidity—
S3
We wondered at our blindness, but she showed us nothing that would make us suspect her death was near. Her face was calm as Carrara marble. We can’t believe we were so blind to the truth.
Stanza 4
When duller than our dullness
The Busy Darling lay
So busy was she—finishing—
So leisurely—were We—
S4
Even when she began to fade we could not believe the end was near. We took our time when she asked for help and now regret our leisureness. On her deathbed she finished her final legal documents and gave instructions for her funeral.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
ED choreographed her funeral carefully:
“The honorary pallbearers, among them the president and professors of Amherst College, set the casket down after exiting the Homestead’s back door, and their burden was shouldered, at the poet’s own request, by six Irish workmen who had been hired men on the Dickinson grounds.
“Following her late directions, they circled her flower garden, walked through the great barn that stood behind the house, and took a grassy path across house lots and fields of buttercups to West Cemetery [500 yards from Homestead], followed by the friends who had attended the simple service. There Emily Dickinson was interred in a grave Sue had lined with evergreen boughs, within the family plot enclosed by an iron fence.”
( https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/emily-dickinson/biography/special-topics/emily-dickinson-and-death/ )
……………………………………………………………………………………..
What ED told her pallbearers, including the President of Amherst College:
From her coffin, ED said to the Prez: “Just carry me out the back door, set me down on the path to my garden, and leave the toil to my band of muscly Irishmen. They know where to go because I taught them.”
My suspicion is that Prez and pack carried ED far enough out the back door for photo ops, then, exhausted, set her down on the ground, nodded to the Irishmen to pick her up, ‘scaped back inside ‘Homestead’, and quaffed a glass of fine elderberry wine, made by, guess who?
ED choreographed her funeral carefully:
“The honorary pallbearers, among them the president and professors of Amherst College, set the casket down after exiting the Homestead’s back door, and their burden was shouldered, at the poet’s own request, by six Irish workmen who had been hired men on the Dickinson grounds.
“Following her late directions, they circled her flower garden, walked through the great barn that stood behind the house, and took a grassy path across house lots and fields of buttercups to West Cemetery [500 yards from Homestead], followed by the friends who had attended the simple service. There Emily Dickinson was interred in a grave Sue had lined with evergreen boughs, within the family plot enclosed by an iron fence.”
( https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/emily-dickinson/biography/special-topics/emily-dickinson-and-death/ )
……………………………………………………………………………………………………