LarryB

767 One blessing had I than the rest (Late 1863)

ED’s alternative words in parentheses

One Blessing had I than the rest
So larger to my Eyes
That I stopped guaging – satisfied –
For this enchanted size –

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Contented as Despair –

I knew no more of Want – or Cold –
Phantasms (fictitious) both become
For this new Value (fortune -• portion -) in the Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –

The Heaven below the Heaven above
Obscured with ruddier (nearer• comelier) Blue –
Life’s Latitudes leant over – full –
The Judgment perished – too –

Why Bliss so scantily disburse –
Why Paradise defer –
Why Floods be served to Us – in Bowls
I speculate no more

ED’s “Blessing” // “was so larger than the rest” that only two possibilities come to mind: an intense mystical experience or an overwhelming moment of love. For me, a poem’s “Sense” undergirds its “Sound”, and faith assures me that ED’s poems make sense. In that light, ‘One Blessing had I than the rest’ translates as a combination: mystical love.

The word “mystic” occurs only four times in ED’s poems: mystic green (F13), mystic mooring (F33), mystic creature (F315), mystic bread (F1106); “love”, or its derivatives, appear 141 times. However, 31 years after ED’s death, William James (1917) coined the phrase “mystical experience”, and TPB denizens have used that phrase time after time in explications and comments.

A translation:

One mystical experience had I
That was so larger than the rest
That I stopped gauging them, satisfied
With its enchanted size

It was the limit of my Dream –
The focus of my Prayer –
A perfect – paralyzing Bliss –
Enduring as Despair

I knew no more of Want – or Cold –
Fictitious both became
For this new Fortune – in the Soul –
Supremest Earthly Sum –

The blue heaven below God’s Heaven,
Obscured by ruddier hue –;
Spilled over – full –,
God’s Judgement perished – too –

Why Bliss so scantily disbursed
Why Paradise deferred til Death –
Why mystic Floods be served to Us – in such small Bowls –
I speculate no more

• William James. 1917. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902, Lectures XVI And XVII. Mysticism

766.1863.No bobolink reverse his singing

No Bobolink – reverse His Singing
When the only Tree
Ever He minded occupying
By the Farmer be –

Clove to the Root –
His Spacious Future –
Best Horizon – gone –
Brave Bobolink –
Whose Music be His
Only Anodyne –

ED’s second letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, L338, dated April 28, 1862, included this sentence:

“Mr Higginson, . . . I had a terror – since September – I could tell to none – and so I sing, as the Boy does by the Burying Ground, because I am afraid –. . . . ”

For ED, 1861-1863 were traumatic but extremely productive years. She “sang” 698 poems, 39% of her total oeuvre of 1789 poems from 1850-1886. If we believe her darkest poetry, composing may have saved her from mental collapse or worse. In that context, I interpret “Brave Bobolink”:

No poet – reverse her Singing
When the only heart
She ever wanted to occupy
By its Owner be
Closed to the Root

Her Spacious Future,
Her best Horizon – gone
Her Song Her
Only Anodyne –
Brave Bobolink

The logical syntax for this poem is two cinquains, as in my interpretation, but ED clearly split the manuscript into a quatrain and a sestet. Careless or intentional? Who knows?

The manuscript that ED stitched into Fascicle 34 has “Brave Bobolink” as the last line (Line 10), which is how Johnson (1955) published it. That sharp B-B alliteration closes the poem nicely. As an alternative, ED suggested “Brave Bobolink” be Line 8 and “Only Anodyne” Line 10.

Why did Franklin (1999), contrary his usual protocol of omitting alternative words, publish ED’s alternative line arrangement in Stanza 2? And why did he ignore the illogical syntax of stanza structure by leaving Line 5, “Clove to the Root”, in Stanza 2?

765.1863.The Sunrise runs for Both

The Sunrise runs for Both –
The East – Her Purple Troth
Keeps with the Hill –
The Noon unwinds Her Blue
Till One Breadth cover Two –
Remotest – still –

Nor does the Night forget
A Lamp for Each – to set –
Wicks wide away –
The North – Her blazing Sign
Erects in Iodine –
Till Both – can see –

The Midnight’s Dusky Arms
Clasp Hemispheres, and Homes
And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie –

Franklin dates ED’s fascicle copy of ‘The Sunrise runs for Both’ (F765) “about late 1863”. On December 21, 1863, sunrise in Amherst was 7:16 AM (night’s “Hem”), but 7:16 AM in Amherst was 4:16 AM in San Francisco (night’s bosom).

When ED obsessed over Wadsworth, she wished she could share what he was doing each moment, so she adjusted for the three-hour time difference. When she was waking up in Amherst, in San Francisco Wadsworth would have been snoring on night’s “Bosom”:

“And so
Upon Her Bosom – One –
And One upon Her Hem –
Both lie -”

“Her” refers to “Night” in Stanza 3, but no doubt ED wished it referred to “Her Bosom”.

PS. Thank you, David Preest, wherever you are, for the time-zone clue.

When ED composed this poem in 1863, there were 300 different local times in the US, each based on Local Meridian Time (LMT) for a nearby city. Noon was when the Sun was directly over the local city , and nearby areas used that city’s LMT. That ancient scheme worked until railroad companies tried to print schedules for arrivals and departures. Finally, in 1883 the US adopted four times zones, each differing by one hour.

My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –
In Corners – till a Day
The Owner passed – identified –
And carried Me away –

And now We roam in (the) Sovreign Woods –
And now We hunt the Doe –
And every time I speak for Him
The Mountains straight reply –

And do I smile, such cordial light
Opon the Valley glow –
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let it’s pleasure through –

And when at Night – Our good Day done –
I guard My Master’s Head –
’Tis better than the Eider Duck’s
Deep (Low) Pillow – to have shared –

To foe of His – I’m deadly foe –
None stir (harm) the second time –
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye –
Or an emphatic Thumb –

Though I than He – may longer live
He longer must – than I –
For I have but the power (art) to kill,
Without – the power to die –

Above, ED’s four alternate words are in (bold parentheses), Early commercial publishers (1929) of ‘My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —’ accepted ED’s suggested alternative words in Lines 5 and 24. To my ear, those two changes strengthen the poem.

Judith Farr (1992, The Passion of Emily Dickinson, p 241) agrees with Adam DeGraff: ‘My Life had stood a Loaded Gun’ challenges all readers, and there is no agreement on its interpretation:

“In this discussion, moderated by Al Filreis, the panel gets into some of its many difficulties. Filreis calls it the most difficult of all Dickinson’s poems. That’s saying something with Dickinson, who is one of our most difficult poets.” (Excerpt from Adam’s explication, above.)

“There are a great many interpretations of this poem. . . . . it has become – especially after the feminist interpretations of Adrienne Rich and Albert Gelpi – a touchstone in Dickinson criticism. (One famous Americanist told me, “I test all writers on Dickinson by just one thing, their performance on ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun.”‘)” (Farr 1992)

Indeed, just six months ago on The Prowling Bee, in a comment on ‘On a Columnar Self’, F740, Anonymous, September 7, 2024), I received this request:

“Hello ! I admire your interpretations. I was wondering if you have any essays on ‘My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun’ . . . . ” ?

Reply, (Larry B, September 8, 2024), “Thank you ‘Anonymous 9/7/24’. Not yet. That poem is F764”.

There are many possible interpretations of F764, and I chose one based on ED’s relationship with Rev. Charles Wadsworth because this is a “Master Poem” (Line 14). There is no known proof that “Master” is Rev. Wadsworth, but two eminent ED historians (Sewall 1974 and Habegger 2002 ) conclude that no evidence rules out Wadsworth as ED’s “Master”, and more circumstantial evidence points to him than to any other candidate. ED’s earliest “Master Letter 1”, Draft (Spring 1858) predates her first interactions with either Bowles or Higginson, ruling them out. Other noteworthy supporters of Wadsworth as ED’s Master include three eminent Dickinson scholars, Judith Farr (1992), T. H. Johnson (1955), and G. F. Whicher (1938).

For meter’s sake, ED used proper British spelling of “Sovreign” (Line 9). Most modern writers and publishers naively “correct” ED’s spelling to American “Sovereign”, thereby messing with ED’s meter.

In Line 1, the Speaker/ED literally states that, until now, her “Life had stood – a Loaded Gun”, which metaphorically means what it says: My Life had stood like Vesuvius, poised on the verge of blowing off my top. ED’s imagination knew no bounds:

“Vesuvius dont talk – Etna- dont – One of them – said a syllable – a thousand years ago, and Pompeii heard it, and hid forever. She could’nt look the world in the face, afterward – I suppose – Bashfull Pompeii!” (Master Letter 3, Draft, Summer 1861).

……………………………………………..

LarryB’s interpretations of each stanza in [bold brackets]:

My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —
In Corners — till a Day
The Owner passed — identified —
And carried Me away —

[“My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun –
In Corners” waiting “till a Day”
When my “Owner (Master) passed – identified –
and carried Me away”.]

And now We roam in (the) Sovreign Woods —
And now We hunt the Doe —
And every time I speak for Him —
The Mountains straight reply —

[And now – We (the Speaker/Gun/ED and her “Owner”/Master), roam the world –
And now We hunt the Doe (“Foe”)
And each time he pulls my trigger (clitoris)
The “Mountains straight” echo (moan)].

And do I smile, such cordial light
Opon the Valley glow —
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through —

[And do I “smile, such cordial light” each time “he pulls my “trigger”?
My “Valley glows” –
As if a “Vesuvian face”
Had “let its pleasure through” -]

And when at Night — Our good Day done —
I guard My Master’s Head —
‘Tis better than the Eider-Duck’s
Deep (low) Pillow — to have shared —

[And then at night – Our hunting done –
I guard “My Master’s Head –
‘Tis better than” sharing
A “Deep” eider-down “Pillow”]

To foe of His — I’m deadly foe —
None stir (harm) the second time —
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye —
Or an emphatic Thumb —

[To “His” foes – “I’m deadly foe”
When I fire my bullets (poems) – “None stir a second time –
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye —
Or an emphatic Thumb — ”, the same fate falls.]

Though I than He — may longer live
He longer must — than I —
For I have but the power to kill,
Without — the power (art) to die —

[“He” will likely die before I do –
But he “must” enter everlasting life in Heaven because –
My poems have “power to kill” on Earth, but –
Unless “He” intercedes in Heaven, my poems have no power to resurrect me into Heaven where He/Master/Wadsworth promised to meet and marry me.]

For Elizabethans, the final word of the poem, “die”, means “orgasm”, which ED, a Shakespeare groupie, certainly understood and probably used intentionally to end this “most difficult of all her 1789 poems” (Filreis 2024).

This poem, ‘My Life had stood — a Loaded Gun —’, is a Capitalized “Swoon” in ED world:

“Title divine, is mine.
The Wife without the Sign –
Acute Degree conferred on me –
Empress of Calvary –
Royal, all but the Crown –
Betrothed, without the Swoon
God gives us Women –”

(F194, Stanza 1,1861)

I had no time to Hate—
Because The Grave would hinder Me—
And life was not so
Ample I
Could finish—Enmity

Nor had I time to Love—
But since
Some Industry must be—
The little Toil of Love—
I thought
Be large enough for Me—

‘I had no time to Hate’ seems a strange poem. ED was 32, past her prime, prone to illness, and slim prospects of reaching three score and ten. The two human loves of her life had failed: intimacy with Sue was just a memory, and Wadsworth had moved to San Francisco.

Stanza 1 leaves us hopeful because she knew life was too short for hate or enmity, so how can she make the remainder of her life meaningful?

In Stanza 2, ED realizes there is a way to make her life fulfilling. If she couldn’t find meaning in human love, she could at least give herself a “little Toil of Love”: creating poetry.

More than 100 poems earlier, ED had said much the same in Fr602 (Stanza 2):

“When Choice of Life — is past —
There yet remains a Love
Its little Fate to stipulate”

762.1863.Promise This – When You be Dying –

Franklin’s (1999) ‘Reading Version’

ED’s alternate words in (parentheses) and my preference in bold font:

Promise This – When You be Dying –
Some shall (Some one) summon Me –
Mine belong Your latest Sighing –
Mine – to Belt Your Eye –

Not with Coins – though they be Minted
From An Emperor’s Hand –
Be my lips – the only Buckle
Your low (meek) Eyes – demand-

Mine to stay – when all have wandered –
To devise once more
If the Life be too surrendered –
Life of Mine – restore –

Poured like this – My Whole (best) Libation –
Just that You should see
Bliss of Death – Life’s Bliss extol thro’
Imitating You –

Mine – to guard Your Narrow Precinct –
To seduce (entice – • persuade) the Sun
Longest (Latest) on Your South, to linger [loiter],
Largest (Newest – • Freshest) Dews of Morn

To demand, in Your low favor –
Lest the Jealous Grass
Greener lean – Or fonder cluster (later linger)
Round some other face –

Mine to supplicate Madonna –
If Madonna be
Could behold (regard) so far (small – dim) a Creature –
Christ – omitted -Me –

It’s doubtful anyone ever has or ever will compose a more thoughtful analysis of Fr762, ‘Promise This – When You be Dying –’, than Adam DeGraff’s explication on The Prowling Bee blog:

(https://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2024/12/promise-thiswhen-you-be-dying.html)

EDLex defines Madonna as Mary, a “holy woman who serves as an intermediary between humanity and Jesus Christ.” The speaker isn’t sure if Madonna exists, but if she does,

“Could [she intercede for] so (small) a Creature –
[Because] Christ – omitted – Me [from Heaven] -”

My insertions in [brackets] and my preferred alternate word in bold font.

ED’s presumptuous imperative, “Promise this – when you be dying [in San Francisco] / You’ll send someone – to summon me”, without hint of grief, sounds me-centered, ignoring Wadsworth’s wife and family. ED wants to be there when death happens because Wadsworth’s “latest sighing” [death rattle?], belongs to “Me”, as does the right to close his eyes, not with coins, but with her kiss.

761.1863.So much Summer
ED’s alternate words (in parentheses)

So much Summer
Me for showing
Illegitimate –
Would a Smile’s minute bestowing
Too exorbitant (extravagant – • importunate -)

To the Lady
With the Guinea(s)
Look – if she should know
Crumb of Mine
A Robin’s Larder
Would (Could) suffice to stow –

To my knowledge, no one except David Preest has quoted from or commented on this poem. He was baffled: “The syntactical structure of this poem is not immediately obvious”. ED’s 37-word riddle reminds me of Molly Bloom’s 24,000-word monologue ending Ulysses, except Molly was less obscure. There’s nothing left to do but crawl out on a thin limb and hope.

ED had begged Sue for a smile before, in F735, ‘The Moon was but a Chin of Gold’:

“Her Lips of Amber never part –
But what must be the smile
Upon Her Friend she could confer
Were such Her silver will –“

In Lines 4-7 of ‘So much Summer’, ED again begs Sue for a small smile: “Would a Smile’s minute bestowing / Too exorbitant [be] // To the Lady / With the Guinea(s)”? That “minute” smile would be a “Crumb of Mine / A Robin’s Larder / Would suffice to stow”. ED referred to Sue as a “Robin” in ‘I have a Bird in spring’ [F4, 1854, Line 6].

If ‘So much Summer’ is about Sue, then what are we to make of Lines 1-3, and how are they connected to ED’s plea for a sympathetic smile? These opening lines, taken literally, are about “Me”, the poet, ED, who apparently is “showing / illegitimate” in her “Summer” frock and begging Sue for a “minute smile”. Occam’s Razor fails sometimes, but in the absence of compelling alternatives, these lines provide circumstantial evidence supporting Shurr’s 1983 hypothesis of ED’s pregnancy [Comment 1, F745, ‘Sweet Mountains’, TPB].

Mabel Todd wrote in her diary that Austin had told her that during the early years of their marriage, before Ned’s birth in June 1861, Sue had had three or four pregnancies “artificially terminated” [Longsworth 1984]. If so, this shocking poem may be ED’s plea, not just for Sue’s sympathy, but for her empathy as well. And, if so, two questions: Why did ED leave such damning words in a poem, and why did Austin’s scissors spare this poem when he censored ED’s manuscripts after her death?

ed-larryb.com/2024/12/761-1863-so-much-summer

PS1.    Preest’s “explication” makes no sense to me:

Poem F761, ‘So much Summer’, Explication by David Preest

“The syntactical structure of this poem is not immediately obvious, but perhaps Emily is saying, ‘In return for me showing the Lady with the Guinea so much illegitimate summer, would the very small bestowing of a smile seem too extravagant a reward from her to me, if I were to tell her that a very small crumb, no bigger than what would fit a robin’s larder, would be enough.’

“Emily does not say who the Lady with the Guinea was, but the illegitimacy of their summer together may show that she was married.”

PS2:     Adam DeGraff, Blogmeister of ‘The Prowling Bee’ (TPB), kindly reminded me that ED’s Poem F12, ‘I had a guinea golden’, shares two words with F721: “Robin” and “guinea”. I believe both poems are about Sue and Emily. In fact, F12’s last stanza tells us in plain camouflaged English (“ïts” = “her”):

“My story has a moral—
I have a missing friend—
“Pleiad” its name, and Robin,
And guinea in the sand.”

• Longsworth, Polly. 1984. Austin and Mabel. University of Massachusetts Press.
• Preest, David. 2014. ‘Emily Dickinson: Notes on All Her Poems’. 672 pp. [For Preest’s entire PDF of 1775 commentaries (Johnson 1955) free of charge, go to: https://studylib.net/download/8773657
  Click “Not a Robot”, and download PDF.]
• Shurr, William H. 1983. The Marriage of Emily Dickinson. University of Kentucky Press, 230 pages; pp.170-188.