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787.1863.Bloom opon the Mountain—stated—

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Bloom opon the Mountain—stated—
Blameless of a Name—
Efflorescence of a Sunset—
Reproduced—the same—

Seed, had I, my Purple Sowing
Should endow the Day—
Not a Tropic of a Twilight—
Show itself away—

Who for tilling—to the Mountain
Come, and disappear—
Whose be Her Renown, or fading,
Witness, is not here—

While I state—the Solemn Petals,
Far as North—and East,
Far as South and West—expanding—
Culminate—in Rest—

And the Mountain to the Evening
Fit His Countenance—
Indicating, by no Muscle—
The Experience—

Humpf. We don’t call Robert Frost Robert or Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth or Emily Bronte Emily. But Biographers, academic authors, and commentors alike often call Emily Dickinson Emily. Ever since her family met courteous inquiries with stony stares, we’ve been “protecting Emily”. I’m guilty too, I call her my difficult girlfriend.

Nevertheless, sing-songy perfect rhymes like “a name / the same”, “the day / away”, “disappear / is not here”, “East / West /Rest”, “Countenance / Experience” in every stanza just sound trite, no matter who wrote the poem. Maybe it’s a joke and she’s somewhere out there laughing at us as we gush. At any rate, it’s refreshing to hear an ED fan say, “in this poem, she does get a little purple in her diction, at least a little more so than usual, as can be heard in the phrase, “efflorescence of a sunset.”

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786.1863.Autumn — overlooked my Knitting —

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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.

 

784.1863. I sometimes drop it, for a Quick

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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 –

Consoles a Wo so monstrous
That did it tear all Day,
Without an instant’s Respite –
‘Twould look too far – to Die –

Delirium – diverts the Wretch
For Whom the Scaffold neighs –
The Hammock’s motion lulls the Heads
So close on Paradise –

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.

 

674.1863.I could not prove the Years had feet –

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I could not prove the Years had feet –
Yet confident they run
Am I, from symptoms that are past
And Series that are done –
I find my feet have further Goals –
I smile opon the Aims
That felt so ample – Yesterday –
Today’s – have vaster claims –
I do not doubt the self I was
Was competent to me –
But something awkward in the fit –
Proves that – outgrown – I see –

Given ED’s track record of 674 inimitable poems, “Series that are done” and self-confidence in her future:

“I find my feet have further Goals –
I smile opon the Aims
That felt so ample – Yesterday –
Today’s – have vaster claims –”,

she set a high bar for herself. Apologies to Bogey and Ingrid, but “Here’s looking at you Kid”.

“I’m fascinated by the slow transition we see happening in many of these poems, from a past self devoted to “lover(s)” to an emerging self that has vaster claims” (d. scribe, TPB, F674).

Yes, ED’s poems in Franklin’s estimated chronological order seem headed the way you say, d. scribe, but the slope is moguled. For example, this and the two preceding poems, F672, F673, and F674, are a gamut of love: angry, fawning, and objective. Trite but true, ED’s “slow transition” has peaks and valleys that never end, like life.

673.1863.A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!

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A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!
Its fee – to be of Gold –
Had Nature – in Her monstrous House
A single Ragged Child –
To earn a Mine – would run
That Interdicted Way,
And tell Him – Charge thee speak it plain –
That so far – Truth is True?
And answer What I do –
Beginning with the Day
That Night – begun –
Nay – Midnight – ’twas –
Since Midnight – happened – say –
If once more – Pardon – Boy –
The Magnitude thou may
Enlarge my Message – If too vast
Another Lad – help thee –
Thy Pay – in Diamonds – be –
And His – in solid Gold –
Say Rubies – if He hesitate –
My Message – must be told –
Say – last I said – was This –
That when the Hills – come down –
And hold no higher than the Plain –
My Bond – have just begun –
And when the Heavens – disband –
And Deity conclude –
Then – look for me. Be sure you say –
Least Figure – on the Road –

 

‘A Tongue – to tell Him I am true!’, F673, angles for revelation of the identity of Line 1’s “Him”. Begging purists’ pardon for de-universalizing the poem, but ED capitalizes masculine pronouns only for God and Reverend Charles Wadsworth. Her poetic opinion of Wadsworth ranged from seething anger in the previous poem, ‘Take your Heaven further on —’ (F672), to hyperbolic fawning here in F673. One day her Wadsworth obsession will end, and she will remember him as “my Philadelphia,” “my Clergyman,” “my dearest earthly friend” and “my Shepherd from ‘Little Girl’hood”, but her poems haven’t gotten there yet.

Today, the literal “Interdicted Way” from New England to San Francisco is 3000 miles of continent, but in 1863 it was 5000 miles via ship and Panama’s isthmus railroad. In this poem the poet seeks “A single Ragged Child” [who]

“To earn a Mine – would run
That Interdicted Way,
And tell Him – Charge thee speak it plain –
That so far – Truth is True?”
/ / /
“And when the Heavens – disband –
And Deity conclude –
Then – look for me. Be sure you say –
Least Figure – on the Road –”

That is, the poet has been and will always remain faithful to “Him”.

672.1863.Take your Heaven further on-

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Take your Heaven further on —
This — to Heaven divine Has gone —
Had You earlier blundered in
Possibly, e’en You had seen
An Eternity — put on —
Now — to ring a Door beyond
Is the utmost of Your Hand —
To the Skies — apologize —
Nearer to Your Courtesies
Than this Sufferer polite —
Dressed to meet You —
See — in White!

ED had reached the anger stage of grief recovery, and she aimed her darts at Wadsworth, yet she still loved him. As evidence of her enduring love for Wadsworth and his for her, here is an 1879 “Calvary” poem (F1485) that affirmed her concern for Wadsworth in a sweet quatrain, ‘Spurn the temerity —’:

“Spurn the temerity —
Rashness of Calvary —
Gay were Gethsemane
Knew we of Thee —

It would not surprise me if she mailed F1485 to Wadsworth in 1879, though we have no hard evidence that happened. At any rate, the following summer, 1880, he showed up unannounced at her front door:

“Where did you come from,” I said, for he spoke like an Apparition.

“I stepped from my Pulpit to the Train” was [his] simple reply, and when I asked “how long,” “Twenty Years” said he with inscrutable roguery – but the loved Voice has ceased.”
(Letter 1040 to Charles Clark, April 15, 1886, exactly one month before she died)

The ED-Wadsworth “love affair” was likely a marriage of two disparate minds who agreed to disagree, both deeply spiritual, one an eloquent conservative Christian minister, the other a world-class agnostic poet. They died good friends, in 1882 and 1886 respectively.

PS1, Apparently, “Calvary” and “Gethsemane” are ED’s code names for Wadsworth and herself. She had to be careful in her poems to protect Wadsworth’s reputation and her privacy. ‘Spurn the temerity —’ (F1485, 1879) is the 12th and last of her “Calvary” poems.

PS2, Wadsworth, who was 66 in 1880 and nearing the end of his life, apparently made the 500-mile roundtrip from his home in Philadelphia to visit friends James and Charles Clark in Northampton and deliver a sermon at their church. He must have made the 12-mile train trip to Amherst that afternoon to visit ED. “Twenty Years” was a his roguish reference to his previous visit with her in Amherst in summer 1860.

671.1863.The sweetest Heresy received

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The sweetest Heresy received
That Man and Woman know –
Each Other’s Convert –
Though the Faith accommodate but Two –

The Churches are so frequent –
The Ritual – so small –
The Grace so unavoidable –
To fail – is Infidel –

ED Lexicon defines “Convert” (Line 3) and “Infidel” (Line 8), respectively, as metaphors for “Lover” and “Shameful”.

This poem is about an archtypic Christian True Believer and an archtypic Agnostic who agreed to disagree.

That spark of tension lit the fire of a friendship that lasted their lifetimes. Their marriage of minds was “The sweetest Heresy” that “Man and Woman know”. In August 1882, four months after the Christian died and four years before the Agnostic descended in a white coffin that symbolized her faithfulness to their marriage and to her poetry, ED could honestly say of Reverend Charles Wadsworth:

“He was my Shepherd from “Little Girl”hood and I cannot conjecture a world without him, so noble was he always – so fathomless – so gentle.” (L994, August 22, 1882, from ED to James D. Clark, Wadsworth’s best friend).

Never underestimate ED. (Comments on Fr 671,TPB, June 24-27, 2025)