ED-LarryB

811.1864.There is a June when Corn is cut

There is a June when Corn is cut
And Roses in the Seed—
A Summer briefer than the first
But tenderer indeed

As should a Face supposed the Grave’s
Emerge a single Noon
In the Vermilion that it wore
Affect us, and return—

Two Seasons, it is said, exist—
The Summer of the Just,
And this of Ours, diversified
With Prospect, and with Frost—

May not our Second with its First
So infinite compare
That We but recollect the one
The other to prefer?

My interpretation of four-stanza ‘There is a June when Corn is cut’, in four prose sentences:

1. There is a time when corn is cut and roses go to seed, a summer briefer than the first, but lovely all the same.

2. As if a face, long buried in the grave, emerge a single noon in rosy cheeks it former wore, then vanish into air.

3. Two seasons, it is said, exist, the summer of the saved, and this of ours, diversified with promise and with pain.

4. May not our second season so infinite compare, that we but spy the first face, our second to prefer.

Stanza 1

In western Massachusetts, corn (maize) was harvested in late summer/early autumn, not June, which is the clue that this poem is about Indian Summer, a period of warm, sunny, and dry weather that occurs in the autumn, usually after the first frost. Though brief, Indian Summer resurrects fleeting feelings of summertime, which ED described as “tenderer indeed”.

Stanza 2

A memory of a ruddy-cheeked face that ED thought she’d never see again appeared for a single “Noon”, woke memories of a “summer’s day”, perhaps in 1860 (Fr325?) , then vanished into time. For ED, that face was Wadsworth’s.

Stanza 3

ED’s “First” summer was her “Summer of the Just” (Line 10), where “Just” means “perfected ones; those made whole” [EDLex, Definition 2 of “Just”].

ED realized that Indian Summer, her second summer, is diversified with Prospect and with Pain, but she felt that pain on Earth would be worth enduring when she finally arrives at her Heavenly second” summer with Wadsworth:

“. . . we shall rise—
Deposed—at length—the Grave—
To that new Marriage—
Justified—through Calvaries of Love!”
(Fr325)

Stanza 4

May not our second summer so infinite compare, that we but spy the first, our second to prefer.

……………………………………………………………….

Fr811, ‘There is a June when Corn is cut’, got me wondering how many “Indian Summer” poems ED composed. The answer is at least nine:

1. F122 ‘These are the days when Birds come back’
2. F265 ‘It cant be “Summer”!’
3. F363 ‘I know a place where Summer strives’
4. F408 ‘Like some Old fashioned Miracle’
5. F520 ‘God made a little Gentian’
6. F811 ‘There is a June when Corn is cut’
7. F1412 ‘How know it from a Summer’s Day?’
8. F1419 ‘A – Field of Stubble, lying sere’
9. F1457 ‘Summer has two Beginnings‘

My  source for eight of these poem titles was David Preest. Tom C added the ninth with his comment of October 1, 2025, on The Prowling Bee.

The Robin for the Crumb
Returns no syllable
But long records the Lady’s name
In Silver Chronicle.

The Robin’s “Silver Chronical” will “long record the Lady’s name”, just as ED’s poem will immortalize her Aunt Lucretia (M&ML432, JL633). Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 said it best:

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”

810.1864. The Robin for the Crumb

The Robin for the Crumb
Returns no syllable
But long records the Lady’s name
In Silver Chronicle.

My interpretation:

The poet for the food returns no formal “thanks” but long records the giver’s name in silver poetry.

……………………………………

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 set the trope’s standard:

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”

……………………………………

Franklin (1998) tells us there were two manuscripts of Fr810, “about 1864 and 1865”.

……………………………………….

While in the Boston area for eye treatment in 1864 and again in 1865, ED lived with her cousins, Frances and Louise Norcross, daughters of her mother’s oldest sister, at a boarding house located at 86 Austin Street in Cambridge. Her Aunt Lucretia Dickinson Bullard, eldest sister of ED’s father, lived at 24 Center Street in Cambridge, only 1.7 miles from ED’s boarding house. (Google AI)

During ED’s “eight weary months of Siberia”, AKA Cambridge and Boston, MA, for eye treatments, ED’s Aunt Lucretia must have sent her and her cousins a covered dish of food. Apparently, to thank her aunt, ED sent Fr810, ‘The Robin for the Crumb’. ED’s thank-you poem begins “Dear Aunt” and ends “Affy, Emily” (MML432, MML525). Occasionally, ED’s Aunt Bullard would also send bouquets of garden flowers and get-well cards.

Good to have had them lost
For news that they be saved!
The nearer they departed Us
The nearer they, restored,

Shall stand to Our Right Hand—
Most precious— are the Dead—
Next precious, those that rose to go
Then thought of Us, and stayed—

ED was not a religious person in the traditional, stand-at-the-right-hand-of-God ilk. I think this poem is unlikely to be about religion or a love relationship. But one thing we do know for certain is that ED was composing during the bloody last year of the Civil War. She had known men in her early social circle who had been killed:

“[They] Shall stand to Our Right Hand—
Most precious— are the Dead—”

We also can be certain that in the confusion of newspaper lists, a few of her friends likely were reported dead when in fact they were badly wounded but not killed:

“Next precious, those that rose to go [almost died]
Then thought of Us, and stayed—”

I think this poem is about them.

The lovely flowers embarrass me,
They make me regret I am not a Bee –

Text of Letter M&ML422, JL1042 to Lucretia Gunn Bullard, ED’s aunt, about late spring 1864, Cambridge, MA:

“The lovely flowers embarrass me,
They make me regret I am not a Bee –

Was it my blame or Nature’s?

Thank you, dear Aunt, for the thoughtfulness, I shall slowly forget – The beautiful Plant would entice me, did I obey myself, but the Doctor is rigid –

Will you believe me grateful,

Truly,

Emily

Given ED’s disinclination for visiting, she’s got a good excuse. I agree with Johnson (1958), the poem is a poet’s polite RSVP for a medical reason

Cristanne Miller and Domhnall Mitchell, 2024, The Letters of Emily Dickinson, Harvard University Press. Kindle Edition.

807.1864.Away from Home are some and I —

Away from Home are some and I —
An Emigrant to be
In a Metropolis of Homes
Is easy, possibly —

The Habit of a Foreign Sky
We — difficult — acquire
As Children, who remain in Face
The more their Feet retire.

My interpretation of  Fr807:

2. Away from home are some and I; to be an emigrant in a large city of homes is easy, possibly.
3. The habit of a foreign sky we difficult acquire, as children who remain home in heart the more their faces leave home.

 

A biographical interpretation makes the meaning of this poem clear; I think ED intended Line 1 to be read literally, “Away from Home are some and I —”:

1. During late April to November 21 in 1864, ED lived with her cousins in Cambridge where she could get treatments by the best ophthalmologist in Boston. She was an “Emigrant” because she left her home in Amherst by train bound for Boston, which was a “Metropolis of Homes” compared to Amherst. The train ride was “easy”, but she’s uneasy about what lies ahead, hence the stanza-closing “possibly —”
2. Getting used to the “Foreign Sky” of Cambridge and Boston wasn’t easy for ED, a small-town girl who liked her home on Amherst’s Main Street. She felt like a child whose “face” was physically in an unfamiliar place where she was supposed to be, but her heart and brain remained in her second-floor bedroom at Homestead writing poetry, or at least trying to. (Habegger 2001)

She used the word “Emigrant” because her travel experience helped her empathize better with the Irish immigrants in Amherst who had arrived in a strange new land under a “Foreign Sky”.

During ED’s months of treatment she apparently composed some poems. However, she was under strict orders not to use her eyes, so she may have dictated new poems to her cousins, Louisa and Francis Norcross. That may explain some of the upcoming short poems.

Habegger, Alfred. 2001. My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

806.1864.Partake as doth the Bee,

ED’s alternate Lines 3-4 in parentheses:

Partake as doth the Bee,
Abstemiously.
The Rose is an Estate—         (I know the Family)
In Sicily.                                 (In Tripoli).

Johnson (1955) tells us:

“The diary of ED’s cousin, Perez Dickinson Cowan, who was graduated from Amherst College in 1866, under date of 26 April 1864, records that ED presented him with a bouquet of flowers with this poem [Variant 803B] enclosed as a note.”

Perez Dickinson Cowan (1843-1923) was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was 20 or 21 when ED wrote this poem. Tennessee was a Confederate state, and Cowan was a student at Amherst College during the Civil War. East Tennessee leaned toward the Union, as did Cowan’s family, and ED’s father was Cowan’s uncle once removed, which may explain Cowan’s presence at Amherst College, a safe refuge for a draft-age, privileged southern boy.

That Perez graduated late, at age 23 in 1866, and after Lee’s 1865 surrender, supports this conjecture.

ED tells us, “I know the Family”. Also, her three-syllabled “Tripoli” is likely a camouflaged alliteration for three-syllabled “Tennessee”. Clearly, ED was being extremely careful to avoid implicating her second cousin or his Knoxville family in draft-dodging.