Regarding the first poem posted above, I wonder how E.D. failed to correct the repetition of "--side" in the first stanza. She frequently moved off-rhyme quite far, but I believe such repetitions as this are rare. This poem must have been dashed off, put into the bundle, and never studied again.
But I despair of discovering anything more about the methods and motives of Miss Dickinson. When young I once waited alone in her bedroom almost a whole afternoon willing her to appear, however ectoplasmically, and to answer a few questions; but she did not appear, much less speak. So I think she must be dumbly dead, like almost everyone else said to have died, except Napoleon, General Lee and my grandmother.
How fortunate for us that E.D. was not more directly involved in the affair of Mabel and Prof. Loomis with her beloved brother Austin (with whom a letter of hers suggests she slept, probably because there were so few beds in the house, for an undisclosed period of time). Had she been so involved, some of her passion and pent energy might then have been released in ecstatic sin, and we would not have quite so much of her wonderful poetry.
G.
[This message has been edited by Golias (edited February 13, 2001).]
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