Joel: thought you (and others) might enjoy
a comment I once received from J. V. Cunningham
at Brandeis, oh so many years ago: namely,
that the dashes probably didn't mean diddly-squat
(Cunningham was more elegant) to Dickinson because
when one investigates her recipe box, etc., there
they are--a mere, nervous tic of no importance.
Except, of course, to drive Joel and me to
distraction. The punctuation is MADDENING.
Who was it--Higginson?--who "regularized" her
meter and punctuation and so on? This is commonly
looked on by ED fans as some sort of great sacrilege.
I think he did exactly what a good editor SHOULD do--
he made the poems more intelligible and hence better.
(We'll ignore those places where he chose to substitute
his word for hers--diction should probably stay with
the poet.)
As Cunningham put it, "In the 19th century, editors
were expected to--wonder of wonders--edit."
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