https://youtu.be/18GHSVVz2YA, 04Sep2015

Poems chosen for discussion on September 4 2015 are:

I should have been too glad, I see-

When Bells stop ringing - Church - begins

Of I should have been too glad, I see, Charles Anderson wrote:
"The prerequisite for mastery, in all Dickinson's best poetry, was to abandon the cumulative and logical for the tight symbolic structure that was her forte. Closely connected to this was the narrowing of her concern to one emotion at a time.Two of her better poems on the pain of renunciation deal, respectively, with the acceptance of loss as an inescapable part of the human condition and with the sheer quality of the resulting agony.In both, the specific event of a love-parting is reduced to a generalized idea of deprivation"

I should have been too glad, I see-

Too lifted-for the scant degree

Of Life's penurious Round-

My little Circuit would have shamed

This new Circumference-have blamed-

The homelier time behind.

I should have been too saved-I see-

Too rescued-Fear too dim to me

That I could spell the Prayer

I knew so perfect-yesterday-

That Scalding One-Sabachthani-

Recited fluent-here-

Earth would have been too much-I see-

And Heaven-not enough for me-

I should have had the Joy

Without the Fear-to justify-

The Palm-without the Calvary-

So Savior-Crucify-

Defeat-whets Victory-they say-

The Reefs-in old Gethsemane-

Endear the Coast-beyond!

'Tis Beggars-Banquets-can define-

'Tis Parching-vitalizes Wine-

"Faith" bleats-to understand!

                                - J313/Fr283/M346

[ For an audio recording of this poem go to https://youtu.be/18GHSVVz2YA

The new Circumference that she has missed out on, a missed chance at love, is contrasted with another circle image, her little circuit, the homelier life left to her.  the scalding prayer that she recites is Sabachthani,

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice , saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? [1]That is to say, Gods, Gods, why hast thou forsaken me?”    - Matthew 27:46

      (The language is Aramaic)

The Palm-without the Calvary- refers to Jesus ‘triumphal entry into Jerusalem during the Jewish Passover celebration, where he was greeted like royalty.

"On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord."  - John 12:12-13

When Bells stop ringing - Church - begins

The Positive - of Bells -

When Cogs - stop - that's Circumference -

The Ultimate - of Wheels.
                            - J633/Fr601/M274

For an audio recording of this poem go to https://youtu.be/3WnhhefhmJ4

David Porter wrote of this poem , "The rift exists between the sign of a thing and the thing itself." Bells are the sign of church, not church itself, which is the community of worshipers. In gears, cogs are located on the circumference of the wheel - the ultimate distance that they are able to reach [ This is a stretch. The term cog includes the wheel as well as the teeth on the edge. ]. Judith Farr sees the second meaning: "Here Circumference means the afterlife, the final goal of life," after all the cogs have stopped. Helen Vendler writes that "the concluding dash broadens into infinity."

At Half past Three, a single Bird
Unto a silent Sky
Propounded but a single term
Of cautious melody.

At Half past Four, Experiment
Had subjugated test
And lo, Her silver Principle
Supplanted all the rest.

At Half past Seven, Element
Nor Implement, be seen —
And Place was where the Presence was
Circumference between.
- J1084/Fr1099/M491

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to https://youtu.be/J-XxQGRln0M  ]

Circumference, is situated on the threshold between conscious experience and the unknown. The bird's silver principal existed in the realm of conscious experience, and now that bird and her song are somewhere unknown.

Why are we here?

   After reading Emily Dickinson on my own for nearly twenty years, I traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts for the first time in the spring of 2008. There I joined the Emily Dickinson Museum's annual Poetry Walk, which visits places of significance in the poet's life, as people hear poetry and commentary on her life and times. Continuing to participate in this and other annual events such as the Poetry Marathon, where all 1789  poems are read over the course of a day or so, as well as participating in conferences of the Emily Dickinson International Society, I realize that Amherst is a place of especially rich resources for anyone striving to appreciate the poet more fully. Authors and Dickinson scholars regularly contribute to these events. Discussing the poems with other readers is the most rewarding way of deepening one's appreciation of the poetry, but abiding in Amherst is not an option for most people. This blog will be my way of sharing these rich resources with others .


   This blog will contain summaries and notes on discussions of Emily Dickinson's poetry taken from three separate and regularly running groups, in which I participate. (Numbers 1 and 3 below do not meet during the summer months). Participants are mostly well-steeped in the poetry of The Belle of Amherst, but newcomers are always welcome.

1. The Emily Dickinson Museum Poetry Discussion Group (EDMDG), Amherst, MA

2. The Emily Dickinson International Society, Amherst, MA Chapter, (EDIS-MA) Poetry Discussion

3. The Emily Dickinson Reading Circle (EDRC), Heath, MA

Next discussion: EDIS-MA, July 17th

Emily Dickinson International Society, Amherst Chapter, 17July2015

The poems slated for discussion on July 17th are:

Circumference thou Bride of Awe
I saw no way
Two butterflies went out at Noon

Two butterflies went out at Noon is an especially interesting poem from the point of view of the poet's artistic development over time. She wrote it in 1862 or 63, her most productive period, and returned to it as late as 1878 to revise. The early version is in Fascicle 25 (H 86). Johnson chose this version for his Reader Edition

Two butterflies went out at Noon --

And waltzed upon a Farm --

Then stepped straight through the Firmament

And rested, on a Beam --

And then -- together bore away

Upon a shining Sea --

Though never yet, in any Port --

Their coming, mentioned -- be --

If spoken by the distant Bird --

If met in Ether Sea

By Frigate, or by Merchantman --

No notice -- was -- to me --

                         -J533/Fr571/M260

Ralph Franklin calls the later manuscript “a clean copy made from a previous draft.” The variant word choices on this “clean copy” cover the entire verso and are squeezed in whatever available space ED could find on the recto - see image below.. A thorough and exhaustive study of this manuscript by Wm. H Matchett yielded the version below, which Franklin chose

      1  Two butterflies went out at Noon
2  And waltzed upon a Farm -
3  And then espied Circumference
4  And caught a ride with him –
5  Then lost themselves and found themselves
6  In eddies of the sun
7  Till Gravitation missed them –
8  And both were wrecked in Noon –
9  To all surviving Butterflies
10 Be this Fatuity
11 Example – and monition
12 To entomology
                        - Fr571/M610

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to https://youtu.be/3sFKZd4HyEc ]

Friom: Matchett, William H. "Dickinson's Revision of 'Two Butterflies Went out at Noon'." PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 77.4 (1962): 436-41

The J533 is vague on immortality. The speaker doesn't know what happens to the butterflies.

In Fr571the butterflies’ fates is are longer ambiguous; they were wrecked and this "Fatuity," this stupidity or senselessness should be an example to all butterflies and a warning to the science of butterflies.

Line seven is the heart of the redactor's problems, as the second stanza was for the poet. All but three of the suggested alternative readings pertain to the second stanza. "Circumference," and important word with Dickinson, is first, in this poem, that which surrounds the center, "The Farm." It is a wider prospect, a larger insight, or knowledge, or understanding, a move out from the provincial center of the self. ("My business is Circumference."

“Though Dickinson’s dashes often seem erratic, the dash following “example” does serve a syntactical purpose, warning that the following conjunction introduces a new, elliptical clause and does not merely link two nouns.

   Discussion members found the manuscript and differing versions so interesting that we decided, after reading the Franklin version, return to the Johnson version on our next meeting in September.
   The butterflies seem to be on a kind of reckless joyride, like unwise teenagers. It reminded one member of teenagers in love, which can also be rocky and even dangerous, at least to the heart. Another member, considering the warning that ends the poem, if ED wrote any other poems with a moral. It was agreed that the poem is humorous, and no serious moral is intended.
   It was also observed that the word "Gravitation" can be read in the sense of "gravitas." "monition to entomology" is simply a warning to bugs. You have to smile.

Circumference thou Bride of Awe

Dickinson replaces the Romantic impulse toward transcendence with an alternative concept of knowledge within the limits of experience. She situates her poetry on the boundary of human discourse, simultaneously pushing outward toward an unattainable sublime [Heaven is what I cannot reach] within the symbolic order of language and circumscribing what can be known of the sublime within the symbolic order of language.
That which lies within this boundary is the symbolic order of language and sensory experience, the region of the individual consciousness that the Romantic poet seeks to expand into the infinte beyond. That which lies outside remains untouchable. The point of conjunction, the vanishing point of experience, is Circumference.
Like poetry, death is liminal, situated on the dividing line between the known and the unknown. [J943/Fr890   A Coffin – is a small Domain, ][
- Laura Gribbin "Emily Dickinson's Circumference," Emily Dickinson Journal,Vol .2 No. 1, 1993
And, paraphrasing.
Dickinson's Circumference is expandable toward eternity, but can never go reach it, nor can she know what lies beyond her Circumference. She associates this threshold with awe.

Circumference thou Bride of Awe
Possessing thou shalt be
Possessed by every hallowed Knight
That dares to covet thee
- J1620/Fr1636M648

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to Listen to this poem at https://youtu.be/UQI0bfE6eEA ]

  Circumference, situated on the threshold between conscious experience and the unknown, is wedded in the poet’s mind to Awe.  “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife,” we are commanded. The knight covets Circumference, the Bride of Awe. He possesses her and she possesses him, but he has not transcended her to reach Awe. Circumference stands between them.

All seemed to agree that the Knight has in some way transgressed, through coveting, but that he is to be lauded for doing so, because he has the courage to dare. This is, after all, a hallowed knight The figure of the Knight also calls up images of King Arthur, valor, and bravery. A member observed that each knight had to find his own way out ot the woods; there was no path, no map;

I Saw no Way - the Heavens were stitched -

Now here's a Dickinson poem that sends me right back to a comment of David Porter: "Typically, Emily Dickinson creates a recognizable emotion in the poem without any clear reference to the fostering experience."


I saw no Way - The Heavens were stitched -
I felt the Columns close -
The Earth reversed her Hemispheres -
I touched the Universe -
And back it slid - and I alone -
A Speck upon a Ball -
Went out upon Circumference -
Beyond the Dip of Bell -
                         -J378/Fr633/M320

[ To hear this poem read aloud, go to https://youtu.be/3LhrZwoeCcs  ]

  "I am the way, the truth and the life," Jesus said (John 14:26), but the speaker of this poem doesn't find it. Heaven is stitched, closed to her. When she says she feels the columns of heaven's portico close, we feel it, too. Earth's poles reverse! In another, humorous poem, Arcturus is his other name (Fr117) she writes,

What if the poles sh'd frisk about
And stand opon their heads!
I hope I'm ready for "the worst" -

Whatever prank betides!

  In the poem under consideration, the worst seems to have arrived. Helen Vendler writes, "When Dickinson is following the convolutions of consciousness very closely, her metaphors tend to create this sort of nearly unintelligible cascade,which, once understood, makes the reader a participant in the sort of vertigo transcribed in the poem. (Dickinson, p 277

  These poems were chosen for discussion because they all contain the word Circumference. And the speaker in this poem has gone out opon circumference of her own volition. Somehow - with her art? -  she touches the universe and back it slides, like the roof of a domed stadium, and out she goes, having made her own way. The poem leaves this reader with a feeling of triumph.

Some felt that the poet is isolated and alone at the end of the poem, and hear a bleak tone. Others find it triumphant.. One member felt that she had simply reached her limit and could go no further. In any case, she has somehow gotten through a very difficult time. We all seemed to read "the dip of bell" as referring metaphorically to the village church bell of Dickinson's provincial life, She is beyond the confines symbolized by the bell now.