[fantasyfan]

I have been reading Emily Dickinson: The Gorgeous Nothings-- comprising her "envelope poetry.

This is a wonderful amazing book.

Emily Dickinson wrote her poems on various types of paper including the backs of used opened-out envelopes. This book collects all of her works composed on envelopes or postal wrappers—over fifty in all. They are presented in actual size, front and back and the facing page of each envelope provides a transcription.

The book has a foreword by Susan Howe, an Introduction: ‘Studies in Scale” by Jen Bervin and a concluding essay: “Itineraries of Escape: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope-Poems” by Marta Werner. Both are excellent.

One of the many interesting points made in the introductory material is that Emily played with the actual shape of the envelope as she developed her thoughts. Susan Howe says that the poems should be viewed as “visual productions”.

Thus, the volume has a unique visual index; the poems are arranged by address, columns, parallel divisions, multi-directional text, diagonally written text, cancelled/erased text and envelopes with variant readings.

When I first read Dickinson’s poems, I used the complete edition by Johnson. I had no idea that in a great many cases I was reading a poem that had been edited by Johnson who arbitrarily made his own choices of variant readings presented by the poet. When you read the poems in this book you will see how often Dickinson presents a very complex emotional poetic landscape. I will illustrate this with the first envelope poem in the book.

Here is the reading from Johnson of poem 1123

A great Hope fell
You heard no noise
The Ruin was within
Oh cunning wreck that told no tale
And let no Witness in

The mind was built for mighty Freight
For dread occasion planned
How often foundering at Sea
Ostensibly, on Land

A not admitting of the wound
Until it grew so wide
That all my Life had entered it
And there were troughs beside

A closing of the simple lid
That opened to the sun
Until the tender Carpenter
Perpetual nail it down –

This is beautiful and it certainly encapsulates something of the experience undergone by the poet. But the envelope MS has the following significant variants—none of which are crossed out:

L2 ; noise > crash
L3 Ruin> havoc/damage
L13 troughs> space/room
L14 lid> Gate

But the most significant of all occurs in the penultimate line:
“tender’ is given the variant “sovereign” but written in the margin up the side of the paper is “unsuspecting carpenters”.

“Carpenter” clearly refers to Christ and “sovereign” certainly has a different connotation than “tender”. But why did she use “unsuspecting” in the margin? Is the implication that Jesus doesn’t actually know what is happening? Why the plural? Is it a slip or are there many “Carpenters” depending on the person and the suffering.

It would seem that Johnson chose the version that had more comfort. The MS, I think, more powerfully conveys anguish--the thin ice of faith over despair.

It is worth mentioning that if one wishes to read more of the original handwritten poems they are available as free downloads in digital format from Amherst College (without transcriptions). This book, however, is worth its relatively low cost and as Susan Howe remarks:

“This edition itself is a work of Art”.