The Emily Dickinson International Society

Volume 27, Number 1 May/June 2015 “The Only News I know / Is Bulletins all Day / From Immortality.”

Puuseppä, itseoppinut olin – jo aikani höyläni kanssa puuhannut kun saapui mestari

Emily Dickinson in перевод käännös

Взирать он должен – лишь всего - Translation На Ширь Владения – Старик с горы Нево! Кровит Мой суд – ради Тебя! översättning 翻译

Jag aldrig sett en hed. Jag aldrig sett havet – men vet ändå hur ljung ser ut och vad en bölja är –

Jag aldrig talat med Gud, i himlen aldrig gjort visit – men vet lika säkert var den är som om jag ägt biljett –

1 | EDIS Bulletin Officers

President: Martha Nell Smith Vice-President: Barbara Mossberg Secretary: Nancy Pridgen Treasurer: James C. Fraser

Board Members

Antoine Cazé Jonnie Guerra Eliza Richards Paul Crumbley Eleanor Heginbotham Martha Nell Smith Páraic Finnerty Suzanne Juhasz Alexandra Socarides Cindy Dickinson (Honorary Member) Barbara Mossberg Jane Wald (Honorary Member) James C. Fraser Elizabeth Petrino Marta Werner Vivian Pollak

Legal Advisor: Louis N. Levine Chapter Development Chair: Nancy Pridgen Nominations Chair: Alexandra Socarides Book Review Editor: Renée Bergland Membership Chair: Elizabeth Petrino Bulletin Editor: Daniel Manheim Dickinson and the Arts Chair: Jonnie Guerra Journal Editor: Cristanne Miller

Sustaining Members

Mary Elizabeth K. Bernhard Jane D. Eberwein Jonnie G. Guerra Richard Brantley Robert Eberwein Barbara Mossberg Carolyn L. Cooley Judith Farr Martha Nell Smith James C. Fraser

Contributing Members

Antoine Cazé Eleanor Heginbotham Daniel Manheim LeeAnn Gorthey Suzanne Juhasz Ethan Tarasov Linda Healy Niels Kjaer Robin Tarasov

EDIS gratefully acknowledges the generous financial contributions of these members.

EDIS Bulletin (ISSN 1055-3932) is published twice yearly, May/June and November/December, by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. Standard Mail non- profit postage is paid at Lexington, KY 40511. Membership in the Society is open to all persons with an interest in Emily Dickinson and her work. For further information, contact Martha Nell Smith, President, EDIS, Department of English, 2119 Tawes Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, or [email protected]. Annual dues are $50.00 for regular members, $30.00 for students, $200.00 for sustaining members, $113.00 for institutional members, $100.00 for contributing members (all of whom receive the Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal), or $20.00 for associate members (Bulletin only). Membership inquiries should be directed to James C. Fraser, 159 Prospect St., Apt 7, Acton, MA, 01720-3654, USA. Membership applications and changes of address should be sent to The Emily Dickinson International Society, c/o Johns Hopkins University Press, P.O. Box 19966, Baltimore, MD 21211-0966, USA. Direct changes of address to [email protected], 800-548-1784 (U.S. and Canada), or 410-516-6987; fax to 410-516-3866. Address submissions for the Bulletin to Daniel Manheim, Centre College, 600 West Walnut St., Danville, KY 40422, USA or [email protected]. Submission deadlines are March 1 (Spring issue) and September 1 (Fall issue). All articles become the property of the Bulletin. Back issues are available for $5.00 each from the editor. Copyright © 2015 by The Emily Dickinson International Society, Inc. The Bulletin is indexed in EBSCO, Humanities International Complete, and the MLA Bibliography.

www.emilydickinsoninternationalsociety.org In This Issue

Features 4 Feasts for the ear 14 Poet to Poet By Emily Seelbinder The Wide and the Narrow By Amy Dryansky 20 Being Emily Dickinson Series Editor, Jonnie Guerra By MiMi Zannino 24 What’s Your Story? 22 susan Johanknecht Joanna Dobson By Maryanne Garbowsky Series Editor, Georgiana Strickland 24 emily Dickinson in Shanghai By Cristanne Miller and Cuihua Xu Reviews 27 american Poets in Paris 32 review of Anne-Marie Vinde, My River Flows to By Marianne Noble Thee: Sixty Poems of Emily Dickinson Reviewed by Cynthia Hallen 28 report from Finland By Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä 35 new Publications Section Editor, Renée Bergland 30 Dickinson’s Realia By Tatiana Polezhakat 39 The Belle on Broadway By Elizabeth Petrino Series 8 Dickinson and the Arts members’ News Better than Music By Michael Conley 41 Dickinson in Her Elements: Series Editor, Barbara Dana annual Meeting in Amherst 11 Dickinson Scholars 43 emily Dickinson and Lydia E. Pinkham Barton Levi St. Armand By George Monteiro By Cynthia Hallen Series Editor, Cindy MacKenzie

Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that “poems cannot be translated; they can only be rewritten.” Translation creates something new, even as it registers the spirit of the primary text. Spirit – a new translation is always a rendering not of the poet’s experience but that of the translator’s experience in reading. Perception of an object costs precise that object’s loss – or its revision into the words, history, formulas of another particular idiom. In this sense, a translation may create music, or images, or performance: in all me- dia it gives form to someone’s encounter with the original object. Translation may finally be about refusing boundaries, whether between languages, countries, media, or creating minds, repairing divisions.

The Editorial Assistant for this issue was Sara Loy.

Dickinson poems are reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from the following volumes: The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Variorum Edition, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition, Ralph W. Franklin, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998, 1999 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Copyright © 1929, 1935 by Mar- tha Dickinson Bianchi, Copyright © renewed 1957, 1963 by Mary L. Hampson: Little Brown and Co., Boston. Dickinson letters are reprinted by permission of the publishers from The Letters of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1958, 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College; 1914, 1924, 1932, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi; 1952 by Alfred Leete Hampson; 1960 by Mary L. Hampson.

3 | EDIS Bulletin Feasts for the Ear: Songs by Alice Parker By Emily Seelbinder

DIS members may recall a sometimes following, and occasionally Eremarkable event that concluded joining in perfectly placed moments of the Society’s celebration of its twentieth unison. The music enhances the text, anniversary in August 2008: a concert of giving it meaning and purpose. Each poems by Emily Dickinson set to music part also has a “rhythmic vitality” by Alice Parker. The Da Camera Singers, that energizes the singers and their under the direction of the composer, performance. opened with a swirling consideration of the elements, “I think that the Root That delightful interplay of melody of the Wind is Water – ” (Fr1295), then and rhythm is what caught my ear in plashed into “A soft Sea washed around Three Seas, a 1989 commission for the House” (Fr1199). “Dirks of Melody” the Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, marked “One Joy of so much anguish” Maryland. The suite opens with two (Fr1450) before we were swept up in Alice Parker celebrated her 89th birthday in December. short descending patterns doubled on “The divine intoxication” of “Exaltation flute and piano before the chorus enters: is the going” (Fr143). of Melodious Accord and Parker in 2001. “There is a solitude of space / A solitude of Before our host, Margaret Freeman, could sea / A solitude of death” (Fr1696). As the Two more songs, “‘Unto me?’ I do not make proper introductions, I snatched off singers evoke each solitude, the soprano know you – ” (Fr825) and “Whether my headphones and leapt up, blurting out line lingers in recitative, then slowly my bark went down at sea – ” (Fr33), what was foremost in my mind: “I LOVE rises, while the alto line holds steady, plumbed the depths of searching, longing, the alto part in this!” The Freemans’ then gradually falls, creating a profound redemption, and loss. Then we soared dog skittered sideways and gave me a distance when they reach the word death. heavenward with three songs from Parker’s wary look. Parker smiled broadly and The first of the three songs in the suite, suite An Exultation of Birds: “Of Being extended her hand. During a career now Parker writes in notes for the recording is a Bird” (Fr462), “Sang from the Heart, spanning almost seven decades, Parker has by Melodious Accord, “journeys to the Sire,” (Fr1083), and “Beauty crowds me encountered this sort of enthusiasm a lot, center of the mind” (Angels). It certainly till I die” (Fr1687). especially from altos. (If you want to know took me there. I wanted nothing more in why, check out one of the many renditions that moment than to join in the singing of This sumptuous four-course feast was but of the “Alto’s Lament” currently posted that text. a small sampling of the seven suites Parker on YouTube.) “Thank you,” she said. “I’ve had then composed based on Dickinson always believed that everyone should have “I love singing her music,” Wyrick says, texts. She has since added two more something good to sing.” “especially the arrangements of early Dickinson suites to her list. I recently had American hymnody she set for Robert a chance to sit down with her to discuss Something good for everyone to sing is a Shaw. The intricacies of melody woven her career and the poet to whom she has signature feature of Parker’s work. Ginger with illustrative rhythms bring life and returned again and again for musical Wyrick, a choral conductor who has worked understanding to these texts. I bought her collaboration. with singers of all ages and experience, book Melodious Accord: Good Singing in notes that Parker’s choral settings are Church early in my career and have read When Parker arrived at Myrifield for our generally polyphonic. Each voice has a it several times, marking many pages and conversation, I was listening to Three melody, allowing the singers to enter into a highlighting her words of wisdom. The Seas, a recording made by the musicians musical conversation, sometimes leading, joyful experience of singing this music

4 | EDIS Bulletin continues to draw me to her repertoire as I them in melody. . . . The music should, and the car.” Her family’s music-making led her plan my own choral programs.” must, stand alone – just as the poem must. naturally into composing: “I always knew I But if I succeed, the languages of the poem was going to be in music, and I wrote my That repertoire includes a hymnal of and the music become one, fusing into an first pieces when I was eight. I’d always 150 tunes composed or arranged for unforgettable whole” (Angels). made up songs before then. Somehow it “choirs and adventurous congregations”; seemed perfectly natural to write a song as a collection of “hand-me-down” songs Note the plural: languages. For Parker, well as play other people’s songs or pieces “every child and family should know singing is an expression of the same human on the piano. Why shouldn’t I write one? and sing together”; arrangements of longing that inspires poetry. “Song,” Nobody had to explain it to me. I just did folk songs, spirituals, praise songs and she writes, “comes from a throat, lungs, it” (American Composers Forum). lullabies; several cantatas, including A a heart, a memory. It is primary human Sermon from the Mountain: Martin Luther communication, outside the boundaries She wrote her first orchestral score while King, commissioned following King’s of rational thought, exploring the world still in high school and went on to study assassination in 1968, and Listen, Lord, of emotions through mental constructions music performance and composition at based on texts by James Weldon Johnson; that tend to be intuitive” (Anatomy 3). an opera arising from Eudora Welty’s The We should not overthink this. “Only an Ponder Heart; and three-dozen settings of overly intellectualized society would poems by Emily Dickinson. think of separating music, words, and dance into different arts. Of course they “I am constantly searching for texts to set,” can exist independently, but they begin Parker writes in The Anatomy of Melody. together” (Anatomy 114). “I love lyric poetry and the kind of prose that approaches poetry (the King James To sing, “All we need are ears and Bible, for instance). I can tell immediately voice – no expensive paraphernalia, no as I read whether the melody hidden in extended study. (That can come later.) those words will reveal itself to me. I feel Memory and the will to communicate the sounds in my throat as I read, and they take over. For this is a societal process: either ‘sing’ or do not. The lyric brevity we sing individually, but the collective of Emily Dickinson is music to my ears, sound of a singing group is one of the but the expansive parabolas of sound in great life-affirming experiences open Walt Whitman (which I also love) are not. to us as human beings. When our ears There’s no accounting for it. We are each and voices connect in song, this makes different and respond to different cues. possible a transcendental moment that Photo Credit: Patricia Crapo (Thank goodness!)” (23). releases us from our human limitations” (Anatomy xvii-xviii). Smith College. Following her graduation When words reveal a melody to her, in 1947, she was surprised and dismayed Parker commits those words to memory, Parker experienced the power of song to be told by a professor interviewing her first by writing them out by hand, then early. Though neither of her parents had for a place at a conservatory that her time reciting them over and over, sometimes any formal musical training, she told at Smith had been “wasted.” If she wanted dancing as she speaks, giving particular choristers at Amherst Regional Middle to continue her studies in composition, attention to “the rhythms into which the School in 2011, her family “sang all kinds he insisted she would have to begin speaking falls. I hear and feel the pauses of what I call ‘home songs,’ Stephen Foster undergraduate studies again. She decided within, between and after lines and verses and cowboy songs and things like that. . . . to get a master’s in choral conducting – the subtle shifts of mood and voice We all sang lots and lots of songs. . . . We instead. She had always sung with – the tangible vibration of vowels and were always singing. We took long car and accompanied choirs and choruses. consonants in the singing throat. In the trips, and we were singing the whole way Conducting, she reasoned, would provide best instances, I am collaborating with in the car. I remember being so delighted her with a steady income. the poet, using her rhythms and stresses, when I could hold the alto part against the appreciating her assonances and images, melody and then again when we could sing Parker enrolled at Juilliard to study with drawing on her voiced syllables to clothe a round and keep different parts going in Robert Shaw, who was just becoming well

5 | EDIS Bulletin known for his work with choral ensembles. Parker, who celebrated her 89th birthday in Accord, a small non-profit corporation After struggling to complete an exercise December, continues to write especially for founded upon the belief “that melody is an in counterpoint, she was assigned to study the musicians who will be performing her unparalleled means of communication for music theory with Vincent Persichetti, who work. “All my works are commissioned,” human beings; that when we use our ears would soon compose a set of Dickinson she told me. “I decided long ago that I didn’t and voices we enrich our lives through songs that remain popular in art song want to write anything that wasn’t performed, creating communities of sound; and that repertoire today. “Juilliard was a hive of and that has worked well for me.” When singing together brings immediate benefits personalities then,” Parker remembers. the American Choral Directors Association – physical, mental and spiritual – to those “Yet I never heard Persichetti say a harsh (ACDA) approached her in 2013 to do a who join in this most participatory of all word to anybody.” work for young women’s voices, something the arts” (“Mission”). the organization had never sought in any of Meanwhile, determined to learn everything its previous annual commissions, she began As artistic director for the organization, she could from the mercurial Shaw, she by matching singers and texts. “As I thought Parker works closely with conductors, made herself indispensable to him as an about what high school girls would like to singers, and listeners throughout North assistant. They would work together for sing about, Emily was the first person that America, leading singing workshops, the next twenty years. “He found I’d do came to mind.” She chose four short poems collaborating with choral groups, and anything,” she says, “and I could write about beauty: “The Definition of Beauty is” directing a 16-voice professional chamber program notes that pleased him.” Her (Fr797), “Beauty – be not Caused – It is – ” chorus in the performance and recording studies with Shaw, she later wrote, “gave (Fr654), “So gay a Flower” (Fr1496), and of her work. She also offers advanced my life its direction. In working with him, “Estranged from Beauty – none can be – ” workshops in melody study, song leading, I felt as though I’d never really listened (Fr1515). lyric composition, and score study. Three before, never been aware of the subtleties of these workshops take place annually of living sound, of the incredible variety of These poems, she says, “contain wonderful at her home, Singing Brook Farm, in sounds the throat can produce. We began ideas that easily spark discussion; Hawley, Massachusetts. working together on arrangements for memorizing these poems would add great albums recorded by the Shaw Chorale, and value to their lives; singing in a brief, Making music, Parker says, is a lot like I spent hours, days, weeks in the New York polyphonic rather than a harmonic style preparing a meal: “I feel that what I’m Public Library sifting through thousands of would challenge their musicianship.” The doing when I write music is feeding your songbooks. I began to get a sense of what Heritage High School Women’s Ensemble ears, just the way that if I have a meal to melodies would work for me, for us, which met that challenge with a lively, lush, prepare I want to put something on the would produce a wonderful arrangement or and charming performance of Dickinson: table that’s there when it needs to be there which would lead to okay but not inspiring The Definition of Beauty at the ACDA and that people are going to enjoy. . . . I results” (Anatomy 3). Northwestern Conference in 2014. have no idea what I would write, I can’t imagine writing a piece when somebody In the process, she “came to have a profound Parker’s careful consideration of texts said just write the piece you’ve always respect for any melody that lasted, any and contexts here demonstrates how wanted to write, and I’d say, well, who’s melody that successive generations have fully and joyfully she approaches her it for? When’s it going to be? I really need sung and loved and kept in their hearts work: “I’ve made my life to be earning all of that” (American Composers Forum). and passed on to the next” (Anatomy 4). my living doing what I absolutely love to She also found herself arranging and do, and that’s making music – rehearsing, When the occasion calls for Dickinson composing melodies with particular voices learning, teaching, composing, arranging. texts, some special preparation is required. and other instruments in mind. She had I don’t draw any difference between Dickinson, Parker has observed, “is in come to know singers in Shaw’s ensembles them. I describe myself as a composer a class by herself, almost genderless well, including the man she identifies with and conductor and teacher, and these are in her philosophical questioning, her a slight tilt of her head and sly smile as like the legs of the three-legged stool. You enigmatic brevity, her intense observation “my baritone” and the various altos who know what happens when you take one of nature and solitude. . . . [Her] spare, served as babysitters for her five children. of those legs away – boom!” (American restrained forms hold a bottled-up power; When these singers enthused as I did about Composers Forum). the quiet surface often hides a blinding a particular vocal line, she resisted the transcendence in the depths. One reads her temptation to say, “Of course you like it – I Since 1985, Parker has maintained that slowly, carefully, a little at a time, savoring wrote it especially for you.” important balance through Melodious each morsel” (Angels).

6 | EDIS Bulletin Recently Parker completed her ninth Two more expressions of suffering, loss, with them. I’ve spent much of my life suite of Dickinson songs: Heavenly Hurt, and death follow without a pause between exploring hymnody, and the echoes here set for mixed voices (SATB), piano, them: “A Shade opon the mind there passes” are palpable. She doesn’t often mention and cello, was commissioned by the Da (Fr1114), sung by the men, and “There is God – but she’s profoundly religious, Camera Singers of Amherst, who will a pain – so utter – ” (Fr515), sung by the caught always in the struggle between premiere the work during three concerts women, this time in a four-part setting. flesh and spirit, between heaven and an in western Massachusetts at the end of The final song, “The Love a Life can show incredibly beautiful earth.” May. For this work, Parker says, “I had Below” (Fr285), identifies an effect “in the idea of writing a Requiem – exploring Music [that] hints and sways – / And . . . Emily’s ideas about Death. Of course / Distils uncertain pain” and concludes – Works Cited it has no relationship to the traditional appropriately for a requiem – with the word Roman ritual, or even (on the surface) to “Paradise.” American Composers Forum, “Alice Parker talks to students about being a composer,” the Bible. But she looks at suffering, loss “Composer Alice Parker talks to students about and death with such an honest, personal, The Da Camera Singers began work on composing in her youth,” and “Composer Alice incredibly focused way – I’ve not seen Heavenly Hurt in early February. Tenor Parker talks to students about her composition any ‘requiem’ that can compare to it. It Donald Freeman reports that after their process.” Online video clips. YouTube, was not easy to select the poems – I cut first rehearsal, “on the way out of Amherst September 13, 2011. down from a large group that finally College’s Octagon, all of us were buzzing arranged themselves in this order. They about the musical intensity of this brilliant Emily Dickinson International Society. A move from the general to the specific and work. The Da Camera Singers has a long Concert of Poems of Emily Dickinson, Music by back again.” tradition of supporting local composers, Alice Parker. Program for concert on August 3, 2008 in Buckley Hall, Amherst College. and in commissioning Heavenly Hurt, The suite opens with the full chorus we are supporting a composer whose “Mission.” Alice Parker & Melodious Accord. singing “There’s a certain Slant of reputation is not only local but international melodiousaccord.org. light” (Fr320), a text Parker describes as as well. We’re really looking forward to “haunting.” After this evocation of “the performing it.” Parker, Alice. The Anatomy of Melody: Explor- Distance / On the look of Death – ,” the ing the Single Line of Song. Chicago: GIA, women sing a two-part setting of “The Freeman notes that Parker’s work “conveys 2006. Bustle in the House” (Fr1108) that moves her profound understanding of Dickinson’s with the “repetitive, automatic motion” poetic art” and that the new suite includes Parker, Alice. Angels and Challengers: American Women Poets. Liner notes. Sound of the bustle the poem describes. That “two of my favorite Dickinson poems, recording. Melodious Accord, 2001, 2008. motion picks up speed in a scherzo setting ‘There’s a certain Slant of light’ and of “Under the Light, yet under” (Fr1068), ‘Behind Me – dips Eternity.’ She didn’t Parker, Alice. Dickinson: The Definition which concludes with another reference to include my absolute favorite, ‘Safe in of Beauty. ACDA Northwestern Division “the Distance / Between Ourselves and the their Alabaster chambers,’ alas, but maybe Conference 2014 Heritage High School Dead!” there’s hope for a future revisiting.” Women's Ensemble. Online audio clip. YouTube, November 5, 2014. At the center of the suite is “Behind Me Parker says she would welcome further – dips Eternity – ” (Fr743). Parker says opportunities to prepare musical feasts this song was “such a surprise” because with Dickinson: “It’s as if her words were Emily Seelbinder, a Professor of English at the setting is strophic, “three verses very a condensed idea – sometimes almost a Queens University of Charlotte, has a spe- much set as a hymn or chorale,” despite koan. Much is omitted: we have to train cial interest in musical settings of Dickinson the considerable differences between the ourselves to follow the leaps of her mind. texts. Her students at Queens regard her as middle verse and the other two. Writing The very brevity leaves room for music to the “Meanest, Baddest English teacher on it, she remarks, was “like coming back to establish an emotional context; I try to set the Planet.” where Emily started – with hymns.” With the words in a natural, speaking rhythm, “a little piano comment as you go through allowing the interplay of voices to give She offers special thanks here to Margaret it,” this song serves as “an anchor in the time for reflection. I also love her use of Freeman for arranging and hosting her con- middle of the cycle.” simple meters: she plays amazing games versation with Alice Parker in October 2014.

7 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson and the Arts

Series Editor, Barbara Dana

Michael Conley has earned a notable reputation in the US and abroad for his multifaceted career as a conductor, composer, pianist, organist and singer. He is director of the West Village Chorale in NYC and the Hudson Chorale in Westchester, NY. His nine-part cycle of Dickinson settings for chorus, soprano, and orchestra, This Bequest of Wings, will be performed in May of 2015 by the Hudson Chorale.

Readers are invited to suggest topics for future articles by, or about, artists in all fields of the arts whose work has been influenced by Dickinson, or to offer to contribute an article themselves. Contact Series Editor: Barbara Dana, [email protected] Better than Music By Michael Conley

he act of composing music, perhaps more “Mine!” (Fr411), and “If you were coming in Tthan most art forms, is a mysterious one, the Fall” (Fr356).1 In the idealized version of usually even to the composer. When people the piece, I always knew I wanted it to be a ask me where my ideas come from, or what work for chorus and orchestra, but I settled inspired me, or how I came to write a certain on writing a first version for piano, string piece, my answer is often vague at best. And quartet, and chorus. I wrote these four move- that certainly does not stem from an unwilling- ments, somewhat sporadically, in 2003 and ness to discuss my creative process, but rather 2004, and scheduled them for a performance from simply not fully understanding it myself. in the spring of 2005 with a group I have di- Usually I will get inspired by a certain broad rected for many years now, the West Village theme or concept, search for a text or texts that Chorale, based in Greenwich Village in Man- relate to it, spend a protracted amount of time hattan. The choir seemed to like the music thinking about it, letting the ideas simmer and well enough, and the performance was a suc- stew, and then, out of the blue, I’ll suddenly cess. But I was not entirely satisfied. I knew realize I’m ready and will sit down and write there was more to the piece, both in terms of the piece in a relatively quick burst. length and substance, than I had yet captured in the sixteen or so minutes of music I had But Emily Dickinson is complicated! The written. I set aside the project and moved process for the gestation of my choral cycle on to other things, but it was always lurking This Bequest of Wings, utilizing nine of her and devoured it from cover to cover, folding there in the back of my mind, goading me, as poems, was a circuitous one. I had naturally down corners when I was particularly struck Emily might put it, “like the Goblin Bee – / read a few of her poems over the course of by a poem, and bookmarking and creating That will not state – it’s sting” (Fr356). my education, and, to be honest, I can’t re- lists left and right. So many poems! And so call being particularly moved or drawn to her many great ones. In fact, too many to choose Fast forward a little bit, and I was hired as work. But at some point in the mid-nineties, from. I thought about broader themes, like the Music Director of a Westchester County shortly after I moved to New York City, I nature and animals, or love, or travel, or time group now named the Hudson Chorale. One noticed an attractive volume of her collected and eternity. But somewhere in the back of of the members of that ensemble happened works on the shelf in a bookstore and, always my mind I wasn’t satisfied with such concrete to be none other than Barbara Dana, an ac- on the lookout for poems that might inspire a groupings. Rather than make a final selection, complished actor and author, and, serendipi- musical setting, I capriciously purchased it. A I just chose a handful of poems that imme- couple of years passed, and, thinking gener- diately seemed to be calling out to me, and 1Michael Conley first read Dickinson in Collected ally about a large-scale choral and orchestral started writing. Poems of Emily Dickinson, as edited by Todd and work I wanted to write, but not having any Higginson (reprint Avenel Books 1982). I have re- texts in mind, I started reading through the That initial handful included “The Farthest tained the song titles that he based on that edition collection. Before long, I was mesmerized, Thunder” (Fr1665), “Transplanted” (Fr439), and identified the poems by Franklin number. –ed.

8 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson and the Arts

tously, a Dickinson scholar and a contributor Like so many issues that trouble our com- as connected to the wandering bee in her gar- to the EDIS Bulletin. In the Spring of 2010, in plex world today, the seemingly naïve and den, or the flower upon which it landed, as a benefit for the chorus, Barbara gave a rivet- simplistic answer almost always boils down she was to her beloved dog and to her fam- ing performance of William Luce’s The Belle to one word: connection. If I feel that I am ily and to the tree outside her window. They of Amherst. Afterwards, she very graciously connected to my brother or sister, even across were connected, not just as people and things gave me a signed copy of her new book, A an issue that divides us, we might just find a inhabiting the same place and time, but as Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dick- point of agreement or understanding that can living parts of a wider web, a complicated inson. In the performance and in her novel, serve as a bridge. These connections exist ev- whole, bound by common cords that our hu- Barbara brought Emily to life. What had erywhere, suffusing almost every issue that man senses and understanding can only begin been a collection of lovely words and ideas we’re confronted with, whether it’s the envi- to grasp. Once I began to grasp how broad suddenly became, for me, the expressions ronment or income inequality or the conflicts and multi-faceted she truly was, I began to and the deepest feelings, exposed for all the in the Middle East. When we refuse to ac- see what was missing from my work, and I world to hear, of a living, breathing, remark- knowledge the connections between us, then knew where it needed to go. When I went able woman. She materialized, becoming so we are free to demonize or minimize each back to the poems, I had little trouble figur- much more than the mysterious, reclusive other, and in the process absolve ourselves ing out which ones were needed to fill out the poet of lore. She was a sister and a daughter; of the responsibility to find a solution. Like set. In addition to the four I had already com- a sometimes shy student and a member of her the legislator who just recently announced he posed, I chose five more, and put them in the community; a strong-willed and opinionated had changed his long-held view on abortion, following order: woman trapped in an era that did not value because he had finally sat down and talked that kind of woman; a seeker, a questioner, a to some women: talking to the people most I. This Is My Letter to the World (Fr519) seer, a mystic, a keen observer, and a lover. likely to be affected by his policy positions II. The Farthest Thunder Through Barbara, Emily became flesh and had had an effect on his views! He had come III. I Hide Myself within My Flower (Fr80) blood. And, as a result, Barbara had a pro- to see that, while his personal feelings on the IV. Transplanted found impact on my music, and on the piece subject were still evolving, ultimately such V. Mine! that would become This Bequest of Wings. a personal and important decision ought to VI. If You Were Coming in the Fall be left with the families and individuals in- VII. Bring Me the Sunset (Fr140) As soon as time allowed, I turned my atten- volved. Because this man made a connection VIII. Farewell (Fr338) tion once again to Emily. But somehow, it with people outside his sphere of personal IX. Better than Music (Fr378) was a very different Emily than the Emily I experience, his views on an important matter thought I knew in 2004. When I went back changed. He wandered outside of his comfort Now that the structure was in place, the writ- over the poems I had bookmarked in my now zone and found a new point of connection. ing went very quickly. I decided to finish the dog-eared collection, I recognized new col- remainder of the work using the same en- ors, new facets, new depths of meaning, and a As if some little Arctic flower semble I had written for already, string quar- much greater range of emotion. It was not the Opon the polar hem – tet, piano, and chorus, with the addition of a work that changed, of course, but my under- Went wandering down the Latitudes soprano soloist. I also completely rewrote the standing of it. With those new eyes, I began to Until it puzzled came fourth movement, “Transplanted.” The title appreciate the missing ingredient in my work: To continents of summer – I chose for the complete piece came from a it was love. I didn’t love Emily before. I didn’t To firmaments of sun – poem that really spoke to me, but which I appreciate her as a complex person who had To strange, bright crowds of flowers – didn’t feel belonged in the set. Somehow its once been alive and who had wrestled with all And birds, of foreign tongue! sentiment perfectly captured how I felt about the same complications and challenges that I say, As if this little flower the piece as a whole: present themselves to each of us in this life. To Eden, wandered in – Picturing Emily about her daily life, ruminat- What then? Why nothing, He danced along the dingy Days ing on her frustrations and disappointments, Only, your inference therefrom! (Fr177) And this Bequest of Wings and, ultimately, reveling in the triumph of her Was but a Book – What Liberty lasting (albeit posthumous) success, was a Emily rarely had the opportunity to wander A loosened Spirit brings – (Fr1593) process that breathed a completely new and far from her own comfort zone, at least physi- more vigorous life into my settings of her po- cally, but through the power of her extraor- I scheduled the first performance of the ems, and, I hope, brought my work to a level it dinary imagination, she became a builder of complete work for the spring of 2012, would never before have approached. bridges and a forger of connections. She was and in a stroke of good fortune, the West

9 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson and the Arts

Village Chorale was asked to perform for that Mozart had something important to say, joy: the joy of knowing that the best we can the Washington Square Music Festival that and felt a palpable and personal connection do will ultimately be enough. That this “letter summer, and the Artistic Director of the to the story. to the world” we are all busy writing, every Festival, Lutz Rath, was brave enough to day, will someday be read and appreciated suggest programming my new work, sight That is not to say that every work of art has and understood. That when we say “Good unseen! Since the festival performance was to express lofty or weighty matters, or rise bye to the Life I used to live” (Fr338), what set to feature Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy out of the kind of personal experience of the we have done will have mattered, at least in and would be with full orchestra, it gave subject matter that I had with Emily. Schubert some degree, to someone. me the opportunity to quickly rewrite This wrote over 600 songs, and I doubt, in his all- Bequest of Wings for orchestra as well. I felt too-brief life, he had the opportunity to delve Better than Music – for I who heard it enormously grateful to finally get to hear into the heart and soul of every poet he chose I was used to the birds before – the work the way I had imagined it from the to set, nor could he have possibly accumu- This was different – ‘twas Translation beginning. And bringing the whole creative lated enough life experience to draw from a Of all tunes I knew, and more – process full circle, the Hudson Chorale will deep personal well each and every time he sat be performing the piece, with orchestra, in down to write a song. Nevertheless, we can, ‘Twasn’t contained like other Stanza, May of 2015, with Barbara Dana among the and often do, sense a difference when that el- No one could play it the second time altos. I could not be more pleased that the ement of personal connection is missing. An- But – the Composer – perfect Mozart person who played such an integral role in other large-scale work I wrote not too long Perish with him that keyless Rhyme! bringing Emily to life for me, and therefore ago, Appalachian Requiem, was born out of bringing this piece to life, will get to perform a similar process. I had conceived the idea to So children, assured that Brooks it with me. She has even agreed to give a write a big piece, for chorus and orchestra In Eden bubbled a better melody joint pre-concert lecture with me on Emily’s again, based in part on American folk hymns Quaintly infer Eve’s great Surrender – life and work and the connections we find to from the Sacred Harp tradition, sometimes Urging the feet that would not fly. her in the music. called shape-note hymns (“Amazing Grace” is an example). I ruminated on this idea for Children matured are wiser, mostly, Through this whole process of reflecting on several years, but had no clear sense of in- Eden a legend dimly told— setting Emily Dickinson to music, I have spiration or direction. It was merely a gim- Eve and the anguish – Grandame’s story – realized that this issue of being connected – mick of sorts, an interesting conceit. It wasn’t But – I was telling a tune – I heard not just to each other and the world around until I read a devastatingly moving article us, but to the vital elements that inspire the about the deleterious effects of mountaintop Not such a strain – the Church baptizes creative process, be they our own life stories removal mining on the Appalachian region When the last Saint – goes up the Aisles and experiences, or current events, or, in this that I finally had a reason to write that piece, Not such a stanza splits the silence case, poetry and the woman who wrote it – and a genuine connection to a larger theme When the Redemption strikes her Bells is ultimately the crux of it all. It’s the whole that would give the work shape and purpose. shebang. I think you can feel, sense, whether The same thing happened when I got to know Let me not spill – its smallest cadence or not an artist felt deeply connected to the Emily. Humming – for promise – when alone subject matter. I can think of countless exam- Humming – until my faint Rehearsal ples, but one springs to mind: the difference Throughout the writing of This Bequest of Drop into tune – around the Throne – between one of Mozart’s earlier operas, Die Wings, I was certain that “Farewell” (Fr338) (Fr378) Eintfürung aus dem Serail (The Abduction would be the final movement. It is trium- from the Seraglio), versus a later masterpiece phant and fervent, and I was sure an equally If we stay connected – to each other, to the like Don Giovanni. The former is all splash grand musical setting, perhaps in the style of bee and the tree, to great works of the past and show, fluff and frills, technically virtuosic a quasi-spiritual, would make a fantastic con- like Emily’s, and to the ongoing work of and very funny and amiable, but not possess- clusion to the piece. But something about it making the world a better and more beauti- ing much depth or substantive meaning. The just didn’t feel exactly right. And, after doing ful place – then our “faint Rehearsal” will, in latter, while possessing plenty of technical some Googling, I found a poem that was new fact, finally “Drop into tune.” I am so grate- showmanship, and moments of great humor, to me. It was not as showy, not as confident, ful to Emily for “wandering down the polar is also suffused with a deeper kind of emo- perhaps, but complex and full of wisdom and hem” and into my life and changing it. Her tional complexity, especially in the terrifying suffused with a sense of both melancholy words make us all richer, but in my case, they finale, that leaves the audience in no doubt wistfulness and a very quiet, assured kind of made me better. Thank you, Emily.

10 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson Scholars

Series Editor, Cindy Mackenzie

Barton Levi St. Armand: Portrait of the Scholar as an Artist

By Cynthia L. Hallen

riting a tribute for scholar Barton and a dissertation on the aesthetics of Emily WLevi St. Armand in one short EDIS Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe. Thereafter, Bulletin article reminds me of my attempt to St. Armand spent his entire career as a pro- revisit the Louvre Museum on a flight lay- fessor at Brown University, teaching first in over in Paris. Having spent previous visits in the English Department, but then returning the Denon wing, I was determined to cover to the American Civilization program. new ground in the Sully or Richelieu galler- ies. However, after viewing a lobby exhibi- St. Armand’s years at Brown fostered a long- tion on “German Thought and Painting,” lasting collaboration with English professor the pull of the Denon was too strong, and George Monteiro, and they co-authored sev- I got lost (literally) again in the paintings eral Dickinson articles together, including a of the Italian renaissance. Similarly, having 1981 examination of the emblem tradition focused previously on St. Armand’s 1984 in Dickinson’s poetry. It was with George book Emily Dickinson and Her Culture, I that Barton first entered the doors of the was determined to foreground his other ac- neo-Italian-renaissance edifice next door complishments and achievements for this to the Dickinson homestead in Amherst. In essay, only to find myself drawn again to St. preparation for his book on Emily Dickin- Armand’s unique role as a philological artist son’s cultural contexts, Barton had written for the culture, family, faith, language, and a letter to Mrs. Mary Landis Hampson, who life of Emily Dickinson. invited him to meet her at the Evergreens so that he could see the collection of paintings To understand the aesthetic expertise of that constituted the Dickinsons’ private art The dust jacket of St. Armand’s frequently Barton Levi St. Armand in Dickinson stud- gallery. Mary subsequently gave Barton the studied monograph may not be familiar to ies requires an awareness of the role that keys to her Evergreens home, the former do- anyone but collectors. Brown University has played throughout micile of Austin and Susan Dickinson, their the entire course of his education and ca- daughter Martha Dickinson Bianchi, and Al- a reenactment of his first visit in June 1975. reer. Grad school colleague Jane Eberwein fred Leete Hampson, Martha’s secretary and St. Armand provides an engaging account explains that it is “hard to imagine an aca- Mary’s late husband. of how he and George won the trust of Mrs. demic more firmly rooted in place than Bart Hampson to help preserve the papers, books, is in Brown and Rhode Island.” In 1965, he In his 2007 autobiographical essay, “‘Keeper artworks, and other belongings left in the Ev- graduated from Brown with a B.A. in Amer- of the Keys’: Mary Hampson, the Evergreens, ergreens. Having earned Mary’s confidence, ican Civilization and a minor in American and the Art Within,” St. Armand documents St. Armand became the “first chair of the Art History. For graduate work, he contin- the extraordinary series of events that led to Martha Dickinson Bianchi Trust, dedicated ued in Brown’s interdisciplinary American the preservation of the Evergreens as an his- to preserving the Evergreens and its contents” Civilization program, earning a 1966 M.A. toric home and the accession of its book and (112). As part of the preservation, Mary had with a thesis on the horror fiction of Rhode manuscript treasures to Brown University’s asked handyman Eugene O’Neill to docu- Island native H.P. (Howard Phillips) Love- John Hay Library in 1991. Using two keys ment the placement of paintings in the home craft. He finished graduate studies at Brown as a metaphor, he begins the essay by virtu- so that St. Armand could reinsert the poetry with a 1968 Ph.D. in American Civilization ally escorting readers into the Evergreens for of Emily Dickinson “into its original aesthet-

11 | EDIS Bulletin ic and intellectual context and restore its lost for Dickinson: Henry James, Herman Mel- romantic, melodramatic, gothic, American Victorian resonances” for his work ville, Washington Irving, Sarah Parton, Oli- psychological, and internalizing style. His on the 1984 monograph Emily Dickinson and ver Wendell Holmes, Mary Warner, Lydia H. context-based approach is congruent with the Her Culture: The Soul’s Society (112). Sigourney, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William new philology outlined by anthropological Blake, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, John Ruskin, linguist Alton L. Becker (1932 – 2011). Like In ED and Her Culture, Barton Levi St. Ar- Walter Pater, G.W. Lewes, Frederick Rich- St. Armand, Becker proposes a deep holistic mand presents a portrait of the poet as a folk ter, and Thomas à Kempis. Invoking such a approach to cultural texts through a set of artist. Eberwein points out that Barton “has company of authors and artists, St. Armand contextual relations. Such contextualizing been more attuned to the visual arts than sees like a poet and writes like a painter: is the fundamental law of modern philology any other Dickinson critic apart from Judith that St. Armand and Becker both attribute Farr.” In the book’s opening apologia, St. The method employed by all of these artists to Ralph Waldo Emerson in the proverb Armand champions a holistic approach for was an acute attentiveness and obedience “Every scripture is to be interpreted in the studying a work of art in its cultural con- to the ways of natural phenomena, a sci- same spirit which gave it forth” (ED and Her text, unhampered by rigid methodology, entific recording of the minute particulars Culture 15; “On Emerson on Language” 9). terminology, or ideology. In the book’s clos- of nature without any destructive autopsy Although Emerson attributes this precept ing appendix, he illustrates “Dickinson’s of its wholeness. Only in this way would to George Fox, it is actually a paraphrase Mystic Day” by thematically tabulating one capture through sentiment, effect, or from the fourteenth-century mystic Thomas the poet’s sacramental portrayal of cycles, expression the creative spirit that hovered à Kempis in his devotio moderna volume, sites, signs, rites, times, and seasons. (His just beyond both the earthly and the heav- The Imitation of Christ: “Each part of the characterization of Dickinson’s collected enly veils (ED and Her Culture 238). Scripture is to be read with the same spirit works as a mystical book of days resonates wherewith it was written” (17). The Imitation well with the fact that the word “day” is the In a 1990 interview for The Single Hound, St. of Christ, with its emphasis on daily scripture most frequently used noun in the poems, Armand reveals more about the influences study, was one of Dickinson’s most treasured with approximately 290 occurrences.) Be- that colored his portrait of a poet in ED and books, and it foreshadows a philological tween these initial and final frames of the Her Culture. He explains how his studies in interpretation of her written texts that invites book, St. Armand installs eight chapters as American painting and American literature, readers to strive for a disciplined response. exhibition texts that showcase Dickinson’s as well as his training in social and intellec- In that spirit, St. Armand is one of the eclectic assemblage of verbal art: keepsakes, tual history, had enabled him to challenge chief architects in laying the foundation for scrapbooks, death parades, kindred spirits, literary interpretations that abstract Emily philological criticism in Dickinson’s works heaven deferred, American grotesque, folk Dickinson from her nineteenth-century New and in American studies. forms, earthly paradise, lone landscapes, England cultural context. St. Armand sought sun worship, sublime peace, spiritual mar- to restore Dickinson to the fullness of her his- In addition to the book-length work ED and riage, celestial reunion, gospel of nature, torical context, as a representative of, rather Her Culture, St. Armand has published scores sentimental love religion, and Victorian aes- than an anomaly in, her own culture: “I felt of articles on Dickinson in a variety of jour- thetic culture. Readers would never be bored that she belonged to her own time, and that nals and has given ground-breaking lectures with such vibrant commentary. she was expressing her own time. I felt the in numerous venues. A sample of highlights more we knew about that time, the better we from selected works will have to suffice here. St. Armand’s evaluations of Dickinson and could understand the spatial form in which As a prelude to his book, St. Armand’s 1977 her work are not so much the dialectics of she expressed herself.” He arrives at the con- article on “Emily Dickinson’s American Gro- a literary critic as they are the text panels clusion that Dickinson’s high idealism moved tesque” exhibits a trademark particularity that of a museum curator or an art connoisseur. into a new realism that “parallels the intellec- serves as a lens for seeing the poet as a folk He does not just tell us what he thinks about tual development of America.” Rather than artist. He diplomatically characterizes Mar- Dickinson, he shows us what her world perpetuate Dickinson as a case study for text- tha Bianchi’s high-style gargoyle-cathedral looks like. He shows us that her poetry has only New Criticism or for a divisive version metaphor as “not indigenous” to Dickinson’s a recognizable place in the sketchbook genre of feminist criticism, St. Armand hopes to “re- milieu; rather, he intertwines connections of nineteenth-century New England private humanize” the poet as a creative living person between “the vernacular, the grotesque, and portfolio verse. In doing so, his iconic dic- grounded in a particular time and place. the comic.” Referencing an anonymous 1840 tion is as authentic, expansive, innovative, primitive painting titled The Cat, he contrasts and grounded as Dickinson’s lexis. In epi- Attention to time and place leads St. high art with the folk art lyric verses of Isaac thets and analyses, he selects a new society Armand to explore Dickinson’s compressed, Watts, Emily Dickinson, and William Blake.

12 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson Scholars

His vivid imagery is consonant with the po- ligious beliefs. He discusses the spiritual im- This tribute has focused on selected contribu- et’s vital metaphors: “It is the Indian Devil of plications of Dickinson’s white dress as both tions in Dickinson studies, but St. Armand’s the eastern wilds of Maine that springs out a funeral robe and a wedding gown symbolic literary interests have ranged from Poe to from the forest of Dickinson’s soul to prowl of either “celestial marriage or angelic celi- Lovecraft to Phelps to Melville to Cooper to through the hortus conclusus of her poetry” bacy.” He asserts that Dickinson fashioned Whitman to Hawthorne to Thoreau to Frost (15). Like a good philologist, he does not tell a “private love-religion” for herself and her to Spofford to Woolrich to James to Bettine us what to think about Dickinson; rather, he beloved in order to replace “a religion of se- to Borges to Emerson to Yevtushenko, from shows us how to think about Dickinson from verity with a religion of sentiment.” This ex- horror literature to environmental texts to different perspectives. amination of Dickinson’s theology leads him Asian aesthetics. As a poet himself, St. Ar- later to make bold assertions in Kyoto, Japan, mand has authored four volumes of verse. In another 1977 article entitled “Emily Dickin- for the 2007 EDIS international conference: son’s ‘Babes in the Wood’: A Ballad Reborn,” 1) that Emily Dickinson is no atheist, and 2) Barton Levi St. Armand is a scholar’s schol- St. Armand expands our perception of Dickin- that her beliefs are closest to those of Mor- ar, worthy of emulation as a philologist and son’s prosody and thematic motifs by adding monism, one of New England’s emerging an art historian. Through the course of his ballads, jingles, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes churches with its emphasis on sealing ordi- published works, we see the maturation of to the standard list of sources and allusions in nances, celestial marriage, and eternal family a marvelous mind. Like a Javanese dalang, her poetry. Later that year, he explores spiritu- relationships.1 Such assertions are not merely he both familiarizes and defamiliarizes Dick- alism and theosophy in an article on “Emily personal opinions, but rather they are ground- inson through the shadow play of his ver- Dickinson and the Occult,” declaring that the ed in Barton’s familiarity with Rhode Island’s bal and visual analyses. His research find- poet was a “born eclectic” and documenting historical contexts: the founding of the Provi- ings are expansive yet particular, innovative the cultural progenitors for Dickinson’s watch- dence settlement by Roger Williams, who yet grounded. He invites us to be authentic word “circumference.” championed a tradition of religious pluralism. scholars. He is never boring, nor pedantic, John M. Barry reports that Williams pursued nor conventional. He sets rather than follows As the impact of ED and Her Culture ripples “not only religious freedom but individual the fashions of the academy. He weaves the steadily into American studies, St. Armand freedom, intellectual exploration” (264). This fabric of textual criticism with truth, trans- dives deeply into a cross-cultural compari- quest for emancipation presaged the abolition parency, and transcendence. As an artist, he son of New England’s Emily Dickinson and movement and the emergence of apocalyptic curated an exhibition of Emily Dickinson in Germany’s Bettine Brentano in a 1987 article religions and “new churches” in New Eng- her cultural context. As a philologist, he gave “Veiled Ladies.” He navigates readers through land, including the post-Calvinist doctrines of us keys to understanding the life and literary supernatural dimensions of New England the Latter-day Saints, the Christian Scientists, contributions of Emily. As a humanist, he transcendentalism and German romanticism, and the Seventh Day Adventists. showed us how her packets of poems fit into while pointing to the parallels between Dickin- the Victorian domestic folk art tradition of the son’s mentor Higginson and Bettine’s mentor St. Armand’s invitation to speak at the EDIS scrapbook, album, or quilt. He has done all Goethe. Every sentence and section of the ar- conference in Japan was not arbitrary. He of this with immaculate integrity, common ticle is packed with rich stores of cultural con- had taught classes in American Literature at sense, and uncommon humanity. nections; for instance, the fact that Bettine’s Tokyo’s Sophia University in 1984 and later husband was one of the compilers of Das donated his Dickinson book collection to their 1A transcription of his keynote address is on p. 34 Knaben Wunderhorn, an 1806 collection of library. Eberwein points out that Barton be- below. In the Q & A session, he confirmed that folk songs and fairy tales (including “A Child’s came “a citizen of the world,” welcoming in- Dickinson would have known about Mormonism, View of Heaven” that Mahler later adapted for ternational scholars to Brown “including Ken saying that she invented her own special kind of the soprano solo in the fourth movement of Akiyama, to whom he dedicated his Kyoto Mormonism – but without polygamy. his fourth symphony). The research is so pro- talk.” He also taught and lectured in France, found, and the prose is so lucid, one wonders Poland, and China, later donating his environ- if St. Armand is some kind of a Goethe-Emer- mental literature collection to a university in Cynthia L. Hallen teaches English Language son-Higginson proxy for his readers. Beijing. In 2007, he collaborated with Magda- Linguistics courses at Brigham Young Uni- lena Zapedowska to write a Bulletin tribute es- versity, and her interests range from Aymará In a 1989 chapter on “Understanding Dickin- say for Polish scholar Agnieszka Salska. Space studies to Scandinavian studies. She is the son’s Morbidity” for Fast and Gordon’s Ap- does not permit me to specify his generous editor of the Emily Dickinson Lexicon data- proaches to Teaching Dickinson’s Poetry, St. gifts to other institutions at home and abroad base. Her review of a recent Swedish transla- Armand expands his views on Dickinson’s re- and to salute his numerous awards. tion of Dickinson appears on p. 32.

13 | EDIS Bulletin Poet to Poet

Jonnie Guerra, Series Editor

The Wide and the Narrow

By Amy Dryansky

Several months ago I noticed the name “Amy Dryansky” on the list of poets scheduled to read at an Emily Dickinson Museum event. I did a little online research – read her blog at Pokey Mama: http://amydryansky.wordpress.com, discovered that her second book titled Grass Whistle (Salmon, 2013) had received the Massachusetts Book Award for poetry, and was intrigued by the comment of one reviewer that Amy Dryansky focused on the “complicated simplicity of life.” That sounded so Dickinsonian! I have since learned that Dryansky is the assistant director of the Culture, Brain, and Development Program at Hampshire College and that she has been the recipient of fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, Vermont Studio Center, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her first book, How I Got Lost So Close to Home, was published by Alice James, and her poems have appeared in anthologies and journals, including Orion, The Women’s Review of Books, and Harvard Review. I know Bulletin readers will enjoy the essay that follows in which Dryansky reflects on her relationship to Dickinson.

I dwell in Possibility – me. To my surprise, I was accepted, and A fairer House than Prose – soon I was installed in a tiny office with a More numerous of Windows – large window in a beautiful old house on Superior – for Doors – College Street. So began my study of the Fr466 condition of myself.

bout 10 years ago, in short order, I To be honest, much of my “research” Apublished my first book of poems, lost consisted of staring out the window at the both parents, and became the flummoxed leafy side yard, doodling on scraps of paper, mother of a toddler and infant. I also had a and reveling in my precious few hours alone bad case of writer’s block. In this new ter- in a room with a door with no one on the ritory of mother/orphan, I felt completely other side, needing something. And, since untethered. I couldn’t access the small, blind I hated everything I was writing, I did a thing that, for me, used to be how I began a lot of reading, turning to the company of poem; I could barely even hear its mewling. women poets past and present, looking for a I felt trapped by my domestic life, bored, sisterhood of misfits and rebels. I wanted to and guilty about my secret – that no matter hear from women poets who were outsiders, how much I loved my children, motherhood in the way that I felt like an outsider: not a alone wasn’t enough for me, didn’t send me “career” poet with a job in academia, nor a into rapture the way it seemed to transport dedicated stay-at-home mom experimenting Photo Credit: Trish Crapo other moms. I was an unbeliever in a com- with the best recipes for homemade baby munity of supplicants. food. A somewhere-in-the-middle poet, a biographies, the intense speculation about foot-in-both-worlds poet, a non-joiner. her life, her choices. Reading, reading, read- A mix of desperation and inspiration ing the poems, but not really getting them. impelled me to apply for a research I didn’t “discover” Dickinson at this time. Admiring, yes; intrigued, yes; understand- associateship at the Five College Women’s Like most of us, I’d been reading her for ing, not really. Not in the way I’d been Studies Research Center at Mount Holyoke years: as a teenager, when I was given the taught to understand. College. My proposal: to study the impact edition with the floral cover; as an under- of motherhood on women poets. In other grad, when I moved on to the Baskin cover; But here she was again, and, suddenly, here words, to figure out what was wrong with and then in grad school, to the big book, the was a model for the dichotomy I sought:

14 | EDIS Bulletin Poet to Poet

a stay-at-home poet who transcended the a humble bricklayer – at least, that’s what I was struck by how much easier it was for physical and societal boundaries into which told myself. me to get Dickinson in this way – with her she was born, a builder of cathedrals in a words lifted from their context. And when teacup, a strategist and refusenik, the ulti- Eventually, I got to Dickinson, deciding I I went back to her poems I felt I was finally mate non-joiner. would make a cento from her poems. It felt able to see into Dickinson’s world, to sit in impertinent, and I didn’t have any idea what that room with her, looking out at the dark As I sat in my narrow slice of office, reading the poem would be “about” but I started bower of cedars, ignoring the requirements Dickinson, Rich, Levertov, Brooks, Ostriker, reading through the index of first lines in the of domesticity, or yet another knock at the Clifton, I began to let go of the idea of Johnson edition and copying out those that front door. fitting in and to embrace the goal of moving spoke to me. beyond. And I began to write. Not anything As Dickinson tells us, it’s only by embracing I liked, at first, but poems that at least began Though I hadn’t intended to, I chose possibility – the wide and the narrow – to feel a little bit like I might like them, some lines that lent themselves perfectly to my that we attain Paradise, or in my case, day. I also engaged in some self-trickery by situation, creating a portrait of a speaker understanding, if we take understanding writing found poems, using text from other pushing against the real and imagined to be a glimpse of something bigger than sources. It was easier for me to turn off the confines of her life. As I started weeding we are, both unknowable and made of us. internal critic foxholed in my brain when out, arranging and rearranging the lines Whatever the interpretation of something all I was doing was acting as craftsperson, for “Soul Accounting,” reprinted here, I bigger may be. I’m still working on mine.

Soul Accounting By Amy Dryansky

I had not minded walls. Of course I prayed. I had some things that I called mine. Oh give it motion, deck it sweet… I read my sentence steadily If ever the lid gets off my head… from blank to blank. I breathed enough to take the trick. Over and over, like a tune. I asked no other thing. There comes an hour when begging stops – It was a quiet way. the clock strikes one that just struck two. It would have starved a gnat. On such a night, or such a night— today or this noon – The sky is low, the clouds are mean – the life that’s tied too tight escapes. the moon upon her fluent route the reticent volcano keeps. Dreams are well but waking’s better. Cocoon above, cocoon below – How soft this prison is! Perhaps you think me stooping – So I pull my stockings off. a little dog that wags its tail – Soul, take thy risk! my heart upon a little plate Bring me the sunset in a cup – pink, small, and punctual. the brain is wider than the sky. Alone and in a circumstance I saw no way – the heavens were stitched (Reprinted with permission from Amy Dry- within my reach. ansky’s second collection, Grass Whistle, The future never spoke. Salmon Poetry, Ireland)

15 | EDIS Bulletin What’s Your Story?

Georgiana Strickland, Series Editor

Woman of Letters: An Interview with Joanne Dobson

et’s say you’re a seasoned Dickin- Dobson remembers vividly the moment Lson scholar with a string of ground- in that class that changed her perspec- breaking publications behind you. Then tive. Porter “gave us possible assign- you get a year’s grant that gives you ments for presentations, and one of them a little extra time in your life. You’re was to read poetry by Lydia Sigourney plowing ahead with literary research and and look at Dickinson's poetry in light writing. But what do you do for fun? of the other women of her time. I think he meant that we should say how un- Well, if you’re Joanne Dobson, you like the other women Dickinson was,” spend the evenings and weekends writ- recalls Dobson, “but I just got hooked ing an academic mystery novel. The re- on the contemporary women writers. sult (borrowing a line from Dickinson) I saw so many of Dickinson’s themes is Quieter than Sleep (1997), the adven- spring from that fertile ground – the tures of one Karen Pelletier, a profes- issues that other women were dealing sor of English at a small New England with, not only the poets but the novel- college whose street-smart background ists.” That’s where Dickinson and the gives her a knack for solving the string Strategies of Reticence: The Woman of murders, robberies, and other aca- Writer in Nineteenth-Century America demic mischief that surely plague all (1989), Dobson’s dissertation and later such institutions. The book is nomi- book, came from. nated for an Agatha award, and the pub- lisher wants to hear more from Karen. “I had known Dickinson before. May- and her husband, David Dobson, moved to be I should say I fell in love with her Having enjoyed reading the six Karen the country – Canaan, New York, just across the first time in college. It was the early ‘60s Pelletier mysteries, I recently had the pleasure the border from Pittsfield, Massachusetts. and my professor in American literature said, of interviewing their author, now retired “We had cows, we had a horse, we had pigs. ‘We have to read this woman named Em- following a distinguished career teaching I baked six loaves of bread a week. I had child ily Dickinson, but you don't have to pay her English and producing books and articles that after child. Then I grew up.” much attention because she was just a little have expanded the American literary canon. virgin flitting through her father's garden.’ So “Growing up” meant earning a master’s de- I didn’t bother to read the poetry before class. Joanne Dobson was born and raised in New gree at SUNY-Albany, about thirty miles from I have this powerful memory of opening the York City’s Bronx and later in Peekskill, a Canaan. Dobson planned to go on for a PhD at book (Norton Anthology) and seeing the first small city on the Hudson north of New York, SUNY, “but the very year I applied they lost poem, ‘My life closed twice before it’s close’ to a father who was an aide in a psychiatric their PhD program. So I commuted 150 miles (Fr1773). And it hit me physically! It was like hospital and a mother who was a nurse “and a day to the University of Massachusetts in ‘Oh, my God!’ I was entranced with her from a wonderful writer.” But for Dobson, writing Amherst, which was arduous with three kids then on, till I sort of forgot in the dailyness of came later. It was the “60s, and after graduat- at home.” It was at UMass that Dobson “fell my life then, but I came back to her.” ing with an English major from a small reli- in love with Dickinson” in a class taught by gious liberal arts college that no longer exists, David Porter, and switched from being a spe- Another memory is of teaching in a nursery she immediately settled down to marriage cialist in modernism to a specialist in Emily school when they were living in Canaan. “As and motherhood, “like everybody else.” She Dickinson. a gift at the end of the year one of the parents

16 | EDIS Bulletin What’s Your Story?

gave me the Johnson edition, and it was amaz- with some of my colleagues. I had an NEH sachusetts, a tough place. And she learned ing! It all came back to me, helping me to see grant for a year of scholarship, and while I did to take care of herself. So she comes into the possibilities and complexities of life in a a lot of research and writing and published the academy not only being extremely smart way that I’d been too young to understand be- two major essays that year, in the evenings and well educated but having a kind of street fore. So Dickinson has been there right from and weekends I decided to write a mystery, smarts her colleagues don’t have. It helps the start.” just for fun. I've always been a mystery fan, her see beyond their conventional academic from Nancy Drew on. When I was studying thinking.” Karen is also a devoted teacher Dobson's first academic position was at Am- for my PhD exams, I read all the way through who cares deeply about her students. herst College, a one-year visiting profes- a ten-volume Swedish mystery series by Maj sorship in 1985, followed by a year at Tufts Sjowall and Per Wahloo, the Martin Beck po- In the established tradition of crime fiction, in the same position. In 1987 she went to lice procedural series. They saved my life by Karen initially finds herself at loggerheads Fordham University as an assistant profes- diverting me from the anxiety of taking those with the police detective assigned to the sor and taught there for about eighteen years exams. I appreciate the works of crime writ- cases. Charlie Piotrowski, who looks “like until she took early retirement about ten years ers from different countries because crime is Father Christmas with a bad wardrobe and ago. “I did a great deal of work in recovering so specific to place, depending on politics and an attitude,” doesn’t necessarily understand nineteenth-century American women writers. the economy and geography. So I feel like the niceties of literary politics or the latest in That stemmed from my dissertation as well. I’ve traveled all over the world by reading academic-speak. But in time Karen learns to My Dickinson book came out in 1989, but the some of these wonderful mystery writers.” appreciate the qualities in him that she so of- book before that was an edition of E.D.E.N. ten finds lacking in her colleagues, and over Southworth’s hilarious comic melodrama The A few words about the Karen Pelletier nov- the course of six books, as the bodies pile up Hidden Hand. I was one of the three editors of els for those who haven’t had the pleasure of and rare manuscripts are purloined, the two Rutgers University Press’s American Women reading them: The series is now in its sixth find common ground – and mutual attraction. Writers reprint series. We published eighteen (and probably final) incarnation. Quieter than volumes of work by previously unavailable Sleep (1997) was followed by The Northbury Enfield College and the town of Enfield are nineteenth-century women writers. It was a Papers (1998), The Raven and the Nightin- as much characters in the books as those brave venture on the part of that press, to strike gale (1999), Cold and Pure and Very Dead who people them. Dobson obviously has fun out in this new direction – publishing writers (2000), The Maltese Manuscript (2003), and satirizing the more bizarre aspects of the aca- most scholars at that point had thought were finally Death without Tenure (2010). They demic scene, especially its jargon. “Satire is worthless. But those reprints transformed cur- follow the career of a Dickinson scholar who corrective humor. I tended not to write about riculum possibilities for the teaching of Amer- teaches in the English department at Enfield my sane colleagues, people who are doing ican literature in the classroom.” College, a prestigious small New England lib- their job and doing it well, with love for the eral arts college. With an office in Dickinson work. And then you get these people who Dobson was also a founder of Legacy (along Hall and classes in Emerson Hall, Karen’s mistake the teaching of literature for a kind with Karen Danderand and Martha Ackmann), life is made up of the usual professorial du- of recondite political theorizing that seems to which started as a newsletter of nineteenth- ties – preparing for classes, dealing with stu- take over the broader range of literary studies. century women writers and eventually became dents, colleagues, and administrators, doing And it represents what I experienced with my a journal that’s still going strong. “It's now the research, and getting grades in on time – plus colleagues at Fordham and the direction the industry standard for scholarship on Ameri- the occasional corpse in the library stacks or profession is going in. The series was quite a can women writers. I was also on the editorial falling out of the closet at the faculty Christ- lifesaver for me because it was so much fun board of American Literature for three years.” mas party. One reviewer was led to wonder “if to do.” anybody has kept actuarial statistics on those Considering her career path and Dobson’s faculty parties. They must be more dangerous Asked if Enfield represents Amherst, Dob- obvious devotion to literary scholarship, I was than skydiving.” Karen is also divorced and is son replies, “Amherst or any of those dis- intrigued to learn how she eventually turned raising her daughter as a single mom. tinguished small New England colleges. I to writing fiction, especially mystery fiction. couldn’t have written Enfield if I hadn't been “What was the original inspiration for the Dobson’s heroine/sleuth has a background at Amherst. Amherst was such an eye-opener Karen Pelletier series?” I asked. that often puts her at odds with some of her to me. I’m forever grateful for having taught more patrician colleagues. “Karen is much there. I’d gotten my PhD. at UMass Amherst, “Well, I was getting a little restless with the braver and smarter than I am,” says Dobson. and then I crossed the tracks, I guess you’d profession,” said Dobson, “and particularly “She’s feisty. She grew up in Lowell, Mas- say, to Amherst College. The university and

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the college both developed connections for India in the mid-nineteenth century. “I had herself and her children as a poet. I gave that me, particularly with the Emily Dickinson immersed myself so deeply in nineteenth- career to Anna Wheeler.” Museum. Every time I go up there I think, century women’s novels that I felt like I ‘This is how I want to live.’ But maybe not wanted to write one,” she says. “But can a Dobson credits the vividness of the scenes Amherst. Maybe Northampton. . . .” twenty-first century author write a nineteenth- set in India to letters written by the actual century novel? And if she does, does anyone Fatehgahr missionary wives, who “wrote I wondered how Dobson’s colleagues and now want to read it? That was one of my such wonderful letters – about the people, students responded to her venture into fiction. inspirations and challenges.” the climate, their delight in the foliage. I just “When the first book came out I didn’t tell fell into their letters as if I were falling into anyone in my department, and then suddenly Anna Wheeler, the novel’s protagonist, is a certain place in time. They were so unlike it was in Barnes and Noble right across from a graduate of Mt. Holyoke Seminary in the what I expected a missionary’s wife to be in a Fordham campus. It was stacked up high, same year Emily Dickinson studied there. that time and place” like thirty high. So I was outed! People would Dobson includes an oblique reference to Dick- come up to me and say, ‘Oh, Joanne. You inson, but “I didn’t want to bring her into the One interesting aspect of the novel is Anna’s write so well.’ Then there would be a long story. She would have run away with it!” Like success in supporting herself through publica- pause, and ‘You know, I think if you tried, a number of Dickinson’s friends, Anna mar- tion of her poetry. “Poetry was central to the you could write a real novel.’ But the students ries a young American missionary to India, culture at that point,” notes Dobson. “It hadn’t loved them, especially the graduate students. where she spends ten years struggling to sat- been corrupted by the academy. And poets Eventually I taught courses in writing isfy his demands for her submission to God’s were in great demand because poetry was still mystery fiction at the graduate level.” Now, will – and to his own. In vividly descriptive poetry of the people. This was also the era of in retirement, Dobson teaches adult classes in scenes, Dobson depicts Anna’s difficult life in the rise of mass publishing. Popular poets such mystery fiction at the Hudson Valley Writers the Fatehgahr missionary community, which as Lydia Sigourney and Fannie Osgood were Center in, “of all places, Sleepy Hollow, New was brutally wiped out in the infamous Sepoy in great demand, and newspapers were the ma- York – the birthplace of American fiction. It’s rebellion of 1857. “It was horrific, inhumanity jor outlet for poetry. Poets were celebrities. We great to be teaching these people who actually on both sides.” In the novel, Anna, thinking have such a constrained notion of what was have stories to tell. So I’ve taught standard her husband is among the Sepoy victims, es- available to nineteenth-century women. There undergraduate and graduate students, and capes with the help of a wealthy Anglo-Indian were stereotypes and conventions, but there now I have adults, some of whom have been man with whom she falls deeply in love. Re- were so many women who just sidestepped with me for six or seven years. It’s gratifying turned to New York, she gives birth to a child those conventions, and they’re really not rec- to see them grow and gain confidence and she believes is her husband’s, and is told it ognized in the way they should be.” learn to amplify their talents.” was stillborn. After resuming her career as a poet, she learns that her child did not die but Dobson’s next writing project will be an edi- Quieter than Sleep was a finalist for an Ag- was “taken,” and she sets out on a long and tion of her mother’s letters. “She wrote from a atha award from Malice Domestic, which cel- perilous odyssey to recover her daughter. nursing school in Maine to her sisters and her ebrates the “cozier” side of mystery. In 2001 mother in northern New Brunswick, Canada, the New York State librarians gave Dobson an One of the inspirations for the book was the and she wrote regularly. You couldn’t afford to award as “Noted Author of the Year” for being scene in Jane Eyre in which St. John Rivers use the telephone then – it was only for emer- “the author they most enjoyed recommending “doesn’t ask but demands that Jane marry gencies. Her hometown had no electricity, no to their patrons.” And in October 2014 she him. ‘You were made for duty, not for love,’ cars, no modern amenities. Caribou, Maine, received an award from the Hudson Valley he tells her. I wondered what if she had gone was the modern world, and her letters are so Writers Center. “I was honoree of the year. with him? Then there was Emily Chubbuck vivid with the details of her new immersion The award they gave me – and I so appreci- Judson, a poet who published as Fanny For- in a place where there are actual stores and ated it – was as ‘Woman of Letters,’ encom- rester. She was the third wife of Adoniram you can walk downtown, and there are people passing both my scholarship and my creative Judson, a noted missionary to Burma. His first you can talk to. Eventually she came to New writing, which really made my life’s work feel two wives died there, and he came back to York City as a private-duty nurse and worked completely recognized.” New York and convinced Emily to marry him for people who could afford to have nurses in and took her back to Burma, where he died. their homes. Once in 1941 she wrote to her Dobson’s latest venture into fiction, The So she came back and picked up her career as sister, starting the letter, ‘I always knew I’d Kashmiri Shawl (2014), is a historical novel a poet. That was a real inspiration to me, that end up on Park Avenue, but I never knew I’d set partly in New York City and partly in she could feel secure in the ability to support be in my own private nut house.’ She’s writing

18 | EDIS Bulletin What’s Your Story?

about the woman she’s working for who is to- with her husband, Dave, a former civil servant disadvantaged people. “I’m so proud of all tally delusional, and the fact that the woman's and banker who now spends much of his time of them,” says Dobson. She and her husband daughter wants my mother to stay there but working on providing – and actually build- have five grandchildren. she wants to decrease her salary because it’s ing – safe housing for people in Haiti who are going to be a permanent thing. ‘I said, “Noth- still living in tents since the 2010 earthquake. Joanne Dobson has made important contribu- in’ doing.” I didn't tell her I was sticking it be- Their son, David, the middle child, is in pub- tions to our understanding of Emily Dickinson cause of the eight bucks. They are millionaires lishing with the Presbyterian Church USA and many other women writers in nineteenth- here many times over, and yet they want to and lives in Louisville. Their two daughters century America. She has also demonstrated deny a poor working girl her hard-earned pay.’ live nearby. Lisa has children at home and has that academic life can serve as a provocative That was just so like her.” founded Aiding Children Together (ACT), and entertaining canvas for humor, adventure, which supports education for at-risk children and a deeper understanding of life. Perhaps her It’s obvious that Dobson inherited her moth- in Sri Lanka – street children and kids on re- success and her appeal to readers arise from er's writing talent and enthusiasm for life. She mote tea plantations who would otherwise be what her fictional police lieutenant ascribes to now lives in Brewster, New York, “a sort of illiterate. Their younger daughter, Rebecca, Karen Pelletier: “Intelligence that hasn’t had semi-rural suburb of Danbury, Connecticut,” works in the expansion of medical care to all the human feeling drained out of it.”

Departures Georgiana Strickland and The Evergreens merged to form the Emily Dickinson Museum, she gained the position of Director of Interpretation and Program- ith a mixture of gratitude and sadness, the Dickinson Society ming, which she held until her departure. Wthanks Georgiana Strickland for this essay about Joanne Dobson, her last “What’s Your Story?” article in the Bulletin. Georgie Cindy’s tenure as Director, she believes, was one that saw growth edited the Bulletin for twelve years. Ten years and two editors later, and success come to the Museum. “I was especially pleased with she served as interim editor during the search for a new replacement, the ever-increasing quality of our guided tour experience,” she and then she graciously says. “Over the years, through helped a novice editor working with dedicated guides and in many ways, not least completing numerous exhibit and by agreeing to continue furnishings projects, we refined to prepare her popular our telling of Emily Dickinson’s regular series. life story and found multiple ways to convey the power of her Georgie wants to spend poetry.” In addition, Cindy found more time with other “particularly satisfying” her work projects, but one dares to with the Museum’s website. hope that her contribu- tions to the Bulletin have Following her time at the Emily not come to an end. Dickinson Museum, Cindy will become Director of Education at Hancock Shaker Village, where Emily Dickinson will keep on inspiring her. She says, “I will always Cindy Dickinson be in awe of Dickinson’s cognitive abilities, her steadfastness of self, and her unsurpassed facility with language.” For the time being, she he Dickinson Society would like to say farewell and thank you to remains an honorary member of the EDIS Board of Directors. TCindy Dickinson (no relation!) of the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst. Cindy officially began her time with Emily in 1996 (see a EDIS thanks you for your career at the Museum, Cindy, and wishes Bulletin profile in the Spring 1996 issue), when she became Curator of you the best of luck. the Dickinson Homestead. In 2003, when the Dickinson Homestead Photo Credits: Georgiana Strickland, Yanbin Kang; Cindy Dickinson,

19 | EDIS Bulletin Every performance is an interpretation, a translation – not only into another medium, but into a unique understanding of the words spoken and of the author who wrote them. Translating an author into a living presence may be the most courageous interpretation an actor can make. Writer, performer, and educator MiMi Zannino is a poet-in-residence with the Maryland State Arts Council. As a 2014 Chautauqua actor/scholar through the Maryland Humanities Council, she performed her solo show Time-Travel with Emily Dickinson in colleges, museums, and libraries. As a performing artist with Young Audiences of Maryland, she brings Dickinson to life for students in middle and high schools. MiMi has also taught literature, composition, creative writing, and sociology at the college level. See www.EmilyDickinsonLive.com for a description of her project. Being Emily Dickinson By MiMi Zannino

y version of Emily Dickinson is same unabashed intimacy as she writes a historical figure: “Are you possessed by Mcalled Time-Travel with Emily Dick- about love, yet with a deft detachment that her ghost?” one asks. “You fooled me,” inson. Stepping back in time is my job transcends barriers. This has led to some another writes in a letter; “I thought that – an exciting one that allows audiences of the greatest surprises to travel with me to meet the “Belle of of the 35 performances Amherst.” I've given over the past three years. Teachers, col- Why Emily? I’ll try: she lived in a fish lege professors and writ- bowl where the eyes of curious, parochial ers will comment on fas- neighbors peered at her uniqueness and cinating aspects ranging judged it odd. The daughter of morticians, from her poetic style to I grew up in rooms over our funeral home, her fabled idiosyncrasies. in a parochial, blue collar ethnic neighbor- In contrast, groups of in- hood and, of all things, had a penchant for dividuals with dementia writing poetry from childhood. I knew too or speaking challenges well the pressure of dressing, behaving, will focus on the singular- and speaking in a manner that reflected ity of an image, and utter my parents. I was considered “different” the word “bird” when I and never quite fit in, nor did I particu- ask what image they re- larly aim to. From a young age I obsessed call or relate to during the about the whys of death. Why did the little question and answer ses- infant dressed in her christening gown lie sion after my monologue. motionless, like a porcelain doll, in this miniature casket beneath the backlit holo- She reaches everyone dif- gram of Jesus in our viewing room? Why ferently. After bringing did the sweet children in whose home I Dickinson to life for over had recently sung happy birthday die in a one hundred teenagers at a house fire and lie, head to head, in closed school dedicated to teach- caskets on funeral biers? Why had the ing students with autism handsome blond soccer star overdosed on and other learning chal- drugs, resulting in the shock and grief of a lenges, hand after hand is hundred teens lined up around the block to raised with astute ques- gaze at him one last time? tions that reflect the depth of the students’ engage- Death was literally in my face on a daily ment with the poems they Photo Credit: Alan J. Cutler basis. Dickinson writes about it with the heard and the portrayal of MiMi Zannino dressed as a traveling Emily Dickinson

20 | EDIS Bulletin you were really Emily Dickinson. I didn't housedress. It’s not that I didn’t like the personal history into the journey until a know that she was dead.” “Precisely,” I dress: wearing such a prim frock was a portrait emerges. Her features and ges- want to write back. The students pushed practical fashion decision made later in tures are animated. She has the confident me out of the way and connected directly life when Emily’s days were increasingly sensibility of a mid-19th century Ameri- with the power and transcendent qualities filled with family responsibilities. It was can woman well versed in Shakespeare, of Dickinson’s poetry. They shocked their easier and more practical to bleach away popular fiction, botany, laboratory sci- teachers who had told me not to expect cooking and gardening stains from white ence, astronomy, natural history, Latin, many questions or comments. Instead, cotton than from richer printed fabrics. algebra, philosophy, music, and logic. our Q & A segment went overtime, and The apron was Emily’s uniform while she The wit and quick-mindedness evident I received a hundred letters from the stu- worked side-by-side in the kitchen with in her letters to nearly one hundred cor- dents commenting on everything from the family’s domestic employee, Maggie respondents is given free expression in their delight in learning of her connection Maher from Ireland. Having grown up my script. to the Civil War era, to their enjoyment of in a multi-ethnic, working class neigh- listening to me “bring her poems to life.” borhood, I appreciate Dickinson’s quiet The fearlessness in her literary genius involvement in the lives of the Irish im- draws me closer. Her ability to go eye- The early days of my research, starting migrants whom she specifically asked to to-eye with raw emotion and then create in 2008, quickly altered many long-held bear her casket from home to her grave. highly original works of art astounds me. views of an eccentric, nun-like poet se- Her poetry throbs with a bold honesty, a questered in an attic, isolated from people Instead, though, I chose to avoid the dress creative pulse that is as relevant today as and reality. (Sadly, this odd caricature in order to remove the idea of the muse when she committed her words to paper, still persists in many minds.) Through my or the bride of Christ. Also, the general chocolate wrappers, or envelope scraps. living-history portrayal, I want to sweep public has the impression that she wore At once mystical and unsentimental, she away the musty (and inaccurate) cobwebs white her entire adulthood when in fact crystallizes a moment in the life of a and breathe fresh life into perceptions of it was only the last part of her life. Travel flower, an insect, or a volcano with time- this New England literary figure. clothes helped me bring to light the per- less immediacy. sonality, wit, and humor that she shared As my one-person play unfolds, I relate with her intimates at all stages of her life. As a life-long writer of poetry, I relate to many events from Emily’s life during an I want to explore the time leading up to Emily’s expression of the emotions and imagined train adventure. Included are those final years, which we know focused thoughts surrounding love, loss, grief, biographical details of an era before and on writing and re-writing concurrent with and spirituality. Dickinson is my “mas- after the Civil War. I am assisted by a care-giving: for her aging parents, and ter” because of the deftness with which traveling companion, Thomas Wentworth herself – physically, psychologically, and she arranges words as if she alone knows Higginson, the real-life “preceptor” who spiritually. the sequence that opens a combination- spoke at Emily’s funeral and co-edited lock. Ultimately, her genius lies in decod- her first book in 1890. The daughter of a conservative, yet pro- ing complex feelings and in employing gressive lawyer, accustomed to receiving poetic language that makes psycho-emo- Dickinson’s correspondence with Higgin- distinguished guests, Emily is keen-mind- tional experiences universally accessible son ignited my imagination. Letter by let- ed and possessed of all the social graces. and – according to many – a great source ter, her voice began to inhabit my psyche Letters reveal her brother Austin’s assis- of consolation. and invited me to assume her personality. tance in ordering calico dresses and bon- Their relationship proved to be a fascinat- nets from Boston to prepare Emily for her If one insists on labels, I offer devoted ing personal and historical journey, so it Washington D.C. journey along with her daughter, divine baker, dedicated gar- seemed natural to bring the biographical younger sister, Lavinia. They stayed at dener, and disciplined writer. Although details to life by imagining them as train the grand Willard Hotel, attended teas and merely brushing the surface in describ- companions on her trip to Washington D.C. dinners, toured Mount Vernon, and later ing an innovative artist who defies simple to visit her father, then serving in Congress. stopped for several weeks in Philadelphia characterization, these are qualities ob- to visit friends on their return journey. served by people of her time and agreed My first order of business was to remove upon by people of all time. This is the art- the plain white, buttoned-up wrapper – a Strand by strand, I weave lines of Dick- ist I travel back to see, and I revel in each garment that today’s women might call a inson’s poetry, correspondence, and opportunity to take audiences with me.

21 | EDIS Bulletin Susan Johanknecht: Reading Emily Dickinson By Maryanne Garbowsky

usan Johanknecht first encountered the were poems filled with “urgent present-tense Her third book, based on seven poems by Spoems of Emily Dickinson at the sugges- energy.” Lines like “Sequence ravelled out of Dickinson, is Compound Frame (1998). The tion of Claire Van Vliet, her mentor at Janus Sound / Like Balls upon a Floor” provided title comes from the sixth line of the poem “A Press, but waited a number of years before thoughts and images she could barely hold in Weight with Needles on the pounds” (J264). responding to them. A book artist by profes- her head. Like Dickinson, Johanknecht plays with sion, Johanknecht creates “artist’s books,” words – here the word “frame” suggesting a term first used by Dieter Roth in the latter The four lithographs she created for the book the book’s interest in the “imagery of bone part of the twentieth century. The phrase de- reflect “the toughness and directness of the structure” as in the human skeleton. For this scribes “works of art realized in the form of a poems.” First, she made relief sculptures out book, the artist again references the domestic book”; they can be “one of a kind” creations of found materials like wood, sponges, wire, – sewing and needlepoint. The covers of the or be published in small editions. Educated and “synthetic fur.” She then took these reliefs book are, in fact, unsewn plastic needlepoint in the United States at the University of Ver- and transferred them onto litho plates and con- mats, the basic frames for needlepoint design mont and in London at the Central School of tinued to work on them – drawing on them, but without any decoration. The woodcuts she Art, Johanknecht began her work in Vermont scraping them, attempting “to energize” them made for the book are relief prints composed in 1977, but then moved to London in 1981, as well as to replicate what she imagined were of “leftover flooring boards” from her kitchen. where she currently works as an artist under “Dickinson’s writing processes.” “I tried to She also used sewing materials like “hooks the imprint of Gefn Press. achieve a visual equivalent to the barely con- and eyes, dressmaking pins,” which were tained, compressed intensity I found in the “hammered” into the wood. Once printed, Her first book , done in 1984, was entitledFive poems.” they take on a “ghostly” appearance. Poems – Emily Dickinson. Many decisions went into its planning and design: specifically, For her second book, Five Poems – Emily To date, Compound Frame is Johanknecht’s what poems to include, and how would they Dickinson (1989), Johanknecht reduced the last book based on Dickinson’s poems, but relate to each other. Next, she considered what size of the book, making it smaller – 4.1 inches hopefully it will not be the final one. The the book’s overall theme would be as well as square – so that it could be held in the readers’ artist’s association with Dickinson’s poetry the book’s size, the type of art that would be hands, and “fingers [could] turn the pages.” has been mostly intuitive. However, five used, and its medium. Again she used relief prints of found objects; years after this last book, she read Richard however, due to the book’s smaller pages, Sewall’s two-volume biography, The Life of This first book is large: 20 x 14 inches, a choice these prints “loom large.” The pages’ size give Emily Dickinson. “Theory, critical distance the artist made to give the poems the “page- “the book an urgency and flow” as well as “a and academic context” followed “practice” space” they needed. Johanknecht wanted the sense of the compression” she found in Dick- for her. Now with her interest in the poet “pages to be large enough” so that rather than inson’s poems: “These tested Our Horizon” rekindled, the artist ponders the future: “How fit into the readers’ hands, the pages would (J886), “Each Second is the last” (J879), “Not do I dare work again with Dickinson?” The have to be turned with their arms. This deci- ‘Revelation’ – ‘tis – that waits” (J685), “The artist believes that such a project “is exciting sion, plus the “heavy board covers,” would Chemical conviction” (J954), and “Power is a to consider.” I agree and am hopeful that she give the book the “gravitas” the artist felt the familiar growth” (J1238). The poems included will take that risk. poems deserved. words such as “Atom and Abyss,” which gave the artist a feeling of “suspense.” Johanknecht The poems she chose – “Banish Air from Air” envisioned the poet as concerned with “what Maryanne Garbowsky writes regularly for (J854), “It knew no lapse, nor Diminution” is broken and absent,” as someone who enter- the Bulletin, often about Dickinson and the (J560), “The Dust behind I strove to join” tains metaphysical ideas but is also “domes- visual arts. She teaches English at the County (J992), “To Fill a Gap” (J546), and “Crisis is tic” at the same time. To reinforce the poet’s College of Morris, in New Jersey, and has a Hair” (J889) – were poems that “shocked” focus on the domestic, she used objects from written two books on the poet. The content her. They “disrupted” her “previous schoolgirl the kitchen – forks, which are “repeated,” em- of this article is based on a series of e-mail sense” of Dickinson as a writer of “delicate” phasizing the poet’s sharp and “aggressive” interviews with the artist over a period of sev- verse “about roses and bees.” Instead these nature. eral months.

22 | EDIS Bulletin At left and middle left are two prints of “Crisis is a Hair,” from Five Poems – Emily Dickinson, 1984, spread 28” wide and 20” tall. Letterpress, lithograph and screenprint.

At middle right is the cover of the same book, 14” wide and 20” tall. Uncovered boards with inset radio backboard and screenprint.

Bottom center is “There is a solitude of space” from Compound Frame, Seven Poems by Em- ily Dickinson, 1998. Hand-burnished woodcuts, double-spread 21” wide and 7.5” tall.

23 | EDIS Bulletin Emily Dickinson Dwells in China The first international Emily Dickinson conference in China took place in November 2014, and it showed the explosion of interest in studying and translating the works of the poet. Baihua Wang and Martha Nell Smith are coediting three separate publications from the conference: special issues of Comparative Literature & World Literature (sponsored by The Chinese Comparative Literature Association, published by Peking University Press), Cowrie: Journal of Comparative Literature and Comparative Culture (sponsored by Shanghai Normal University, published by Fudan Uni- versity), and the International Journal of Poetry and Poetics (Publication of the Chinese/American Association for Poetry and Poetics). Shanghai 2014 By Cristanne Miller

mily Dickinson is perhaps not yet a some of the papers presented by both Chinese Association for Poetry and Poetics (CAAP). Ehousehold name in China, but her popu- and Western scholars at the conference. In December, 2014, the CAAP held its third larity there is undergoing a meteoric rise, as annual conference (also in Shanghai) – with attested to by the increasing number of sub- The conference included a tour of Shang- a primary focus on contemporary poetics and missions to the Emily Dickinson Journal by hai’s Bund region along the Huangpu River, twentieth- or twenty-first-century poetry. Chinese and Taiwanese scholars, the number with its extraordinary contemporary archi- (Marjorie Perloff is the current CAAP of translations of her poems recently pub- tecture, and a tour of older parts of Shang- President and Charles Bernstein the Vice lished or underway, and the recent confer- hai, including the sixteenth-century Yu Gar- President; the conference was organized ence at Fudan University by Luo Lianggong from in Shanghai on translating Central China Normal, Dickinson’s poems. This who was also at the conference, sponsored by Dickinson conference, the Fudan Center for Lit- and Zhu Zhenwu, from erary Translation Studies, Shanghai University). in affiliation with EDIS, As the founding of the was called “Emily Dick- CAAP attests, there is inson Dwells in China – rising Chinese interest in a Possibilities of Translation great range of poetry from and Transcultural Perspec- North America. tives” – and it indeed indi- cated the extent to which While in Wuhan in Dickinson is now alive in 2007, I spoke with some Chinese scholarship. scholars who were enthusiastic readers and The two-and-a-half day teachers of Dickinson, event (November 22 – 24) and conversations began involved twenty-two trans- about the possibility of a lation groups linking a native speaker of Eng- den (or YúYúan, “Garden of Happiness”), conference on Dickinson’s poetry in China. lish (who was in most cases also a Dickinson with its wonderful grottoes, covered walk- Between 2007 and 2014, several Chinese scholar) with one or more Chinese translators ways, bridges, exhibits, and labyrinthine scholars spent time at American universities, in working teams, each of which produced garden paths. including the University at Buffalo; Wang between three and six poems translated into Baihua was one of the scholars who came Chinese with commentary. Many of the Chi- A few words about my own experience with to Buffalo. An experienced translator, nese translators made presentations on their Chinese Dickinson scholarship and my own Wang decided upon leaving to turn to the translations, or on the process of translating, experience in China and Taiwan: In 2007, I translation of some Dickinson secondary and conference director Wang Baihua plans was invited to attend a conference in Wuhan materials, beginning with Alfred Habegger’s to publish these translations with commen- on Twentieth-Century American Poetry, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of tary. She also plans a volume publishing which gave birth to the Chinese/American Emily Dickinson (2002; Chinese translation

24 | EDIS Bulletin published 2014, by Wang with the assistance increasing in number, leading to the idea of a Dickinson conference in Taiwan in the com- of Zeng Yifeng). special issue called “Pearls in Eastern Waters: ing years. And many scholars in Taiwan and Dickinson in Asia” (Fall 2013). A contributor China responded enthusiastically to the news At the inception of the Fudan University to this issue, Li-Hsin Hsu of National Cheng- of the 2016 EDIS conference to be hosted Center for Literary Translation Studies, chi University in Taipei, Taiwan, invited me in Paris. It does not require a crystal ball to Wang invited me to become a member of to give three lectures there (at National Tsing predict that we will increasingly see several the Center because of my own interests in Hua University, National Chengchi Univer- Chinese scholars at EDIS international con- translation (German to English), and we sity, and National Dong Hwa University). ferences and events, and that they will con- began conversing about the possibility of a At every location, there were scholars with tribute increasingly to our understanding of Dickinson conference in China with a focus strong interests in Dickinson who were teach- Dickinson – how she travels and how we can on translation. ing her poems in their classrooms. read her in and out of translation at “home.”

In the meantime, submissions to the Dickin- At Dong Hwa, it was a particular pleasure to Cristanne Miller is the editor of the Emily son Journal both from Asian scholars and on meet Tseng Chen-Chen, who is a Dickinson Dickinson Journal and the author, most topics having to do with Dickinson and Asian scholar and has translated Dickinson. Tseng recently, of Reading in Time: Emily Dick- reception, philosophy, and spirituality were contemplates the possibility of organizing a inson in the Nineteenth Century (2012).

Different Reading Interests Leading to More Possibilities: Collaborative Translation of Three Dickinson Poems into Chinese By Cuihua Xu

osted by the Literary Translation Re- the meeting. All of the translators may have in her poem. I have wondered whether the Hsearch Center of Fudan University in their own unique story to tell about their co- difference in focus may be perhaps due to Shanghai and co-organized by EDIS from operation, but all would agree with me that the fact that Chinese is an ideographic lan- November 22 – 24, 2014, the Emily Dick- the process of collaboration was challenging guage, and that a Chinese translator must inson International Symposium, “Emily and exciting. consciously or unconsciously search the Dickinson Dwells in China – Possibilities meaning or ideas conveyed before translat- of Translation and Transcultural Perspec- I feel grateful to the conference organizers ing a poem or a piece of an article. As an tives,” was the first such occasion ever tak- for getting Dr. Karen Emmerich to collabo- amateur translator I perceive that the quali- ing place in China, and its strong energizing rate with me. Karen (who was unfortunate- ties Karen possesses as a translator and a force for Dickinson studies in China may ly unable to attend the actual conference) translation expert are just what I need to have been felt by all the participants. is an expert in translation and translation develop in myself, and that our different theory. Her current research focuses on the interests in translation would certainly lead The cooperative translation project of the material aspects of both poetry and transla- to different perspectives of readings. Symposium was a rare opportunity for Chi- tion, and on the overlap in the tasks of the nese translators to work with Dickinson editor and the translator, particularly with Our different interests in translation did play scholars who are native speakers of English. regard to the instability of literary works. an important part in selecting the poems Twenty-two small translation groups were At the beginning of our collaboration, we for translation. Aware of the tremendous formed. The rule of the game was that each exchanged our opinions about our interests challenge one needs to take in translating Chinese translator selected, translated, and in translation. Her interest in discussing a Dickinson poem, we decided to work on annotated three to six poems in electronic “how the scholarly discussion of Dickin- three poems, following Karen’s suggestion collaboration with other members of her or son’s visual and material form, as well as “to work on the fewest number of possible his group several months before the confer- the variants to many of the poems, affect poems and to use it as an opportunity to ence. As one of the translators who partici- the task of translation” allows her to see think seriously through and discuss some pated in the translation project, I consider through the various possibilities of trans- of translation questions.” The three poems the most essential part of its success was all lating a Dickinson poem, while my inter- selected by us were “I know some lonely the preparatory work that was done before est lies in what ideas Dickinson expresses Houses off the Road” (Fr311), “You see

25 | EDIS Bulletin I cannot see – your lifetime –” (Fr313), result, helped to widen my scope of reading. Fr313 makes no sense to me as a translator and “Read – Sweet – how others – strove Fr323 is the poem of which we share the who probes for an ideographic function out – ” (Fr323). All three were taken by chance most in common in our understanding. I am of it. Reading this poem is like experiencing from the poems written by Dickinson in in agreement with Karen’s comments on the a psychological process of guessing what quite the same period. I proposed the choices poem that “The speaker of this poem is en- Dickinson’s narrator is guessing. As Karen of Fr311 and Fr323 with consideration that couraging someone to find solace in reading, admits, “I chose this poem as one we could the ideas Dickinson expresses in them could and specifically in reading of the attempts of focus on for a translation precisely for the be achieved. Karen voted for Fr313, one of others to strive, through renunciation and ‘riddle’-like qualities you point to. I myself, the most difficult Dickinson poems, as she faithful witness, to maintain a faith that nei- as a translator, am always drawn to the texts favors the instability in the poems and taking ther the speaker nor the addressee can them- that present the most pervasive challenges challenges to find the possible interpretations, selves lay claim to. In other words, reading for translation, and this one seems to me considering that “a translation that was able of the faith of others is one way to encourage one of Dickinson’s most difficult poems for to keep all of these options in the air without faith and renunciation in oneself. ” which to pin down an interpretation. This is a settling on any one of them, a translation that result, I believe, of the extreme syntactical ir- was as strange and as challenging in Chinese But our reading of Fr311 differs very largely. regularity of the poem: it is, as you note, very as the poem is in English, would be in my I see the poem as a narrative one which may difficult to determine what nouns are serving opinion a successful translation.” remind readers of a typical Grandma’s tale as subjects and objects of what verbs.” Since about robbery in its surface but deep down I fail in making any meaningful sense out of The mode of our collaboration was that behind the veil of the story are the facts the poem, I translate and annotate it based on firstly we each approached the poems in our that include Dickinson’s careful choices of Karen’s comments but try to make the trans- own ways, then shared our understanding of words, her deliberate plan of structure, and lation look less strange and challenging to the poems. Finally Karen wrote the English her exploration to present her shrewdness readers of Chinese, which, I know, is quite versions of the annotation and commen- in understanding the psychological devel- contrary to Karen’s ideal notion of transla- tary while I did the translations and wrote opment concerning the process of robbery. tion. What makes me feel more despair is the annotation and commentary in Chinese Karen amazed me by highlighting the effect that I cannot find my way in English to ex- based on the ideas we shared in the part of of audio and visual imagery and providing plain to Karen or any native speakers of Eng- the work we each did. Therefore, each of us full evidences for her arguments that “the lish how the Chinese translation of this poem could write in the way we felt comfortable primary ‘meaning’ of the poem lies precisely is conducted. with so that we could present our ideas very in the hide-and-seek we find in its lines” and freely. that “one could describe this as a poem about On the whole the collaboration is signifi- losing and finding, or losing and never find- cantly beneficial to me. It reminds me to In the process of our collaboration, our dif- ing, or forgetting and remembering, rather keep my mind open and “dwell in possibil- ferent interests in approaching a Dickinson than a poem about an actual burglary – bur- ity” when reading Dickinson. I realize that poem produced amazing results of interpre- glary, here, would be a playful metaphor for the ideographic certainty I am probing for in tation, as Karen’s comments on each poem loss.” I consider her analysis would be more translation could only be, again in Dickin- in response to my reading displayed her acceptable to general readers and integrated son’s words, “uncertain certainty,” and that capacity in seeing through the various pos- her whole idea into the Chinese version of much needs to be done in interpreting and sibilities of interpreting a poem, which, as a annotation and comments on the poem. annotating the poet.

You see I cannot see – your lifetime – 你知道我看不到你的人生 – Note: Karen’s words are quoted from her I must guess – 我须猜测 – emails to me. How many times it ache for me – today – 多少次这让我痛苦 – 今天承认 – Confess – Cuihua Xu teaches English as a foreign lan- How many times for my far sake 多少次为了我的远大前程 guage at Guangdong University of Foreign The brave eyes film – 那勇敢的双眼悲痛迷蒙 – Studies in Guangzhou, mainland China. Her But I guess guessing hurts – 但我估摸呀猜测令人伤心 – article “Approaching Emily Dickinson” was Mine – get so dim! 我的眼啊 – 已模糊不清！ published in the Fall 2011 EDIS Bulletin and “A Scrutiny into Chinese Translations A segment of Cuihua Xu’s translation of Fr313 shows the result of a collaboration between a of Emily Dickinson’s Poetry (1984 – 2011)” translator working in an ideographic language and a native speaker focusing on sight and sound. in the Winter 2013 Emily Dickinson Journal.

26 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson and Whitman au bord de la Seine: American Poets in Paris, March 2015 By Marianne Noble

s the story goes, a few years ago, poets. The event concluded with a festive ACristanne Miller and Eric Athenot dinner with much toasting, generously A particular favorite was the paper of met in Paris and got to chatting about the sponsored by Universite de Paris, Créteil. Vincent Dussol (Université Paul Valéry- surprising fact that there has never been a Montpellier 3) on “The List and the It” conference devoted to the intersections of Ed Folsom kicked things off with a “what that had attendees alternately rapt and the two major US poets of the 19th cen- if” paper that addressed the many oppor- laughing their heads off. And Betsy Erk- tury, Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. tunities for intersection and influence be- killa delighted all with a consideration And voilá, an idea was born. tween the two poets. Christine Gerhardt of the surprising erotics of the two poets. was the next featured speaker, addressing Dickinson may have believed that Whit- On March 12 and 13, around thirty interna- shared relationships to place in the two man's poetry was “disgraceful,” and Whit- tional scholars gathered at l’Université de poets’ work (the topic of her recently pub- man may have wanted to be seen as one of Paris, Creteil, for “Walt Whitman & Em- lished book on the two poets, A Place for the “roughs,” but readers in this stunning ily Dickinson: A Colloquy.” There were Humility). And Cécile Roudeau rounded conference found more commonality be- around twenty papers presented, and the out the opening session with a paper about tween the recluse of Amherst and the Bard discussion was rounded out with a round- resistances to abstraction in the two poets’ of America than either one might have table addressing formal choices of the two work. imagined.

A sampling of paper topics will convey the range of interests of the participants and their innovative connections between the poets, and it may serve to sharpen anticipation of the 2016 International EDIS Conference, to be held in Paris:

Christine Gerhardt, “‘Have we not stood here like trees in the ground long enough?’”

Dorri Beam, “Between the Sheets: Sex and Poetic Sequence in Whitman and Dickinson”

Paul Hurh, “The Arctic and the Polar: Death, Earth, and Cosmological Scale in Whitman and Dickinson” Top left: Paul Hurh, Dorri Beam, Antoine Cazé; above right, Michael Hinds, Ken Folsom; below: Gary Stonum Ken Price, “Handwriting and the Envelop- ing Artistic Act”

Michael Hinds, “Whitman-Dickinson: Punk-Post-Punk”

Paola Loreto, “Sensible Knowledge and the Language of Emotions: The Common Source of the Poetic Idioms of Whitman and Dickinson”

27 | EDIS Bulletin Report from Finland Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä

irst of all, an obituary, which comes – and the following discussion revealed that, poets, who still master the rules of metrical Flike my whole report – regrettably late. besides the ones published in Parnasso, she composition. Juvonen proved it beautifully, had actually translated a good many more of and so did Aila Meriluoto, another It is my sad duty to announce that Kaarina Dickinson’s poems, still unpublished. celebrated Finnish modernist, who included Halonen, my long-time friend and collabo- ten thematically and metrically impeccable rator in translating Emily Dickinson into The natural outcome of this encounter ED translations in her last collection, Kimeä Finnish, died in May 2013, at the age of 90. was a collection of Finnish translations metsä (2002). A decade ago one of our Suffering from Alzheimer’s, she spent the of Dickinson’s verse, published by our last years of her life at a nursing home and department (in 1983) and called Valitsee was buried in the family grave in Suonen- sielu seuransa (the first line of Juvonen’s Puuseppä, itseoppinut joki, her native town, on June 12, 2013. translation of Fr409). It consisted of olin – jo aikani the above-mentioned essay plus 45 höyläni kanssa puuhannut Kaarina was a member – actually the last translations by Helvi Juvonen, Kaarina, kun saapui mestari genuine member – of the famous Halonen and myself. Some ten years later (in 1992), family, consisting of artists, sculptors, and this collection was enlarged to contain 62 mittaamaan työtä: oliko handicrafts-men and -women. Her uncle translations (with all the new ones by me), ammattitaitonne Pekka Halonen, for instance, was one of and both the editions were soon sold out. riittävä - jos, hän palkkaisi the most famous painters of the so-called puoliksi kummankin Golden Age of Finnish art, while her father To be sure, these were not the very first Antti Halonen was also a renowned painter, Dickinson translations into Finnish; since Työkalut kasvot ihmisen as well as a handicraft teacher. Kaarina drew the 1940s, a few tentative translations of her sai – höyläpenkkikin and painted in water-colors well, too, but poems had been included in literary articles todisti toisin: rakentaa chose to study philology at university and and anthologies. Ours was, however, the osamme temppelit! devoted her working years to teaching Eng- first collection of her poetry here, and it lish and German in secondary schools. remained as such for another ten years. Ever Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä’s Finnish since I had retired and settled, in 1994, at translation of Fr475, “Myself was Our collaboration started in 1980, when my present hometown Iisalmi, I had been formed – a Carpenter – ” the Literature Department of Jyväskylä planning to publish another collection – or University (where I worked) arranged rather selection – of Dickinson’s poems a summer seminar on translating lyrical in Finnish. I had been working on new younger poets, Merja Virolainen, also took poetry. I had learnt that Kaarina, during translations for some time, and eventually interest in Dickinson. After first publishing her university studies, had – as she collected them, together with some old ones her free-verse translations in Nuori Voima, a herself later boasted – “introduced Emily by Kaarina, into a volume called Maailma, literary periodical, she later collected them Dickinson” to Helvi Juvonen, a fellow tässä kirjeeni (the first line of Fr519). into a volume called Golgatan kuningatar student and a well-known contemporary Published in 2003, it was only a slender (2004). In addition to 78 poems, the book, poet (1919–59). She had also collaborated booklet, containing an introductory essay by now out of print, contained an effusive with Juvonen at interpreting Dickinson me and 39 poems, but beautifully illustrated biographical essay on the poet plus a sort for an extensive essay on the poet (with with colored-paper cuttings by a local artist. of account (or even apology) for her own several translations), published in 1958 in method of translating Dickinson’s verse. Parnasso, the best-known Finnish literary The compact schemes and iambic rhythms While retaining her uneven free-verse periodical. Accordingly, I contacted Kaarina of Dickinson’s prosody may be difficult lines, with occasional rhymes added here and asked her to come to our seminar and to render into trochaic Finnish but not and there, Virolainen had imposed a sort tell us about this collaboration, as well as impossible. Kaarina and I have proved it, as of syllable-count on them. As Dickinson’s the results thereof, which she did. Her talk has been also shown by various older Finnish meager stanza forms, together with their

28 | EDIS Bulletin tight prosodic patterning, were however scheme has not been realized so far, but it course, but general interest – which is indi- lost, Virolainen’s insistence that she was will keep alive. vidually rewarded by small monetary prizes “keeping to the original meter” was difficult – has been astonishingly high. to understand. No doubt inspired by Another activity to arouse and keep up Dick- Dickinson, her interpretations remained – at inson interest here has been the yearly com- I have provided the school library with least for me – paraphrases at most. petition for the students of the local lyceum sufficient information about Dickinson for (higher secondary school) in translating her those who want to learn about her before the As to myself, I have – almost as a daily poetry, arranged by the local Finnish-Amer- competition, and after the society board has practice – continued translating Dickinson’s ican Society. After the society had, so to say, processed the translations, we usually meet poems into Finnish. For my 75th birthday in adopted Dickinson as its own poet by spon- all the competitors at the coffee-room of the 2009, I edited my new translations into a soring the collections of translations I’ve school and discuss the results. This meeting collection and had it published as Puuseppä, published, it seemed only natural to initiate has been an excellent opportunity to inform itseoppinut (the first line of Fr475). The vol- this competition, which has been running for the students of the various aspects of Dick- ume consisted of 104 translations with an six years now. The poems to be translated inson studies, too, as well as of the activities introduction, dealing mainly with Dickin- (usually three in number) are suggested by of EDIS. son’s development as a poet, together with me and accepted by the society board (of a presentation of her prosody. The edition is which I am a member). They are sent to the Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä is professor by now out of print, and I had been planning school to be published on Dickinson’s birth- emerita of the University of Jyväskylä, in to publish a new one, with fresh translations, day, December 10, and the date for return- Jyväskylä, “the Athens of Finland.” She has for my 80th birthday last year. As I have been ing the translations is May Day. The annual done many translations of Dickinson’s po- too busy with some other editing jobs, that number of competitors has been varied, of ems, and is a long-time member of the EDIS.

Dickinson and the Arts

Emily Dickinson continues to exert her influence in visual art, theatre, and music. In addition to Michael Conley’s A Bequest of Wings (see above, p. 8), the poet has recently reappeared in many media.

Last summer, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum near Boston featured a 20-year retrospective of work by Lesley Dill. The exhibi- tion of 16 works made between 1993 and 2012 ranged from oil pastel drawings and a large scale metal wall drawing to bronze and paper sculptures and illustrated Dill’s signature use of the language of poetry with the human form. Among the Dickinson-inspired works were Poem Dress (1993) and Word Made Flesh (2002). Other of Dill’s works were inspired by Franz Kafka, Salvador Espriu, and Tom Sleigh.

Emily Dickinson OUTER SPACE! was performed by Theatre Plastique in New York City at the Bushwick Starr from September 4 to 7, 2014. Theatre Plastique was founded by Michelle Sutherland in 2013 and is an artist collective that creates original musical theatre, opera, and plays that celebrate American poetry and explore the American psyche through rhythm. The Dickinson piece was the second in a planned triptych of performances, following Gertrude Stein SAINTS!

This, and My Heart: A Portrait of Emily Dickinson, a musical and theatrical performance, took place on October 22, 2014, at the Univer- sity of Southern California. Dickinson’s poems and letters were read in conjunction with musical settings by several composers including Aaron Copland and Lori Laitman. The performance was a collaboration among actress Linda Kelsey, soprano Anne Marie Ketchum, pianist Victoria Kirsch, and painter/scene designer Bonita Helmer and was introduced by Dana Gioia, USC professor of poetry and public culture.

Also in California, the Yuba-Sutter Regional Arts Council mounted Yuba Sutter Reads: Emily Dickinson, a month-long celebration of the poet and her work in February 2015. Modeled on the NEA’s Big Read Program, but funded solely by community donations, the program was designed to appeal to readers of all ages with special outreach initiatives for K-12 teachers and students as well as local artists. The cul- minating event was a musical, video, and spoken word performance/program complemented by both a gallery show of Dickinson-inspired work by local artists and a dessert reception that used the poet’s own recipes.

29 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson’s Realia: A Russian Perspective

By Tatiana Polezhakat

he poems of Emily Dickinson attracted me first by their unconven- rice fields ), and these names are all evoked by the general term. And the Ttional rhyme and by the fact that the poet’s name is little known to Bobolink dwells only on the American continent. Russian readers. But after translating the first few, I realized that I had found a treasure-house. I try to preserve realia in the translations, because they convey national and historical character. I have dealt with the realia in the plane of two Introduction to Dickinson’s work in Russia began in the 1940s. At least languages: English and Russian. I think there are two major difficulties 680 of her poems are now translated into Russian. Fifty percent of these with realia: 1) There is no equivalent in the target language; and 2) Both poems have been translated more than once. Nevertheless, it is still too realia and semantics together are needed to truly convey the color of early to talk about the reception in general of Emily Dickinson’s creativ- their national and historical connotation. ity in our country. Since 2011, with the help of Peter Mitchell, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Foreign languages, Tomsk State University, I So when I am translating realia I rely upon the general theoretical posi- have set a goal to translate all of Emily Dickinson’s poems; I am about tion, on intuition, and, most importantly, on the context of the work. For one-third of the way complete. As a poet myself, with each translated example, Fr123 ends with these words: poem I find more similarities in world outlook with Emily Dickinson. Grant me, Oh Lord, a sunny mind – If you are familiar with the grammar of a foreign language you can Thy windy will to bear! translate any prose text with a dictionary, but not poems. Only a poet can do it, and I’m interested in conveying the mood of a poem, and this “Lord” was unchanged in the translation originally. When I read the means being careful with “realia.” translation of this poem at a presentation to Russians, people asked, “What does this word mean? Who is this Lord?” At that moment I real- Formally, realia can be called “untranslatable elements of the original ized I had to change my translation, because the author talks about God text.” According to dictionary definitions, all artifacts are realia. More in this poem and it was not obvious to the audience. Therefore, I have particularly, words naming objects and concepts expressing the national used the word “God” instead of “Lord” in the new version. and historical flavor of their nation can be called realia. These can pre- serve the national character of the poem. Realia not only keep the flavor I have started translating the poems of Emily Dickinson from the first of the host culture, they prepare a reader for the semantic content of the poem, in the order they were created, and I have not chosen only the original text. And sometimes realia just let us understand the concept, easy ones. Today, when I have translated 446 poems, I can make some which is embedded in the poet’s work. I think that only through the assumptions about translations of Dickinson’s poems in Russian. My transcription of realia can a reader become immersed in the original text. calculations show that about 64 percent of the translated poems contain The large number of realia in Emily Dickinson’s poems is one of the realia. Among these, ethnographic realia are the most common, in 29 reasons why her poems are seldom translated into Russian. percent of the poems; 10 percent of the poems have the realia of names; 9 percent have socio-political realia; 7 percent have geographical realia, Realia may be contrasted with “terms.” Terms are precisely defined 3 percent include foreign languages realia; 3 are interjections (which I concepts of objects and phenomena. Ideally, a term is unambiguous and believe are realia); and 3 percent have military realia. devoid of synonyms. The term cannot claim “nationality.” It belongs to all humanity. Realia are associated with fiction, and are a means of Some realia are proper names, but the boundaries between proper nouns transmission of local and temporary color. Realia always belong to the and realia are not always obvious. Consider poem 207: people of whose language they were born. But in contrast to terms, they penetrate into other languages, whether they represent an object or not. I taste a liquor never brewed – Я пробую несваренный From Tankards scooped in Pearl – Жемчужный хмель равнин – Not all the Frankfort Berries Не каждый Франкфуртский ликер For an example of realia versus terms, Emily Dickinson writes about a Yield such an Alcohol! Сравниться может с ним! Bobolink in several poems. “Bobolink” may seem like a term, since it simply names a bird, but I consider it an example of realia, because this Summer’s inebriation is almost heavenly in the first stanza. The fin- bird has multiple names (“butter bird,” “rice bird” – since they dwell in est Rhine wine could never equal it. Therefore words like “liquor,”

30 | EDIS Bulletin “alcohol,” “pearl” and the phrase “Frankfort Berries” bear the primary Geographical realia present other difficulties. The second stanza of semantic load. It was important to preserve the beauty of metaphors Fr1245 contains the words, in Russian translation and not lose the semantic content of the poem. So I transformed the phrase “Frankfort Berries” into “Frankfort liquor.” When it had pushed itself away Когда ж в одной из дальних Прерий “Frankfort” identifies a place, but it also includes a system of images To some remotest Plain Он затерял свой пыл that do not carry over with its semantic meaning. The word “Plain” has several meanings in Russian translation, for ex- Similarly, I tried not to ignore the implications of direct addres in Eng- ample steppe, prairie, and so on. I have chosen to translate the word lish, such as “Sir.” For example, Fr258: “prairie” as the American version to preserve the national character, even though the poet is not specific. I came to buy a smile – today – Зашла купить улыбку – раз – But just a single smile – Всего-то лишь одну – Onomatopoeia and interjections verge on being realia. Onomatopoeia The smallest one opon your face – Что на щеке, но вскользь у Вас - really reflects the national color. For example, dogs bark differently in Will suit me just as well – Да только мне к Лицу – different countries. In Fr311 there is a line, “And mice won’t bark.” A The one that no one else would miss Ту, без которй нет потерь It shone so very small – Слаба она сиять – mouse in general only can squeak, but the humor is difficult to capture. I’m pleading at the counter – sir – Молю, Сэр, подсчитать – её Likewise, interjections are an articulate onomatopoeia for the expres- Could you afford to sell? Смогли бы вы продать? sion of feelings. It is very complicated to translate feelings from foreign languages. Consider words like this in Fr189: “hist,” “whist.” I’ve Diamonds – on my fingers! Алмазы – на моих перстах! You know what Diamonds – are! Вам ли не знать, о да! Is it true, dear Sue? Правда, дорогая Сью? I’ve Rubies – like the evening Blood – Рубины – словно Кровь, горят – Are there two? Вас двое, не пойму? And Topaz – like the star! Топазы – как звезда! I shouldn’t like to come Идти мне для чего, ‘Twould be a bargain for a Jew! Еврею торг такой в пример! For fear of joggling Him! Тревожить лишь Его! Say? May I have it – Sir? Что скажите мне – Сэр? If you could shut him up Ты в Чашке Кофе бы когда In a Coffee Cup Скрыть его б смогла, Ethnographic realia denote culture, customs and religion – the elements Or tie him to a pin Булавкой ли скрепляла б – of life, work, and art. Different units of measurement and money can be Till I got in – Пока мне не попало – called ethnographic realia. Mythical heroes, biblical images and more Or make him fast Иль Тоби чтоб can also be attributed to ethnographic realia. For example, in Fr521, I To Toby’s fist – Догнать не смог – Hist! Whist! I’d come! Тсс! Тише! Я пришла! preserved the name of Moses, the ancient name of Palestine (Canaan), the names of biblical characters (Stephen and Paul), and the name of the To preserve the sound of the last line I had to use Russian onomato- mountain (Nebo): poeia in “Тсс! Тише!” It always felt to me – a wrong Что было сделано для Моисея – To that Old Moses – done – На мой взгляд, был обман – I have only touched such a complex topic as translating realia. Each To let him see – the Canaan – Не дать войти ему, позволив translator solves this problem on her own. But it seems to me that only Without the entering – Увидеть Ханаан – respect for people and their culture will keep the most valuable things that the author puts in the original. So I do not see any other approach to * * * Opon the Broad Possession Взирать он должен – лишь всего - translation of poems by a poet as great and unique as Emily Dickinson. ‘Twas little – He should see – На Ширь Владения – Only a complete translation of all Dickinson’s poems will adequately Old Man on Nebo! Late as this – Старик с горы Нево! Кровит reveal her poetry and allow Russian linguists to approach the issue of My justice bleeds – for Thee! Мой суд – ради Тебя! the reception of her creativity in Russia as a whole. I would like to think that the poems of Emily Dickinson are only part of my life, but the Realia of measurement and money likewise are usually transcribed di- encounter with the realia in her poems has brought her work and her rectly, such as the “miles” of Fr383 and “Doubloons” in Fr266: world into my life completely.

Bags of Doubloons – adventurous Bees Дублонов сумки – Пчелы мне Tatiana Polezhakat was born in T’blisi and studied biology in North Brought me – from firmamental seas – С небесных донесли морей – Ossetia. After many years teaching biology and ecology, she turned And Purple – from Peru – И Пурпур — из Перу – to poetry, publishing her own work and translations from English, beginning with Shakespeare’s sonnets in 2011. She is currently work- Though I could translate “Doubloons,” I transcribe it directly and give it ing on Dickinson’s poems while writing her dissertation on the poet a footnote at the end of the poem. at Tomsk State University.

31 | EDIS Bulletin “Min flod flyter mot dig”: Sextio dikter av Emily Dickinson [My River Flows to Thee: Sixty Poems of Emily Dickinson]

By Cynthia Hallen

nn-Marie Vinde’s English-Swedish bilin- conjunctions, emphasis, ellipsis, polysemy, wanted to get at the characteristics of ferrets Agual translation of sixty poems by Emily and allusions (Form och språch hos Emily and what they were used for in ED’s day: Dickinson (Bokverket, 2010) refutes the com- Dickinson). their inquisitiveness and ability to burrow and mon assumption that poetry is impossible to drive/ferret out prey, to make the metaphor as translate. Grounded in philological sensibility, A window into Vinde’s method illuminates the clear as possible. . . . In doing so, I sacrificed “Min flod flyter mot dig” achieves a delicate next section of the supplementary materials. the rhyme, as you pointed out, but thought that balance between what is lost in the native She begins by stating that translating Dickin- the last word of the previous line, på (which is language with what is gained in the target son is no different from translating any other stressed), with its long /å/ could compensate language as recommended by translation his- poet, in that it requires an understanding of for that.” Such sensitive word-crafting is the torian George Steiner in After Babel: Aspects the poet’s time, culture, worldview, language, mark of a master translator. of Language and Translation. Vinde has an in- and versification, as well as an awareness of stinctive ear for Dickinson’s music, style, and scholarly resources and previous translations The translator’s phonological fidelity is mani- diction, reminiscent of William Tyndale’s ear of the poem. The end material continues with a fest throughout the edition. For example, in for English expression in his translation of the brief biography, highlighting Dr. Vinde’s work the title poem, Vinde matches the /r/ allitera- Bible from its source languages. Her sensitive at Stockholm University as well as her previ- tion of the English first line “My River runs to balance of English and Swedish prosodic fea- ous translations of Dickinson and Ford Madox Thee” with an /f/ alliteration in Min flod flyter tures is evident in phonological fidelity, syn- Ford. mot dig, rather than rendering a literal but less tactic flexibility, and semantic versatility. interesting line such as Min oa rinner att dig. The poems, translations, and accompaniments Vinde preserves Dickinson’s semantic versa- After a brief introduction and an explanation are neatly packed into a little blue-bound tility in the poem by choosing skimrande vrår of her commentary format, Vinde presents book, 5 x 8.5 inches, large enough to be leg- for “spotted nooks,” evoking the shimmering her selection of sixty Dickinson poems in the ible yet small enough to make a handy travel spots of light and shade in a secluded dell full upper half of facing even-odd pages, with the companion. The size, layout, design, and font of leafy trees. Vinde uses syntactic flexibility English poem on the left side and the Swedish are exceptionally fine, especially the delicate to adapt English meters to Swedish prosody. translation on the right side. She explains her water-color washes by Bruce Rogers on the For example, in the final line of Min flod flyter translation decisions and alternatives in foot- white dust jacket. mot dig, she matches the four syllables of the notes at the bottom of the facing pages. A ratio- final line “Say Sea – take me?” with four syl- nale for the order of the selected poems is not As a translation consultant, I was able to lables in Swedish: Hav! – Tar du mig? transparent; however, the arrangement seems read through many of the sixty Swedish to have some thematic coherence, such as the translations with Dr. Vinde, asking questions For grammatical versatility, she uses the his- sequential grouping of three “Hope is” defini- about specific lexical substitutions and stylistic torical present stänger to capture the present tion poems: “Hoppet” är det där med fjädrar, adaptations. For example, I asked why she had and past tense ambiguity in the verb “shut” in Hoppet – en konstig uppfinning, and Hoppet translated the word “find” with spåra instead “They shut me up in Prose.” Always careful – frossar i det tysta. of hitta in the closing line of “The Color of in metrical matters, she chooses enkelt rather the Grave is Green.” Although hitta would than lätt to render “easy as a Star.” Neither In the end matter pages, Vinde provides read- have made a satisfying final off-rhyme with does Vinde neglect rhetorical figures, preserv- ers with an overview of Dickinson’s life and the preceding rendition of “Bonnet” as hätta, ing the word repetition of “still” across the poetry (Liv och diktningn). She then addresses Vinde explained that the word hitta would boundary from the first stanza to the second: unique aspects of the poet’s form: stanzas, me- have sounded too low or colloquial in the för “lugn” jag skulle bli – // Lugn! ters, enjambment, rhyme, capitalization, dash- Swedish register. In a recent commentary, es, and variant spellings, followed by sections Vinde provides a more detailed explanation of Many of Vinde’s Swedish translations can on Dickinson’s idiosyncratic style in terms of her decision to sacrifice the rhyme in order to provide a better understanding of the original nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, focus on the meaning: “The reason was that I English versions of Dickinson’s poems. When

32 | EDIS Bulletin the poet-persona boasts of “Ballet knowledge” men nu vet jag vad en ljunghed är that could “lay a Prima – mad” in the poem “I och känner havets våg. Network! cannot dance opon my Toes,” Vinde translates (Nils Ekman, 1942) by Carol Samuelson-Woodson “mad” as “galen” denoting “crazy” but also connoting “enthralled,” with the etymological Jag ej sett en hed Maid-of-Amherst, why can’t you resonance of “en-trolled” in Old Swedish. In jag har ej sett ett hav; Network like the others do? the last line of “A narrow Fellow in the Grass,” men vet ändå hur ljung ser ut All you want to do is write the “Zero at the Bone” effect of seeing a snake och känner vågens slag. In your chamber, late at night? becomes iskyla i märgen in Swedish, which (Ellen Löfmarck. I: Emily Dickinson: en in- Safe, inside your Father’s House back-translates beautifully as “Ice in the Mar- troduktion med lyriska tolkningar av Ellen No more gumption than a mouse? row.” Löfmarck. Stockholm: Natur och kultur, 1950) Introverted, tongue-tied, meek Demon-haunted, loath to speak? Vinde’s exquisite rendering of Dickinson’s Jag har aldrig sett Havet – Monster father, mother’s dim? style includes a thorough examination of pre- aldrig sett en Hed – For companion, Horror’s Twin. vious translations of a poem into Swedish. In vet ändå vad en Bölja är – You don’t care to live aloud? preparation for the Min flod flyter mot dig edi- om Ljung vet jag besked. You get nervous in a crowd? tion, she compiled an inventory of the twenty- (P.O. Valdén. I: Engelsk poesi C-G. Kristians- You’re Old-Fashioned, Quaint, discreet – seven Dickinson translators who produced tad: Anglia förlag, 1994) Awkward when you meet and greet? 681 translations of 454 poems from 1931 to Well, my dear, that would explain 2010: Blomberg, Andersson, Edfelt, Ekman, Vinde’s 2010 version features natural idiom- Why Nobody knows your name. Bagger-Sjöbäck, Löfmarck, Hellström, Hey- atic language. Vinde retains the short meter Don’t expect to make your mark man, Hallqvist, von Haartman, Roos, Lind- prosody, the parallel structures, and word Stitching poems up in the dark. sten, Asplund, Bruno, Nilsson, Westin, Vilén, repetitions: Summon up some Yankee grit Swahn, Lindén, Nyberg, Reuterswärd, Valdén, Posture, pose, get over it. Engdahl, Lundgren, Jäderlund, Tunedal with Jag aldrig sett en hed. Launch a journal – maybe two – Vinde, and Ann-Marie Vinde herself. Such a Jag aldrig sett havet – Publish me, I’ll publish you. compilation enabled Vinde to present Dickin- men vet ändå hur ljung ser ut Liberate your auburn hair son poems which had never before been trans- och vad en bölja är – Choose your best white frock to wear, lated into Swedish and facilitated a compara- Gussied-up in your fine dress tive analysis as she approached poems that had Jag aldrig talat med Gud, Make some noise, stand out, impress! been previously translated. i himlen aldrig gjort visit – Learn to do the herky jerk men vet lika säkert var den är If you would promote your work. Vinde studied four earlier translations of “I som om jag ägt biljett – Words on paper aren’t enough never saw a Moor” from Blomberg, Ekman, Connect! Promote! And strut your stuff! Löfmarck, and Valdén to create her own trans- The Swedish translations of Dickinson’s Would-be poets, if they’re wise lation. Here I compare the first stanza of each, poems in “Min flod flyter mot dig” are Get up, get out, advertise. before reproducing Vinde’s full translation: neither strict literal renditions nor loose free Circulate and find your group, interpretations. Vinde does not indulge in Write a poem for Chicken Soup. UTAN KARTA artificial adaptations, revisionist gimmicks, Lighten up, embrace the bog or impressionistic appropriations that are Croak a stanza with the frog. Jag har aldrig sett en hed, merely staged as poetic interpretations. You must make a proper fuss ej någonsin havet jag såg, Vinde’s stylistic finesse is reader-friendly, Or you’ll end up posthumous. och ändå vet jag hur ljungen ser ut refreshingly comprehensive, philologically Reputation, stature, fame – och känner igen en våg. sound, rhetorically powerful, and All will perish with your name. (Erik Blomberg. I: Nya tolkningar. Stock- academically rigorous. We can only hope You're so busy even Death holm: Bonniers, 1931) that Dr. Vinde will continue to translate as Finds you toiling, out of breath? many as possible of the 1,300-plus poems Then, alas, that Carriage ride UTAN KOMPASS that have not yet made it into Swedish from Over to the other side, Dickinson’s corpus of 1,789 poems. Courtly though the driver be, Jag aldrig såg en hed, Cancels Possibility. jag aldrig havet såg;

33 | EDIS Bulletin “Emily Dickinson and the Textures of Mysticism, West and East” by Barton Levi St. Armand, presented at the 2007 Emily Dickinson International Society Conference, Kyoto, Japan, Sunday, August 5

The address is based on notes taken by Cynthia Hallen, and while it is important to mention that Barton Levi St. Armand has read and approved these notes, the piece is nevertheless as much a reconstruction as it is a transcript. If St. Armand’s address reflected his own translation of a spiritual dimension of Dickinson’s poems into a pattern drawn from his own understanding, a transcription is a receptive reader’s appreciative translation of the address into a pattern constructed from her own moments of greatest enlightenment.

his paper is dedicated to Ken Aki- riage made in heaven, a match consum- licizes her experience (Fr 1342). In spite Tyama, professor of American Puritan- mated in heaven and in eternity. She abol- of doubt and pain, she cannot abolish a ism, who passed away in March 2007. I ishes space and time but not place. She personal God who guarantees her place in begin by quoting Rudyard Kipling’s poem, preserves her faith by narrowing it. She Heavenly mansions. She is an authentic “The Ballad of East and West”: “Oh, east enacts a privatized transvaluation, à la mystical poet. She documents Jamesian is east, and west is west, and never the William James. transport. She acknowledges a Deity who twain shall meet.” I will offer no car wash is a grand Creator and Designer. of political correctness: Emily Dickinson Hers is a disciplined mysticism and a was no atheist. Emily Dickinson testi- darker mysticism. The discipline comes Compare Basho’s [eastern] Ur-Frog poem fies of locality. She practiced her craft by from her belief in a mystic marriage, as translated by Peter Bylundson, “Old Western mysticism. God is the maker of located in or beyond the grave. The dark sleepy pool / Suddenly frog jumps / places: the flight of birds, the passing of discipline includes “orison,” poetry as Kerplop, water splash!” with Dickinson’s summer, the death of loved ones passing prayer, verse as meditation, the mind’s 1875 frog Demosthenes, “His Mansion in on to the next realm. detachment from outer sensations the Pool” (Fr 1355), changing from one (compare Loyola’s exercises). Her faith state of being to another. Her compass points are home and heaven. is non-Protestant. She believes in a union The grave caused her to feel spiritual with her lover in a home-like heaven. She Dickinson’s mystical lyrics are oratory, claustrophobia, leading her to seek for has recycled Romantic Calvinism; she with the same etymological root as “ori- a portal, a conduit to the next realm of has retooled New England Christianity son,” meaning “to speak.” Dickinson being. She sought a new dispensation of to create a place of fulfillment, her own emulates the God who speaks worlds into locality: a concrete geographic place, a private gospel that is both lyrical and existence. There is a place for everything, happy home raised to an infinite power, a Gothic. and everything has its place. That is the promised land. She has faith in her place ecology of her poems. There is a constant in heaven. Again, Emily Dickinson was The dark side of her mysticism comes wobble in Dickinson’s dualism; she is al- no atheist (Fr1420): she has the eternal from doubt, suffering, and fear. Never- ways questioning both faith and doubt. things. In her poetic works, she relates theless, she has faith that redemption will Her “white Election” is severe and per- her own heretical place: a deep eternal lead her to her home in heaven (Fr 431; severing. Her works are grounded in the system of divine election; she purloins compare St. John of the Cross). Also, for Western Tradition. She knows that the the Western view of Heaven in her own Dickinson, transport equals revelation. magic of eloquence can defraud us; nature re-vision. She cannot leave out a personal Some mystical experiences are so over- can allure and deceive us. The bubble of God who understands suffering. whelming that they cannot be commu- dualism is about to break in her work. She nicated in ordinary language. She writes does cherish surprises but does not want She believes that she will be born again of super-experience: sumptuous destitu- them to dismantle her world. She does not into eternal love, with her beloved, in a tion (Fr348 “Evokes so sweet a Torment want to abolish the body, the self, the per- Church of Two, through the mediation of – / Such sumptuous – Despair”); a re- sonal God. She is carried by the Western the God of love. She believes in eternal nunciation (Fr680 “eye upon the Heaven winds not by Eastern typhoons. As Wal- marriage, making her mysticism closer renounced”). She experiences something lace Stevens, that brilliant student of Japa- to Mormonism than to any other religion. co-equal with God and Nature: “Heavenly nese, once said: “Emily Dickinson cannot Nature is the witness of an eternal mar- Hurt” and “Imperial Affliction.” She Bib- do without God.”

34 | EDIS Bulletin By Renée Bergland, Book Review Editor

Crumbley, Paul and Heginbotham, Elea- sic Renown,” states plainly that he builds on fascicles function as clusters of thematically nor Elson, eds. Cameron’s argument (192). related poems, constituting an essential Dickinson’s Fascicles: A Spectrum of Pos- feature of Dickinsonian poetics. But aside sibilities. Columbus: The Ohio State Univer- In addition to Cameron’s chapter and a brief from a few strong advocates at the clear sity Press, 2014. 279 pp. ISBN 978-0-8142- coda by Susan Howe, there are eight chap- “yes” and “no” ends of this problem, many 1259-2, Cloth, $69.95 ters, sequenced to “clarify significant de- of essays here are noncommittal. Bennett, for velopments in fascicle scholarship that we example, extracts some fascinating Civil War Reviewed by Gabrielle Dean think are made evident for the first time in resonances from pairs of poems in Fascicle this volume.” Thus, the volume is organized 16 (“‘Looking at Death, is Dying’: Fascicle his volume is the product of a decade- to highlight correspondences and disagree- 16 in a Civil War Context”), but says quite Tlong collaboration. It “gathers a range of ments among critics; while several of the clearly, “I am not suggesting nor do I believe scholarly perspectives” on the fascicles “in chapters represent altogether new analyses, that Dickinson deliberately set the fascicle up order to express the state of fascicle schol- others, though perhaps derived from longer this way. There are many other ways in which arship at this time.” “Differences of opinion works by their authors, are refocused on the these poems could be arranged for analysis” regarding approaches to fascicle reading” are fascicles. The advantage of this schema is (127 – 8). Smith concurs, noting “whatever very much out in the open – no one approach that seasoned readers of Dickinson criticism a writer’s, reader’s, or editor’s intentions, is valorized, nor is a consensus enforced. are treated to the most current, “state of the all arrangements tell stories beyond those art” thinking about the fascicles; the frequent intentions” (136). In short, Smith says, given The essay collection begins, literally and engagements with other landmark fascicle the fascicles’ history of dismemberment symbolically, with an adaptation of the first studies gave this reader the sense of a brilliant and “rememberment,” and the fact that they chapter of Sharon Cameron’s 1992 Choosing symposium. But there is also a drawback to represent copies, not original manuscripts to Not Choosing. What follows is designed to this method: readers new to “fascicle fever” which we can assign definitive compositional showcase the long-term influence of Camer- do not get a sense of the historical develop- dates, it is impossible to discern in them on’s central insight that the “nonnarrative, in- ment of this discourse, and may feel a bit lost specific authorial intentions. determinate, and highly disruptive attributes” among the intra-references. This imbalance of the fascicles constitute a key component of is partially corrected by Martha Nell Smith’s Thematic links may exist among poems in a Dickinson’s work. Contributors often stake “Civil War(s) and Dickinson Manuscript fascicle: this could be the result of a scribal out positions distinct from Cameron and, Book Reconstructions, Deconstructed,” program – perhaps Dickinson was committed occasionally, from each other. Melanie Hub- which offers a brief review of the history of to assembling in a fascicle poems related by bard, for example, in “The Word Made Flesh: the fascicles’ treatment by editors and critics theme or date; it could be accidental, a scribal Dickinson’s Variants and the Life of Lan- from the late nineteenth century through the practice producing meaningful assemblies by guage,” argues that “Dickinson’s fascicles present. The other contributors, besides those chance; or it could be a readerly creation, a re- prove to be neither coherent artistic structures already named and the two editors, include flection of critical imagination. Where we end nor especially deviant from what others of Domhnall Mitchell, Paula Bernat Bennett, up, in fact, is back at the beginning of some her time and place were doing. . . . These facts Alexandra Socarides, and Ellen Louise Hart. of the most vexing critical problems of the cast doubt on the metaphysical interpretation post-structuralist era. If we read fascicles as Sharon Cameron advances for the fascicles” So where do we end up? Does a consensus inter-connected poetic cycles – even when we (33). Paul Crumbley, on the other hand, in emerge despite the editors’ commitment to insert material considerations into our analy- “‘This – was my finallest / Occasion – ’: Fas- the “spectrum”? This reader was tempted to ses, arguing for the primacy of the page or the cicle 40 and Dickinson’s Aesthetic of Intrin- keep score on the question of whether the bifolium, for example – are we not ultimately

The Bulletin welcomes notices of all Dickinson-related books, including those published outside the U.S. Send information to Renée Bergland, 3 Barrett Road, Hanover, NH 03755, U.S.A. Email: [email protected]

35 | EDIS Bulletin reproducing the tenets of New Criticism? How which is the tendency of the critics assembled more interesting than tractable and perfect. important are authorial intention, biography, in this Spectrum. What I think is best about Thinking Outside historical context, and materiality to formal the Book is Rohrbach’s ecumenical explora- analysis – and, by extension, how reliable or What the fascicles have taught us over the tion of the diverse archives her writers have vital is formal analysis as a way of understand- past several decades, as this book intimates, left behind: she is equal to the task of sift- ing poetry? If all methodologies similarly is that we might do well in all these further ing through diaries, handwritten small cir- reproduce and thus validate their ideological possibilities to admit greater degrees of both culation magazines, engraved frontispieces, foundations, what are we to “do” with texts critical uncertainty and adventure. Given the photographic cartes de visite, manuscripts, like those we have inherited from Emily Dick- complicated history of the fascicles, it may printed books, and reprints, not to mention a inson, which, by virtue of the particular mys- not be Dickinson who chose not to choose; it variety of genres and genre hybrids, and she teries attending their production, are so open to may be, instead, the Dickinson critic who is is able to put many of these forms into rela- such a variety of critical approaches? bound not to do so. tion with questions provoked by digital forms. Rohrbach models a respect des fonds that is Although the editors maintain that the pur- admirable – she lets the materials, in all their pose of the collection is to advance “a rich and strangeness, shape the questions, rather than exciting new field of enquiry” that is “now Rohrbach, Augusta impose “flavor of the month” concerns on entering its infancy” (11), the volume amply Thinking Outside the Book. Amherst and them. But the discursive juggling required by demonstrates that scholarship on the fascicles Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, such a project – the variety of critical frame- is already mature. In fact, the very success of 2014. 180 pp. ISBN 978-1-62534-126-6, works Rohrbach must also invoke in order to this collection gives rise to significant doubts Paper, $24.95 do justice to this panoply of materials – proves about the future of fascicle scholarship per to be a bit much for the juggler. The premises se. The volume’s real value may lie in the Reviewed by Gabrielle Dean she sets up in her introduction and inspects in fact that it leads us away from looking at the her “typological” meditations may seem sim- fascicles in isolation. There are several ways his book, Augusta Rohrbach’s second, plistic to Dickinson scholars who have long forward – ways around or through questions Tis ambitious, even valiant. In each of negotiated the relationships between print, like the ones above! – but all seem to require five chapters framed by an introduction and manuscript, and digital forms, the ethics of a larger scope. One path, as indicated by the an epilogue, she navigates a way through editorial intervention, the status of authorship essays by Hubbard and Socarides, is to inves- the complex textual remains of a different for women writers, and the tension between tigate readerly and writerly practices in Dick- “marginal” American woman writer of the ear and eye. Likewise, while Rohrbach makes inson’s time: her own paper workshop, in So- nineteenth century; each chapter also serves good use of the insights of book history and carides’ essay; contemporary compositional as a meditation on a specific term within an textual studies scholars like Robert Darnton, training and mark-up, in Hubbard’s. Another “alternate typology” of textual production Jerome McGann, and John Bryant, one won- is to look at everyday life and popular culture that Rohrbach develops to interpolate book ders where folks like Peter Schillingsburg and in Dickinson’s milieu: the omnipresence of history and digital culture. Chapter 1, for David Greetham are in her analysis of multi- death in both peace- and wartime, as noted example, about Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, is modal textuality, or Ellen Gruber Garvey in by several contributors; the role of transient titled “(Re)Mediation (Literacy Rethought)”; her analysis of nineteenth-century “low pro- phenomena like Spiritualism, which Hegin- it focuses on Schoolcraft’s ability to bridge file” textual materiality, or indeed the many botham examines in tandem with “magical oral and literate traditions in her writings Dickinson critics who have picked their way transformation” in Fascicle 8. And still an- – and the consequences for her status as through these thickets before. other is to take Dickinson’s literary crushes an author that result from her choices of seriously: her immersion in a trans-Atlantic publication forms. Later chapters take up The book feels, overall, a bit rushed. Why poetic enterprise in which sentimental, ex- Sojourner Truth, Hannah Crafts, Augusta does Roland Barthes need to be our expert on perimental, and didactic elements co-existed, Jane Evans, and Mary Boykin Chesnut. These how “nineteenth-century viewers understood as suggested by essays by Bennett, Mitchell, writers present particular problems in terms of the relationship between the subject and its and Hart. American literary history and material history, photographic representation” (38)? Why are which can be addressed in part by seeing them the differences between the two versions of In short, if we are to learn how to read the through the lens of new media. Sojourner Truth’s famous speech barely ad- fascicles – not to mention the printed publica- dressed? Why is Matthew Kirschenbaum re- tions, letters, “scraps,” and everything in be- As I say, this is an ambitious book – brave ferred to twice as “Michael” Kirschenbaum? tween – we may need to read them in relation, but imperfect – which to my mind is much One rarely wants an academic book to be

36 | EDIS Bulletin longer and more footnoted, but in this case, I climbed the stairs where the poet met ily wrote – two words falling from a dying would have appreciated some more descrip- her death when one tourist lost it. She soul, like snowdrops at the foot of a cherry tion and exposition of the materials Rohrbach screamed that we disgusted her and that tree: ‘Called back.’” As these excerpts has unearthed so lovingly, and some more the tour was prurient, and ran from the show, Bobin’s writing is lyrical, somewhat research and care – on her part, and on the house spelling out “PRURIENT” at the cryptic, and a little over the top. It is also part of her reviewers and editors – in looping top of her lungs. dazzling. them in to historical and critical networks. I also think such a wonderfully interdisciplin- I share a bit of that tourist’s squeamish- Not to be outdazzled, Susan Snively ary book deserves a bibliography. ness. The relentless focus on Dickinson’s has written a narrative that is daring in a intimate life can make me impatient. But completely different way. Snively has But these are quibbles, really. I mention sometimes such attention pays off. In the published four books of poetry and is a these flaws so that you, when you read the past few months, a French essayist, an guide at the Emily Dickinson Museum. book, will be inoculated against them, and American poet, and a British screenwriter Although her book has a more conventional can spend your time savoring what it offers novelist have published creative works narrative structure, in some ways it is the instead. It will be a very good read for those about Dickinson. Although they are quite boldest of the works under consideration who want to see Dickinson’s work in the different from each other in style, all three here. context of a much more materially diverse books offer startlingly intimate views of and unruly nineteenth-century literary Dickinson. The Heart Has Many Doors imagines the culture than we are usually wont to engage, relationship between Emily Dickinson and and understand her place among a larger Christian Bobin is literary essayist and a Otis Phillips Lord, quoting liberally from sorority of American writers who chose not poet who won the Prix des Deux Magots some poems and letters that survive in the to tie their fortunes to establishment vehicles in 1992. He is often described as a recluse. archive, but also from others concocted by like the book. La Dame Blanche was published in France Snively herself, in the voices of the judge five years ago, to much acclaim, and the and the poet. She takes bold imaginative 2014 translation by Alison Anderson is liberties, but Snively’s sensibilities are in graceful. The Lady in White is a dreamy tune with Dickinson’s. Her novel is affect- Intimate Portraits and sometimes hauntingly beautiful ing, fresh, and passionate. meditation on Dickinson and death, as Christian Bobin well as a glancing account of her life. Both Snively’s dialogue and her interior The Lady in White. Translated by Alison Literary responses to Dickinson tend to monologue are pitch-perfect. When Dick- Anderson. Lincoln: University of Nebraska construct narratives that focus on sex and inson and her father are stranded on the Press, 2014. 80 pp. Paperback, 978-0-8032- sexuality. In contrast, Bobin’s evocative train from Boston during a snowstorm, 4565-5, $16.95. Published in France in 2007 writing jumps around in time, offering a they sleep close to each other, embracing: as La Dame Blanche. sequence more thematic than narrative. “Back and forth, half asleep, she crossed The modernist structure and the insistent, from world to world, home to elsewhere, Susan Snively almost prayerful focus on Dickinson’s nowhere, anywhere. Her mind was a boat, The Heart Has Many Doors: A Novel of Em- mortality work together to make the book a carriage, a train, a sled, a cradle a bed ily Dickinson. Amherst: White River Press, oddly refreshing, new. in a town by the sea, or a room guarded 2015. 273 pp. Paperback, 978-1-935052-69-2, by snowy hemlocks.” The scene and the $21. For Bobin, Dickinson is “the saint of the prose are Snively’s, but the sensibility is everyday.” On the first page, Emily dies. pure Dickinson. William Nicholson She turns “her face to the invisible sun; Amherst: A Novel. New York: Simon and for two years, it had been consuming her The recently knighted William Nicholson, Schuster, 2015. 287 pp. Cloth, 978-1-4767- soul as if it were frail incense paper. Death the British screenwriter of Shadowlands, 4040-9, $26. Published in England as The filled the entire room, all at once.” On the Mandela, and Gladiator (among others), Lovers of Amherst. last page, Bobin characterizes Dickinson is also a prolific novelist who has written as having “a heart so pure that a bee can books for adults and children. Amherst: A ast summer, this reviewer went on fly through it like a bullet, and nothing of Novel is the sixth book in a loosely con- La tour of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s the outside world can enter.” He describes nected series of contemporary novels: The house in upstate New York. We had just “the last of the hundred of letters that Em- Secret Intensity of Everyday Life (2009),

37 | EDIS Bulletin All the Hopeful Lovers (2010), The Gold- Briefly Noted Mallarmé, Stein, and – most of all – Wil- en Hour (2011), Motherland (2013), and liam Carlos Williams, who described Poe’s Reckless (2014). Nicholson writes, “These Damon Young writing as “itself ‘the New World’” (205). novels begin to get close to my deepest Voltaire’s Vine and Other Philosophies: ambition, which is to write truthfully about How Gardens Inspired Great Writers. Lon- Nancy McCabe our lives today” (WilliamNicholson.com/ don: Rider, 2014. Cloth, 9781846044175, From Little Houses to Little Women: Re- bio). It may surprise many readers that in £12.99. visiting a Literary Childhood. Columbia: order to write truthfully about our times, University of Missouri Press, 2014. 263 pp. Nicholson has turned to Dickinson; EDIS First published in Australia in 2012, Vol- Cloth, 978-0-8262-2044-8, $29.95. members may understand his impulse. taire’s Vine is an engaging general audi- ence book that offers brief meditations on Readers who are interested in Children’s Amherst offers parallel narratives. The the role that gardens played in the lives Literature (particularly classic girl’s books) framing narrative is from the point of of Jane Austen, Marcel Proust, Leonard and in author’s house museums might like view of a young British woman (coinci- Woolf, Friedrich Nietzsche, Colette, Jean- this account of Nancy McCabe’s travels dentally named Alice Dickinson) who Jacques Rousseau, George Orwell, Emily with her daughter to sites associated with visits Amherst to write a screenplay about Dickinson, Nikos Kazantzakis, Jean Paul Laura Ingalls Wilder, Maud Hart Lovelace, Austin and Mabel. The framed story Sartre, and, finally, Voltaire. Damon Young Louisa May Alcott, and Emily Dickinson. (which might be a novelistic version of describes gardens as “an invitation to phi- At times the book wanders a bit, which her screenplay) describes that nineteenth losophy,” and his vignettes are inviting in- can be frustrating (although it is certainly century love affair. In both narratives, deed. The Dickinson chapter is sandwiched appropriate to its subject). But the Dickin- Emily Dickinson is generally offstage, but between Orwell and Kazantzakis, and as it son chapter that concludes the book is far her presence looms large. The fictional Al- turns out, these juxtapositions work very and away the best. Both the author and her ice and her erstwhile lover, Nick Crocker, well. Dickinson’s “Acres of Perhaps” add daughter come alive on the pages that de- an extremely sexy quinquagenarian poetry dimension to this charming book. scribe visiting the Homestead and Dickin- professor in despair over his failures as a son’s grave. husband and a scholar, are most definitely Jerome McGann imagined as our exact contemporaries: The Poet Edgar Allan Poe: Alien Angel. Alfred Bendixen and Stephen Burt, Eds. they meet at Rao’s and drink the same Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Cambridge History of American Poetry. frothy coffee that so many Dickinsonians 2014. 241 pp. Cloth, 978-0-674-41666-6, New York: Cambridge University Press, have also drunk. But since the general $24.95. 2014. 1326 pp. Cloth, 978-1107003361, theme of the book is “Adultery in Am- $165. herst” (6), the protagonists don’t stop at Although Jerome McGann mentions Dick- blueberry muffins. inson only a few times, his study of Poe’s There are fifty essays in this hefty volume, poetics may prove useful and interesting to including “Emily Dickinson: The Poet- As it turns out, all three of these recent many Dickinson scholars. Poe’s “poetry re- ics and Practice of Autonomy” by Wendy books focus on Dickinson’s body and her mains to this day terra incognita for many Martin, which is a thoughtful introduction desires. Bobin offers an intimate medi- American scholars and teachers,” but Mc- to Dickinson. All of the contributors are tation on her life as viewed through her Gann puts this often ignored poetry (and the distinguished scholars, and the essays are death. Snively imagines her in the arms of marginalia and essays that Poe wrote about of high quality across the board. Essays by her father and her beloved family friend. poetics) into conversation with British Ro- Faith Barrett, Virginia Jackson, Mary Loef- Nicholson puts her outside the door, lis- manticism (from Coleridge to Swinburne), felholz, Cristanne Miller, and Eliza Rich- tening to her brother and his lover, feeding with the American Renaissance (represent- ards might be of particular interest to EDIS her poetic imagination. And yet I would ed by Emerson and Whitman), and with the members. If your library provides online not say that any of these accounts are moderns (American poets Stein, Eliot, and access (Cambridge Histories Online, http:// prurient. Dickinson is fair game – her po- Williams; French poets Baudelaire, Mallar- dx.doi.org/10.1017/CHO9780511762284) etry bares a soul and relentlessly inquires mé, and Valery). McGann argues that Poe’s this could be an invaluable teaching tool. about its connection to a body. It makes “Modern Idiom” challenges the “High Ro- If not, it may be worth getting hold of the sense that thoughtful writers might turn manticism” that has shaped American atti- book itself, since the essays are smart, reli- toward her when they want to write truth- tudes toward poetry and poetics for centu- able, and accessible, and the volume is quite fully about our lives today. ries. Ultimately, he agrees with Swinburne, comprehensive.

38 | EDIS Bulletin The Belle on Broadway: Joely Richardson Portrays Emily Dickinson

By Elizabeth Petrino

look at words as if they were entities, student, and we witness an unrequited from Dickinson’s early literary ambition I sacred beings,” pronounces Emily flirtation at a dance with James Francis to her resignation about publication is Dickinson in William Luce’s one- Bailey, for whose benefit she affects an nowhere better represented than in con- woman play, The Belle of Amherst. interest in cooking until his attention cluding lines of each act: whereas at the The play insists on this reverence for wanders (“It seems Mr. Billings found end of Act I she anticipates becoming words, stringing lines from Dickinson’s the pretty girl in yellow”). publicly known with Higginson’s sup- poems and letters together so that they The opening act also depicts her deep port (“He’s coming! He’s coming”), she sparkle with gem-like vividness and cast and intense relationship with her broth- resigns herself to a longer-lasting fame a bright light on the poet’s famously er, Austin, with whom she facetiously by the play’s end, affirming her con- enigmatic life. Some actors might shy compares numbers of valentines re- stancy and self-possession to her sister: away from this demanding role – but ceived; her witty comments during eve- “Vinnie, I’m here!” Joely Richardson, sister to Natasha nings reading from the newspaper to her Richardson and daughter of Vanessa sister, Lavinia; her fear of her father, Expertly acted and staged, the produc- Redgrave, was up to the challenge. Her from whom she hid the fact she could tion made the most of historical connec- performance in the Broadway revival of not tell time after he taught her; and her tions that would interest an avid reader The Belle of Amherst in New York City refusal to profess her willingness to be- of Dickinson. The Westside Theatre, in October and November 2014 was come a Christian during her training at located in the heart of Broadway near intelligent and packed with emotion. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. Her Times Square, itself has a significant family accommodated her brilliance and history: originally an 1890s Baptist Set in 1883, when the poet was fifty- promise, as evidenced by her father’s Church, the structure was converted into three years old, the play dramatizes special dispensation that she might write a theater and, briefly, a discotheque, be- Dickinson’s life and captures many of at night, after she reads him several of fore it became the original home of Eve the most affecting moments of her youth her poems (“Cancel the rule for me? Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues. The and adulthood. Rather than imagine a Then I can sleep late in the morning. left-side of the stage portrayed a view quirky recluse, Luce envisions a nor- Oh, thank you, Father!”). Ecstatically, of Dickinson’s bedroom with a small mal child whose teenage years were full she anticipates a long-awaited visit from writing table, chimney lamp, and trunk of promise and rebellion. In his intro- Thomas Wentworth Higginson, her cor- that contained her poems; on the oppo- duction, Luce, who specializes in one- respondent, who she hopes will publish site side, a living room appeared with person plays (including Lillian [1986] her poems (“Face to face at last! Now a bookshelf, framed photographs, and about the life of Lillian Hellman and – now we can accomplish something!”). a tea table, set for visitors, while in the Barrymore [1996] which starred Chris- background three full-length windows topher Plummer as John Barrymore), Luce envisions a brilliant poet who and a set of French doors were visible. writes that The Belle reveals “a love af- wanted desperately to publish but wrote Visitors to the Emily Dickinson Museum fair with language, a celebration of all for a generation tone-deaf to her ex- might have recognized a replica of the that is beautiful and poignant in life.” perimental verse. The inevitable disap- Franklin stove, and the wallpaper – light Those familiar with Dickinson’s life pointment follows – Higginson offers a blue with large flowers and gold and ol- will revel in the scenes of real and imag- lukewarm response and some tentative ive branches – suggested the paper re- ined encounters with friends and ac- criticism, and she sobers up about her cently discovered in the poet’s bedroom. quaintances – we hear of her adoration future prospects as a writer, declaiming: for Shakespeare and her refusal to cross “A great Hope fell / You heard no noise Tall and slender, Joely Richardson dif- out the “questionable” passages while a / The Ruin was within.” The evolution fers from Dickinson’s description of

39 | EDIS Bulletin herself as “small, like goes dark and lightning flashes. the wren,” yet, as Rich- Overcome with emotion, she re- ardson commented after cites lines from a series of poems, the performance, voice including “A Wife – at Daybreak – and gesture can convey I shall be – ”: “Eternity – I’m com- much more about a char- ing – Sir – / Master – I’ve seen the acter than mere physical Face – before – ” (Fr185). resemblance. (A brief clip of her performance is Richardson’s compelling perfor- available on the New York mance moved the audience to Times website at http:// understand both the enormous nyti.ms/1sUzwe9.) sacrifice and the freedom of Dick- inson’s life. For those willing to American audiences may sample literary fare in the theater, know the British actor The Belle of Amherst turns out to from her performances in photo Credit: Carol Rosegg be a surprisingly gratifying treat. films, produced both in Future productions will continue the UK and US, including Joely Richardson as Emily Dickinson in the Westside Theatre to fascinate audiences and keep Peter Greenaway’s clas- production of The Belle of Amherst them contemplating Dickinson’s sic cult film Drowning words for years to come. by Numbers (1988) and Mel Gibson’s on a trunk, fanned herself demurely, and The Patriot (2000), as well as television balanced a book on her head, among Elizabeth Petrino teaches courses in nine- (she performed for five seasons on the other gestures – in short, she made the teenth-century and early American litera- series Nip/Tuck, for which she was nomi- performance physically varied and ture at Fairfield University in Connecticut. nated twice for a Golden Globe Award). intriguing. She is the author of Emily Dickinson and Although The Belle of Amherst is a far Her Contemporaries: Women’s Verse in cry from Nip/Tuck, perhaps it was even Overall, the play disrupted familiar ideas America, 1820-1885, and she is Member- more of a challenge for Richardson to about the reasons for Dickinson’s isola- ship Chair of EDIS. disassociate the role from Julie Har- tion in order to pack an emotional wal- ris, who originated it in 1976. Richard- lop: In one key scene, Dickinson recalls son said that she avoided watching the hearing Charles Wadsworth, a widely available filmed version of The Presbyterian minister whom Belle performed by Harris (for whom Luce believes was the “Mas- Setting Out Luce wrote the play and who won a Tony ter” of her letters, preach while by George Monteiro Award for her portrayal). She also avoid- in Philadelphia; in another she ed reading biographies, choosing to read almost decides to run off with Dickinson’s letters instead, in order to another lover, but after Vin- Mornings, before starting down to develop her own perspective. “Her love nie responds by running to the her day, she salted the pocket of her affair was with her mind,” Richardson Evergreens “like a raving lu- clean apron with a pencil stub and said. “She was childlike and a part of her natic,” Dickinson touchingly a scrap of paper, folded once – so didn’t want to grow up.” resolves to stay with her sister (“Everyone is somewhere, but that she need not search about for Richardson’s intense, often ebullient Emily. Emily is here. Always the wherewithal to squirrel away a portrayal of Dickinson was surprisingly here.”). Perhaps the most pow- sudden thought or secure a singular affecting. She balanced the acute erful moment occurs toward word, as she played at domesticity. intelligence and striking observations the end of the play during her of the mature poet with a fey, childlike recounting of the death of her demeanor. Moving around on the stage, eight-year old nephew, Gil- Sept. 22, 2013 she projected her arms in mid-air, stood bert. In the last scene, the room

40 | EDIS Bulletin Dickinson in Her Elements: Annual Meeting 2015

he Emily Dickinson International Society will hold its 2015 annual meeting in Amherst, from August 7 – 9. The meeting will feature Tworkshops focusing on poems that address aspects of the four elements, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire, and, during the discussion, coor- dinators for the workshops, including Antoine Cazé, Stephanie Farrar, James Guthrie, Ellen Hart, Eleanor Heginbotham, Lois Kackley, Dan Manheim, and Elizabeth Petrino, will welcome connections to other poems from the participants for collaborative discussion. There will also be special activities associated with the elements: gardening and archeology for Earth; Lake Hitchcock for Water; apiology and meteorology for Air; and protection of authors’ homes for Fire. Participants will also be offered the opportunity to enjoy musical enter- tainment provided by Red Sky Music Ensemble; hikes along Amherst’s literary trails; a visit to the Amherst College Wilder Observatory; and tarot readings by poet Dana Weir. Online registration is accessible from the EDIS website.

The program will center in three plenary addresses by Marta Werner, author of Emily Dickinson’s Open Folios: Scenes of Reading, Surfaces of Writing and editor of Radi- cal Scatters: An Electronic Archive of Emily Dickinson’s Late Fragments; Cody Marrs, whose book Nineteenth- Century American Literature and the Long Civil War is mere weeks from publication, and Michelle Kohler, author of Miles of Stare: Transcendentalism and the Problem of From left: Marta Werner, Cody Marrs, Michelle Kohler Literary Vision in Nineteenth-Century America.

Critical Institute

Running concomitantly with the general program, there will once again be a Critical Institute. The Institute will be made up of scholars discussing the Elements of Dickinson in six groups: Sociality and Communication, led by Alex Socarides; War and Death, led by Eliza Richards; Inspiration and Atmosphere, led by Mary Loeffelholz; Scale and the Scientific Imagination, led by Karen Sanchez-Eppler; Thinking/Being, led by Christopher Benfey; and Ecology and Nature, led by Michelle Kohler. At the Critical Institute sessions, 31 scholars will have the opportunity to share their projects in progress with group leaders and with four or five others working on related material, all with a view to enhancing their – and their ultimate readers’ – understanding of Emily Dickinson in her Elements.

Cake is the Thing with Frosting And sweetness – in the mouth – is loved – And stern must be the scale – By Felicia Nimue Ackerman That shows you how your fleeting bliss Is followed by travail – Cake is the thing with frosting – That perches on the plate – I’ve seen my weight go creeping up – And fills your heart with joy until – Whene’er I have a spree -– You think about – your weight – The scale in its severity Is merciless – to me.

EDIS Members are invited to endow a named award. All it takes is a gift of $1000 to the Society!

41 | EDIS Bulletin Emily Dickinson Program at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, July 17-19

ome explore Emily Dickinson’s passions as poet, gardener, and cook July 17 – 19, 2015 in Amherst. Beginning Friday afternoon and concluding Sunday morning there will be a Cprogram devoted to the life and works of one of America’s greatest poets. Offered as a fundraiser by the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, the program also includes private tours of The Homestead and The Evergreens (home of Dickinson’s brother Austin and his wife Susan); visits to the poet’s gardens and grave; a trolley tour of Dickinson landmarks; poetry discussions and readings; musical performances; and visits to local Dickinson collections.

The program fee of $400 per person includes all admissions, tours and activities, refreshments and four meals. It does not include transportation to Amherst or lodgings. Optional lodg- ing is available for $75 per person per night in the homes of members of the UU Society.

Marta McDowell, landscape historian, garden writer, and author of Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, will present “Would You Like Summer?” – a discussion of the fruits and vegetables that graced the poet’s garden and table. On Saturday, she will discuss the basic techniques for mounting herbarium specimens and creating flower-decorated cards.

Aífe Murray is the author of Maid as Muse: How Servants Changed Emily Dickinson’s Life and Language. In “Taste Of Ours!” she will lead participants in making Dickinson family recipes while she describes some of the baking challenges of the poet’s 19th century kitchen, the role played by household chores in Dickinson’s literary process, and how baking served as literary inspiration. The morning’s culinary treats will be tasted at a Victorian tea that afternoon over a discussion of Dickinson’s poetry.

Jane Wald, Executive Director of The Emily Dickinson Museum, will present, as part of the UU Sunday morning service,“‘I am glad there are Books. They are better than Heaven:’ What did the Dickinsons Really Read?” Dickinson refused to become a full member of her family’s church and called herself a “pagan,” but she knew the Bible backwards and for- wards and often spoke of faith in her poetry. An examination of her family’s libraries can cast more light on Dickinson’s personal theological explorations in the context of 19th century religious movements.

Contact: Janis S. Gray, Coordinator, 413-259-1584; [email protected]. For more information, visit http://www.uusocietyamherst.org/EmilyDickinsonEducationalWeekend.aspx, email [email protected], phone 413-253-2848 or write to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst, P.O. Box 502, Amherst MA 01004-0502

EDIS Membership Form Membership in the Emily Dickinson International Society (EDIS) enables you to participate in the Society’s meetings and conferences, to receive both of the Society’s publications (the Bulletin and the Emily Dickinson Journal), and to help foster the goals of the Society. Name, title & affiliation ______Mailing address ______Telephone (home)______(office) ______(fax) ______Email ______Please check if this is: new address___ membership renewal ___

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42 | EDIS Bulletin “PERIODS OF PAIN”: EMILY DICKINSON AND LYDIA E. PINKHAM By George Monteiro

pparently Emily Dickinson’s first edi- to associate the poet’s use of the phrase “pe- Ators, Thomas Wentworth Higginson riods of pain” with menstruation, but the and Mabel Loomis Todd, thought highly of anonymous adman for Lydia E. Pinkham, the poem, for under the title “The Mystery whether or not he got the idea from Dickin- of Pain” (added editorially) they chose to son’s poem, deserves credit for first making include it in Poems (1890), the first of the the connection in print. three volumes of Dickinson’s poetry pub- lished posthumously in the 1890s. The example at right, taken from page 2 of the Grand Rapids Herald for March 11, Pain has an element of blank; 1898, is typical of the Lydia E. Pinkham ads. It cannot recollect When it began, or if there were It probably will never be proven, but I would A day when it was not. like to think that the author of this ad was a reader of Emily Dickinson’s poetry who was It has no future but itself, not above putting her words to use in selling Its infinite realms contain the product. Its past, enlightened to perceive New periods of pain. Notes

Among the commentaries on this poem is Poems (1890 – 1896) by Emily Dickinson, ed. Clark Griffith’s interpretation in 1964 that George Monteiro (Gainesville, Florida: Schol- Dickinson’s veiled reference to menstrua- ars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1967), p. 33. tion in the last line ties in to her larger and Clark Griffith, The Long Shadow: Emily Dick- deeper vision of human experience as “the inson’s Tragic Poetry (Princeton, NJ: Princeton vision of a recurring hell.” Griffith contin- University Press, 1964), pp. 293-94. ues: “This is her unique subject: the por- trayals of New Periods – of Pain. And we “Eight Years of Torture,” Alexandria Gazette need only look at the subject, and at the and Virginia Advertiser (Jan. 9, 1872), p. 2; way she habitually structures it, to see that “The Ills of the Flesh,” New York Herald (Feb. it conforms exactly to the preparation, the 11, 1878), p. 2; and “Scattering Shots,” Bis- fact, the release, and the new preparation marck Daily Tribune (Mar. 11, 1887), p. 2. which are the basic stages of the menstrual “Periods of Pain,” Philadelphia Inquirer (Mar. cycle.” 12, 1898), p. 13; (June 4, 1898), p. 13; “Periods of Pain,” Kansas City Star (June 2, 1898), p. So, to cut to the chase, I thought it might be struation. In the 1890s, several years after 2; (Sept. 27, 1898), p. 8; Tacoma Daily News useful to look into the usage of the phrase Dickinson’s poem was published, it was (June 2, 1898), p. 6; “Periods of Pain,” New- “periods of pain” in her time. Search-en- another matter. The phrase began to appear England Homestead, 37 (July 30, 1898), 117, gines have made it feasible to search for the in advertisements. Someone writing ads for and 38 (Feb. 11, 1899), l87; Biloxi Herald (Aug. phrase in the pages of a significantly large Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound 20, 1898), p. 2; Duluth News Tribune (Oct. 14, number of nineteenth-century newspapers picked up the phrase and associated it with 1898), p. 2; Grand Forks Herald (Jan. 6, 1899), p. 2; San Antonio Express (Jan. 7, 1899), p. 3; and journals from across the country. The menstruation. Versions of these ads ap- (Columbia, South Carolina) The State (Jan. 7, three appearances of the phrase “periods peared in newspapers throughout the United 1899), p. 3; (Georgia) Macon Weekly Telegraph of pain” before 1890 referred to the physi- States – Massachusetts, New York, Pennsyl- (Mar. 14, 1899), p. 5; “Backache and Despon- cal pain of men, including Prince Leopold. vania, Minnesota, Missouri, South Carolina, dency,” Boston Daily Globe (Feb. 4, 1907), p. There was no connection of the phrase with Georgia, Texas, and Washington. Griffith 12; and (Georgia) Columbus Daily Enquirer women in these instances, let alone to men- may have been the first Dickinson scholar (May 25, 1907), p. 2.

43 | EDIS Bulletin 84                      glim - mers flits glim- mers proves dis- solves proves dis -                        solves flits glim- mers proves dis- solves flits glim-mers proves dis - mp                         'Tis this in- vites ap- palls en- dows flits glim- mers proves dis -  mp                       'Tis this in- vites ap- palls en- dows flits glim- mers dis -                                                                      

84 91 mf                                                        glim- mers flits glim- mers proves dis- solves proves dis - solves Re- turns Re- turns sug- gests con- victs en- mf                                    solves flits glim- mers proves dis- solves flits glim-mers proves dis -     mp solves Re - turns re- turns sug- gests con- victs, con- victs en -        mf                                         'Tis this in- vites ap- palls en- dows flits glim- mers proves dis -  mp  solves Re - turns Re- turns sug- gests con - mf                                            'Tis this in- vites ap- palls en- dows flits glim- mers dis -  solves Re - turns re- turns sug- gests re- turns con- victs en -                                                                                         mf` sim.                                                91 30 mf                                solves Re- turns Re- turns sug- gests con- victs en- Thismf - was different - ‘Twas Translation - Of all tunes I knew - and more -                  solves Re - turns re- turns sug- gests con- victs, con- victs en - mf                         solves Re - turns Re- turns sug- gests con - mf                       solves Re - turns re- turns sug- gests re- turns con- victs en -

      

                            mf` sim.                               30

Above, from Alice Parker’s setting of “The Love a Life can show Below,” (Fr285) Below, from Michael Conley’s “Farewell,” a setting of “Tie the strings to my Life, My Lord” (Fr338)

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44 | EDIS Bulletin