Return to Main Page Johnson version Manuscript transcription
Thomas Johnson published the "definitive" version of the poem in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. Johnson restores the correct stanzas, dashes and the original word choice. And, in his Variorum edition, he also notes the potential alterations that Dickinson provides. Johnson does make a couple of his own alternations to the manuscript, though. Most significantly, he numbered the poem "569" and took it out of its original context in Fascicle 28. The other poems in that Fascicle seem to share a common skepticism towards the potential of religious and poetic experience, and Johnson's reordering elides this (see notes on "Manuscript"). |
569 |
I reckon - when I count At all - First - Poets - Then the Sun - Then Summer - Then the Heaven of God - And then - the List is done- But - looking back - the First so seems To Comprehend the Whole - The Others look a needless Show - So I write - Poets - All - Their Summer - lasts a Solid Year - They can afford a Sun The East - would deem Extravagant - And if the Further Heaven - Be Beautiful as they prepare For Those who worship Them - It is too difficult a Grace - To justify the Dream - |