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Date:         Mon, 16 Mar 1998 13:51:52 -0600
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From: Tim Morris <tmorris@UTARLG.UTA.EDU>
Subject:      Re: "row" #216 (fwd)
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:09:43 -0500 (EST)
From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
To: DICKNSON@LISTSERV.UTA.EDU
Subject: Re: "row" #216 (fwd)

In a message dated 98-03-16 08:21:04 EST, Vibeke wrote:

>
>  I am a Danish reader of Emily Dickinson and I am particularly interested in
> translation of poetry.
>
>  In The Explicator Cyclopedia ( vol.I Modern Poetry)  Mother Angela Carson,
O.
> S.U. College of New Rochell ( vol XVII, no 9 1959) writes: "The use of an
> archaic term, "row", accounts for the obscurity of the entire line; "row" is
> a verb (archaic; NED) which means to cast light downward.
>   I have never heard of this meaning of the verb. I have looked it up in all
> dictionaries available to me - including the edition of Noah Webster that
E.D.
>  used.
>  Can anyone from the discussion list help me?
>
>  Vibeke.

First, # 216:

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers --
Untouched by Morning --
And untouched by Noon --
Lie the meek members of the Resurrectrion --
Rafter of Satin -- and Roof of Stone!

Grand go the Years -- in the Crescent -- above them --
Worlds scoop their Arcs --
And Firmaments -- row --
Diadems -- drop -- and Doges -- surrrender --
Soundless as dots -- on a Disc of Snow --

One possibility about "row" is that Dickinson means that the firmaments (in
plural)
move by in stately fashion--akin to rowing a boat.  The second stanza begins
"Grand go the Years", further suggesting the appropriateness of "row" as a
kind of motion that firmaments might make.

Louis Forsdale


>