From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-ID: <3ce2e551.3538e79e@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 13:49:15 EDT
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Subject: ED's non-titling
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Friends:

I've picked up an interesting article from The Emily Dickinson Journal titled
"Why Dickinson Didn't Title," by John Mulvhill (Volume V.1 1996).  I haven't
been able to access the journal archives online for many days now, so I can't
tell you how to get there at the moment.

Mulvill quotes Johnson in Appendix 8 of his variorum edition of The Poems of
Emily Dickinson:

     Emily Dickinson herself gave titles to twenty four poems; twenty-one
     are for poems which she sent to friends, three are for poems in the
packets.
     In every instance but two, among the twenty-one for poems sent to
friends, 
     the title is supplied in the letter accompanying the poem, not on the
copy
     of the poem itself.  The exceptions are nos. 15 and 227.

If I read properly, # 15 and # 227 had titles provided by ED.  When I look up
both in Johnson complete poems, there are no titles.  I assume, therefore,
that Johnson elected not to title these two poems.  If that is correct, does
anybody know why? (That is, why Johnson didn't include ED's titles with these
two poems.)  And, does anybody have a variorium edition who could check
Appendix 8 and discover what titles ED gave to # 15 and # 227?  

The whole question of why ED did not title is fascinating, and, I gather, has
elicited a good deal of scholarly discussion.  

Best to all,

Louis Forsdale