From: LouisFors <LouisFors@aol.com>
Message-ID: <683660a0.355d9827@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 09:44:06 EDT
To: emweb@fmgmt.mgmt.utoronto.ca
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Subject: Poem 443 and the word "bomb"
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Before I posted my sense of # 443, I looked up "bomb" in Webster's 1828.  The
Dickinsons had the 1848 version, as I recall, but I don't have that one.  I
don't think it makes much difference in the postings about #443 that have been
made, but here's what "bomb" meant in 1828.

"A great noise"

"1. A large shell of cast iron, round and hollow, with a vent to receive a
fusee...the bomb is thrown from a mortar...[and] bursts with great violence
and often with terrible effect."

"2.  The stroke upon a bell."

I went in my thinking with "bomb" as we know it today.  But "a great noise"
might be more appropriate for a poet.  In either event she had something
powerful.

Louis Forsdale