Received: from imo14.mx.aol.com (imo14.mx.aol.com [198.81.17.4]) by mw4.texas.net (2.4/2.4) with ESMTP id PAA05756 for ; Sun, 21 Jun 1998 15:34:34 -0500 (CDT) From: EmMail1@aol.com Received: from EmMail1@aol.com by imo14.mx.aol.com (IMOv14_b1.1) id UIQHa13456; Sun, 21 Jun 1998 16:11:29 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: <3c62039c.358d68f3@aol.com> Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 16:11:29 EDT To: agaylard@fs2.gordontafe.edu.au, alyxmac@senet.com.au, ARIZONANC@aol.com, basir@brain.net.pk, Bernie2@pacbell.net, Blake@clubi.ie, bonniep@netvigator.com, Breezdancr@aol.com, brifrost@geocities.com, BRuthNic@aol.com, bwsimmons@juno.com, Cally59@aol.com, Capurchino@aol.com, cfredrikson@yahoo.com, christina.hoidn@stud.uni-regensburg.de, Chukchi1@aol.com, Ck0227@aol.com, clareofassisi@hotmail.com, coyote@email.gcn.net.tw, dand@oxy.edu, DaveMiller@aol.com, Desire666@aol.com, dthomas@stic.lib.tx.us, Dpcarney@aol.com, edhensley@earthlink.net, Edorset@aol.com, egerlach@bayflash.stpt.usf.edu, Eg1000@aol.com, elfin@ptd.net, Emily2D@aol.com, EmilyD1037@aol.com, EMOP22@aol.com, fergy4@hotmail.com, fg032@lennon.csufresno.edu, fmmurphy@unicom.net, haiku@singnet.com.sg, hathjh@essex.ac.uk, hbeng094@email.csun.edu, Heaverem@aol.com, HeptarchOn@aol.com, hufferm@iag.net, imago@netcomuk.co.uk, JBower@whc.net, jbrai@hotmail.com, jfernandez@norconsult.es, JGEMINI@aol.com, jheid@trinity.edu, jimreed@pdq.net, jmaples@hotmail.com, jpgustaf@facstaff.wisc.edu, JRoze@aol.com, jsapan@dnai.com, KARISA109@aol.com, KDE1981@aol.com, kikw@river.it.gvsu.edu, kit@castles.com, ksel4052@uriacc.uri.edu, langdell@cco.caltech.edu, lawagner@mindspring.com, ljordan@prysm.com, LouisFors@aol.com, LynleeD@aol.com, Maddav99x@aol.com, Margaret_H._Freeman@laccd.cc.ca.us, Martha_Nell_SMITH@umail.umd.edu, marycornelltaradash@worldnet.att.net, MARY_OLSTAD@mail.vcsu.nodak.edu, mdeck@cnxlol.com, MechV@aol.com, MICKIMBALL@aol.com, millerd@crius.faytech.cc.nc.us, MSELSASSER@aol.com, MSmith@brynmawr.edu, MTownsend1@aol.com, Mugendy@aol.com, munshi@atcon.com, natalieaed@webtv.net, Nogloe@aol.com, odonogc@stjohns.edu, oliver.kamm@virgin.net, PareoR@aol.com, paul@populus.net, Pearl77Jam@aol.com, Pinkertin@aol.com, Plulijo@aol.com, pnelson@goodnet.com, poetnic@yahoo.com, poetrybug@juno.com, pridgen@texas.net, Rach731@aol.com, rachel@pressenter.com, RemyLipert@aol.com, RISHI42@aol.com, rollial@earlham.edu, Ryster1878@aol.com, s9522174@student.let.uva.nl, schloss@mail.com, simpkins@stolaf.edu, sjones@cablenet-va.com, SokrKixx@aol.com, spritch@gladstone.uoregon.edu, SSILVA@erols.com, Sunayo@aol.com, Sunflow899@aol.com, SunshineTn@aol.com, superfag@pacificnet.net, Tacitus33@aol.com, thekman@earthlink.net, TheoDeppe@aol.com, tjag@kconline.com, tmorris@utarlg.uta.edu, vangogh123@hotmail.com, virgogirl143@hotmail.com, WICH@rumms.uni-mannheim.de, WWQUINTET@aol.com, YesPandora@aol.com, ZoeNJ@aol.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: Fwd: #472 or #473 I am ashamed - I hide - X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 38 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="part0_898459890_boundary" X-UIDL: 8c3dc447bb94459534e1f48e704b6929 This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --part0_898459890_boundary Content-ID: <0_898459890@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1> Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII --part0_898459890_boundary Content-ID: <0_898459890@inet_out.mail.aol.com.2> Content-type: message/rfc822 Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Content-disposition: inline From: LouisFors@aol.com Return-path: To: EmMail1@aol.com Subject: #472 or #473 I am ashamed - I hide - Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 15:05:45 EDT Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit Maggie wrote about the question of differing versions of the poem: > # 472 > > I am ashamed - I hide - > What right have I - to be a Bride - > So late a Dowerless Girl - > Nowhere to hide my dazzled Face - > No one to teach me that new Grace - > Nor introduce - my Soul - > > Me to adorn - How - tell - > Trinket - to make Me beautiful - > Fabrics of Cashmere - > Never a Gown of Dun - more - > Raiment instead - of Pompadour - > For Me - My soul - to wear - > > Fingers - to frame my Round Hair > Oval - as Feudal Ladies wore - > Far Fashions - Fair - > Skill - to hold my Brow like an Earl - > Plead - like a Whippoorwill - > Prove - like a Pearl - > Then, for Character - > > Except the Heaven had come so near - > So seemed to choose My Door - > The Distance would not haunt me so - > I had not hoped - before - > > But just to hear the Grace depart - > I never thought to see - > Afflicts me with a Double loss - > 'Tis lost - And lost to me - > > # 473 > > Fashion My Spirit quaint - white - > Quick - like a Liquor - > Gay - like Light - > Bring Me my best Pride - > No more ashamed - > No more to hide - > Meek - let it be -too proud - for Pride - > Baptized - this Day - A Bride - > > Louis writes: > > > I was writing an interpretation of the poem you posted, and, when I > went > >to check my spelling in the poem (having misplaced your post), I looked in > >Johnson and found somewhat different poem. I'm supplying that version, and > >wonder if you have a text that supplied an earlier version which ED later > >changed to the following. > >It's fun seeing two versions, but could you check and see which finally > ended > >up in Johnson's Complete Poems. > > Louis, this is very strange indeed! I've checked, and though the stanza you > assume to be the last stanza in 472 does continue the line of thought of > 472, it's numbered in my Johnson as a different poem: numbered 473. > However, the number is at the foot of the page, just above the page number, > and I confess I didn't notice that when typing out number 473. It's a > little mystery - there's a rhyme scheme similar to the number 472 rhyme > scheme, and anyone reading on (ignoring the number 473) would automatically > take it to be a final stanza of 472, and of course the poem ends, in this > case, on a completely different note. Yet it does seem an afterthought, and > in some subtle way doesn't quite fit the mood of what's gone before. I > wonder if it was written more or less at the same time or written at a > later time and intended to be a separate poem, a sequel to number 472. > Perhaps Emily recognized that the line, ''Tis lost - And lost to me -' was > artistically the right ending but then she couldn't leave it at that > without the affirmative reply from the self who was triumphantly 'Baptized > - this Day - a Bride -', whether in imagination or in a more real way in > her own life. I really need further comments on this... look forward to > hearing them. > > Maggie Maggie and other friends: The issue of my Thomas Johnson's Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson is a paperback published in 1961, based on a hardback of 1960. In this book #472 is as follows: Except the Heaven had come so near - So seemed to choose My Door - The distance would not haunt me so - I had not hoped - before - Just just to hear the Grace depart - I never thought to see - Afflicts me with a Double loss - 'Tis lost - And lost to me - #473 in my book begins with "I am ashamed - I hide -"/ and ends with "Baptized - this Day and Bride --" I'm sorry to send all this information since it apparently has only to do with an editing problem. Either rendition makes sense, although the ending in the #473 in my book, as Tina and Maggie point out, is a massive dramatic change in tone from the other version. I'm not sure how we should proceed. It's a fascinating poem in either version, but the two different poems are quite different in meaning: one ends up, as others have said, as depressing, the other ends up on as big an upbeat as one could imagine. Maybe others who have Johnson could simply indicate which version is printed in their volume. That might help us decide which one to analyze. 'Tis a puzzlement. Louis > --part0_898459890_boundary--