EMILY DICKINSON HAD THE WORST TASTE IN MEN
by Katha Pollitt
Page 2
And so on. Well, ah, the thing that is really amazing, and Richard Sewall who has written this, you know, 800 page biography just sort of falls to his knees in the mystery of this. He says one of the mysteries of Emily Dickinson from our point of view is how she could enjoy such stuff and yet write the way she did. Because the fact was, Emily Dickinson really liked these poems and at the same time as she was reading Shakespeare and the Bible and having a very serious relationship with literature, including many of, much of the contemporary literature of her own time. She would read The Springfield Republican and think, "Oh I really like that." I just don't understand this at all. I've wanted to, I thought it would be interesting to see two of her poems about death--which is, as you know, a big subject for her and for a lot of her contemporaries--against the background of this kind of poetry. This was one that The Springfield Republican did publish, although in a sort of conventionalized form--they gave it a little title, they fixed up the punctuation, they changed some of the language, too. And it's called "Safe in their Alabaster Chambers."
Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -
Untouched by Morning
And untouched by Noon -
Sleep the meek members of the Resurrection -
Rafter of satin,
And Roof of stone.
Light laughs the breeze
In her Castle above them -
Babbles the Bee in a stolid Ear,
Pipe the Sweet Birds in ignorant cadende -
Ah, what sagacity perished here!
Safe in their Alabaster Chambers -
Untouched by Morning -
And untouched by Noon -
Lie the meek members of the Resurrection -
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 - surrender -
Soundless as dots - on a Disc of Snow -
(JP 216)
