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  #1  
Unread 03-02-2021, 07:28 PM
Tim McGrath Tim McGrath is offline
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Default Emily Dickinson at her finest

We like March, his shoes are purple,
He is new and high;
Makes he mud for dog and peddler,
Makes the forest dry;
Knows the adder’s tongue his coming,
And begets her spot.
Stands the sun so close and mighty
That our minds are hot.
News is he of all the others;
Bold it were to die
With the blue-birds buccaneering
In his British sky.
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  #2  
Unread 03-03-2021, 12:03 PM
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RCL RCL is offline
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Thanks, Tim. It’s a lovely tribute to March. I prefer it as she wrote it:

We like March - his Shoes are Purple,
He is new and high -
Makes he Mud for Dog and Peddler,
Makes the Forest dry –

Knows the Adder’s Tongue his coming
And begets her Spot.
Stands the Sun so close and mighty
That our Minds are hot.

News is he of all the others -
Bold it were to die
With the Blue Birds buccaneering
On his British Sky –

Franklin 1194

The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition
by Emily Dickinson and R. W. Franklin | Oct 28, 2005
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Last edited by RCL; 03-03-2021 at 12:20 PM.
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Unread 03-03-2021, 11:44 PM
Tim McGrath Tim McGrath is offline
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Hi RC--

I lifted it from Bartleby's, which subtracts the dashes and the capitalizations and deletes the space between the stanzas. I know I'm in the minority here, but I think that few poets of equal stature were more in need of an editor than Emily Dickinson. But in the this case the poem's brilliance is hardly dimmed in either version. As you say, it's a lovely tribute to March, "With the blue birds buccaneering/In his British sky," a line so characteristic of her at her exuberant best.
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Unread 03-04-2021, 09:04 AM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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Here are two manuscript versions, which are about as "as she wrote it" as you can get.

Version 1 (link is to Page 1, use arrows to see verso and Page 2 + verso)
[S2L1 "Adder tongue", S3L3 "exercising"]

Version 2 (Page 2 only, no image available for Page 1)
[S3L3 "buccaneering"]

Here's Todd's "fair copy" version:

Fair copy (Page 1 of 1)
[S2L1 "Adders tongue", S3L3 "buccaneering"]

Last edited by Julie Steiner; 03-04-2021 at 02:40 PM.
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Unread 03-04-2021, 11:38 AM
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RCL RCL is offline
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Tim, Bartleby's, as much as I love it, shouldn't do that. Especially since the white spaces between stanzas are structural and parts of a poem's meaning. But I guess they "prefer not to" leave well enough alone.

Added: The spaces are also a mnemonic since the quatrain is by miles the most frequent and remembered poetic form (ask any kid repeating rhymes).
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Last edited by RCL; 03-04-2021 at 12:00 PM.
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Unread 03-04-2021, 12:13 PM
John Riley John Riley is offline
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I very much don't like the edited versions of her work. I have the Franklin and can read the Johnson but that is it. I hate everything that attempts to smooth out her work. The whole Belle of Amherst BS.
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