TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
As is well documented, Emily Dickinson's poems were edited in theseearly editions by her friends, better to fit the conventions of thetimes. In particular, her dashes, often small enough to appearas dots, became commas and semi-colons.
In the second series of poems published, a facsimile of herhandwritten poem which her editors titled "Renunciation" is given,and comparing this to the printed version gives a flavor of thechanges made in these early editions.
—-JT
Edited by two of her friends
MABEL LOOMIS TODD and T.W. HIGGINSON
PREFACE.
The verses of Emily Dickinson belong emphatically to what Emersonlong since called "the Poetry of the Portfolio,"—something producedabsolutely without the thought of publication, and solely by way ofexpression of the writer's own mind. Such verse must inevitablyforfeit whatever advantage lies in the discipline of public criticismand the enforced conformity to accepted ways. On the other hand, itmay often gain something through the habit of freedom and theunconventional utterance of daring thoughts. In the case of thepresent author, there was absolutely no choice in the matter; shemust write thus, or not at all. A recluse by temperament and habit,literally spending years without setting her foot beyond thedoorstep, and many more years during which her walks were strictlylimited to her father's grounds, she habitually concealed her mind,like her person, from all but a very few friends; and it was withgreat difficulty that she was persuaded to print, during herlifetime, three or four poems. Yet she wrote verses in greatabundance; and though brought curiously indifferent to allconventional rules, had yet a rigorous literary standard of her own,and often altered a word many times to suit an ear which had its owntenacious fastidiousness.
Miss Dickinson was born in Amherst, Mass., Dec. 10, 1830, and diedthere May 15, 1886. Her father, Hon. Edward Dickinson, was theleading lawyer of Amherst, and was treasurer of the well-knowncollege there situated. It was his custom once a year to hold a largereception at his house, attended by all the families connected withthe institution and by the leading people of the town. On theseoccasions his daughter Emily emerged from her wonted retirement anddid her part as gracious hostess; nor would any one have known fromher manner, I have been told, that this was not a daily occurrence.The annual occasion once past, she withdrew again into her seclusion,and except for a very few friends was as invisible to the world as ifshe had dwelt in a nunnery. For myself, although I had correspondedwith her for many years, I saw her but twice face to face, andbrought away the impression of something as unique and remote asUndine or Mignon or Thekla.
This selection from her poems is published to meet the desire of herpersonal friends, and especially of her surviving sister. It isbelieved that the thoughtful reader will find in these pages aquality more suggestive of the poetry of William Blake than ofanything to be elsewhere found,—flashes of wholly original andprofound insight into nature a