White Heat - Part 16
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Part 16

"How enviable their fame!" "What man has done": EdD to END, July 12, 1826, quoted in Pollak, A Poet's Parents, A Poet's Parents, p. 29; see also p. 54 of that work. Pollak rightly points out that Edward d.i.c.kinson is quoting Edward Young's "Night Thoughts" Emily will later do so as well. p. 29; see also p. 54 of that work. Pollak rightly points out that Edward d.i.c.kinson is quoting Edward Young's "Night Thoughts" Emily will later do so as well.

"half a house, & a rod square": EdD, quoted in YH, YH, 1:30. 1:30.

"It does seem to me": EdD to END, March 18 [1838], Houghton.

Had Mrs. d.i.c.kinson been willing to relocate: AB, AB, p. 233. p. 233.

"His failing was he did not understand himself": Quoted in YH, YH, 2:224. 2:224.

"I think it will do him the very most good": ED to WAD, June 20, 1852, Letters, Letters, 1:213. 1:213.

proof positive that he was the man: See HHJ to Henry Root, [winter 1855], Colorado.

When it pa.s.sed at the end of May: See Merriam, The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles, The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles, 1:117. 1:117.

"Our house is crowded daily": ED to WAD, June 19, 1853, Letters, Letters, 1:257. 1:257.

"of every bird & flower": LD to MLT, April 30, 1883, Yale.

"I look around me": WAD to Martha Gilbert, [May 11, 1852], quoted in Home, Home, p. 241. p. 241.

"I ask myself, Is it possible": WAD to Martha Gilbert, [May 11, 1852], quoted in Home, Home, p. 242. p. 242.

"early, earnest, indissoluble": ED to Charles Clark, [June 16, 1883], Letters, Letters, 3:779. 3:779.

"I, you must know": Green, "A Reminiscence of Emily d.i.c.kinson," p. 291.

"Vinnie is full of Wrath": ED to Jonathan L. Jenkins, September 1877, Letters, Letters, 2:592. 2:592.

"The tie is quite vital": LL, LL, p. 70. p. 70.

"A dire person!": quoted in AB, AB, p. 146n. p. 146n.

Although Thomas Wentworth Higginson's father: For an account of TWH's religious upbringing, see CY, CY, pp. 3536. pp. 3536.

"Were I a christian, my dear": EdD to END, March 18, 1838, Houghton.

"with a militant Accent": ED to Elizabeth Holland, [January 1875], Letters, Letters, 2:537. 2:537.

"the working of G.o.d's spirit among us": EdD, quoted in Wolff, Emily d.i.c.kinson, Emily d.i.c.kinson, p. 126. p. 126.

"Christ is calling everyone here": ED to Jane Humphrey, [April 3, 1850], Letters, Letters, 1:94. 1:94.

"I feel that I am sailing": ED to Abiah Root, March 28, 1846, Letters, Letters, 1:31. 1:31.

"I was almost persuaded to be a christian": ED to Abiah Root, January 31, 1846, Letters, Letters, 1:27. 1:27.

one of the "lingering bad bad ones": ED to Abiah Root, May 7, 17, 1850, ones": ED to Abiah Root, May 7, 17, 1850, Letters, Letters, 1:98. 1:98.

"The sh.o.r.e is safer, Abiah": ED to Abiah Root, [1850], Letters, Letters, 1:104. 1:104.

"I was taken to a Funeral": ED to TWH, [June 1877], Letters, Letters, 2:583. 2:583.

"Sermons on unbelief ever did attract me": ED to SGD, November 27December 3, 1854, Letters, Letters, 1:311. 1:311.

"'We thank thee Oh Father'": ED to MCH, [late summer 1876], Letters, Letters, 2:561. 2:561.

"Doubts of all things earthly": Herman Melville, Moby-d.i.c.k, Billy Budd and Other Writings Moby-d.i.c.k, Billy Budd and Other Writings (New York: Library of America, 2000), p. 423. (New York: Library of America, 2000), p. 423.

"Her compositions were strikingly original": Daniel Taggart Fiske to MLT, Yale.

"firmly established in the faith": See Catalogue of Amherst Female Seminary, Catalogue of Amherst Female Seminary, (Amherst, Ma.s.s.: Adams, 1835). (Amherst, Ma.s.s.: Adams, 1835).

"We have a very fine school" "I am growing handsome very fast indeed!": ED to Abiah Root, May 7, 1845, Letters, Letters, 1:13. 1:13.

"small, like the Wren": ED to TWH, July 1862, Letters, Letters, 2:411. 2:411.

Emily once "put four superfluous kittens": MDB, preface to The Single Hound, The Single Hound, by ED, p. xiii. by ED, p. xiii.

"That her thesis is partially true": Bishop, "Unseemly Deductions," p. 20.

she was said to confide to a visitor: See Green, "A Reminiscence of Emily d.i.c.kinson," p. 291.

"Home was always dear to me": ED to WAD, February 17, 1848, Letters, Letters, 1:62. 1:62.

"There is a great deal of religious interest here": ED to Abiah Root, January 17, 1848, Letters, Letters, 1:60. 1:60.

"There were real ogres at South Hadley then": Home, Home, p. 75. p. 75.

"They thought it queer": ED, quoted in Clara Newman Turner, "My Personal Acquaintance with Emily d.i.c.kinson," in Sewall, 1:269.

"I have neglected the one thing needful one thing needful": ED to Abiah Root, May 16, 1848, Letters, Letters, 1:67. 1:67.

"Home," she would write: ED to Perez Cowan, [1870], Letters, Letters, 2:483. 2:483.

"Sewing Society has commenced again": ED to Jane Humphrey, January 23, 1850, Letters, Letters, 1:84. 1:84.

"vain imaginations," as she jested: ED to Abiah Root, January 29, 1850, Letters, Letters, 1:88. 1:88.

"Pain-has an Element of Blank-": Fr 760.

"She was full of courage": Quoted in Sewall, 1:222.

"far surpa.s.sing" "and that sublimer lesson": ED to Edward Everett Hale, January 13, 1854, Letters, Letters, 1:282283. 1:282283.

the "friend who taught me Immortality": ED to TWH, April 25, 1862, Letters, Letters, 2:404. 2:404.

what was "most grand or beautiful in nature": ED to Edward Everett Hale, January 13, 1854, Letters, Letters, 1:282. 1:282.

"My dying Tutor": ED to TWH, June 7, 1862, Letters, Letters, 2:408. 2:408.

"My earliest friend": ED to TWH, [spring] 1876, Letters, Letters, 2:551. 2:551.

"We are the only poets": ED to SGD, October 9, 1851, Letters, Letters, 1:144. 1:144.

"Oh Susie, I would nestle close to your warm heart": ED to SGD, [February 1852], Letters, Letters, 1:177. 1:177.

"Is there anything debasing in human love-": WAD to SGD, [spring 1853], Houghton.

"It seems strange to me, too": WAD to Martha Gilbert, March 27, 1853, YH, YH, 1:266. 1:266.

each an absolute monarch: See Home, Home, p. 413. p. 413.

"We're all unlike most everyone": ED to WAD, April 8, 1853, Letters, Letters, 1:239. 1:239.

"I guess we both love Sue": ED to WAD, March 27, 1853, Letters, Letters, 1:236. 1:236.

"a dear child to us all": ED to WAD, May 16, 1853, Letters, Letters, 1:250. 1:250.

"I feel as if love sat upon my heart": YH, YH, 1:187. The author of the novel was Jane Porter. 1:187. The author of the novel was Jane Porter.

"I knew, I knew it could could not last-": not last-": YH, YH, 1:161. 1:161.

"Those unions, my dear Susie": ED to SGD, Letters, Letters, 1:209210. 1:209210.

"Captivity is Consciousness-/ So's Liberty-": In "No Rack can torture me-," Fr 649.

CHAPTER FOUR: EMILY d.i.c.kINSON: WRITE! COMRADE, WRITE!

confirmed his sister's "opinion": YH, YH, 1:213. 1:213.

"As the great world goes on": ED to WAD, [October 25, 1851], Letters, Letters, 1:151. 1:151.

"And I, and Silence, some strange Race": In "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain," Fr 340.

"I'm afraid I'm growing selfish selfish": ED to Jane Humphrey, [April 1852], Letters, Letters, 1:197. 1:197.

"I don't go from home": ED to Abiah Root, [July 25, 1854], Letters, Letters, 1:298299. 1:298299.

Instead, she stayed at home: See YH, YH, 1:301302. 1:301302.

"everybody knows everybody": HHJ to Henry Root, [winter 1855], Colorado.

"Oh Sir, may one eat of h.e.l.l fire": MDB preface to The Single Hound, The Single Hound, by ED, p. xiv. by ED, p. xiv.

"I fear I grow incongruous": ED to Elizabeth Holland, March 18, 1855, Letters, Letters, 2:319. 2:319.

"I am out with lanterns": ED to Elizabeth Holland, [January 26, 1856], Letters, Letters, 2:324. 2:324.

"To put this World down, like a Bundle-": Fr 404.

"In such a porcelain life": ED to Samuel Bowles, [August 1858], Letters, Letters, 2:338. 2:338.

"I would like more sisters": ED to Mary Haven, February 13, 1859, Letters, Letters, 2:346. 2:346.

"and finding the life with her books and nature": LD, quoted in Sewall, 1:153.

"strange things-bold things": ED to Jane Humphrey, April 3, 1850, Letters, Letters, 1:95. 1:95.

"The Heart has many Doors-": Fr 1623; "Doom is the House without the Door-": Fr 710.

"So we must meet apart-": Fr 706.

"We used to think, Joseph": LL, LL, p. 78. p. 78.

"what they call a metaphor in our country" "But the world is sleeping": ED, Indicator, Indicator, February 7, 1850, quoted in February 7, 1850, quoted in Letters, Letters, 1:92, and 1:92, and YH, YH, 1:168. 1:168.

"'I should expire with mortification'": ED to WAD, October 21, 1847, Letters, Letters, 1:49. 1:49.

"Write! Comrade, write!": ED to SGD, [March 1853], Letters, Letters, 1:226. 1:226.

"I've been in the habit myself myself of writing": ED to WAD, March 27, 1853, of writing": ED to WAD, March 27, 1853, Letters, Letters, 1:235. 1:235.

"Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-": Fr 236.

"I'm ceded-": Fr 353.

"When we stand on the tops of Things-": Fr 343.

"If your Nerve, deny you-": Fr 329.

"I reckon-When I count at all-": Fr 533.

"He fumbles at your Soul": Fr 477A.

"Literature is attar of roses": TWH, "Letter to a Young Contributor," p. 410. See also "Essential Oils-are wrung-/ The Attar from the Rose," Fr 772.

"This was a Poet-": Fr 446.

"Your praise is good-": ED to SGD, [Summer 1861], Letters, Letters, 2:380. 2:380.

a "man of G.o.d of the old school": Whicher, This Was a Poet, This Was a Poet, p. 110; blank atheism: Wadsworth, "The Gospel Call," p. 77. The fullest treatment of Wadsworth may be found in Paul M. Miller, "The Relevance of the Rev. Charles Wadsworth to the Poet Emily d.i.c.kinson," pp. 369. p. 110; blank atheism: Wadsworth, "The Gospel Call," p. 77. The fullest treatment of Wadsworth may be found in Paul M. Miller, "The Relevance of the Rev. Charles Wadsworth to the Poet Emily d.i.c.kinson," pp. 369.

"And the Church below": YH, YH, 1:353. 1:353.

"But every now and then": Mark Twain, quoted in YH, YH, 2:112. 2:112.

"the affliction which has befallen": Charles Wadsworth to ED, [before spring 1862], Letters, Letters, 2:392. The date is persuasively argued by Habegger, 2:392. The date is persuasively argued by Habegger, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books, pp. 415420. But that's as far as anyone can responsibly go. In 1924, d.i.c.kinson's niece, Martha d.i.c.kinson Bianchi, published an uncorroborated story that, if true, would fulfill all requirements of romance: A few days after they met, Wadsworth appeared on the doorstep in Amherst, Vinnie crying, "'Sue, come! That man is here!-Father and Mother are away, and I am afraid Emily will go away with him!'" Bianchi continues: "But the one word he implored, Emily would not say. Unable to endure his life under the old conditions, after a short time he left his profession and home and silently withdrew with his wife and only child to a remote city, a continent's width remote, where echo at least could not mock him with its vain outcry: dying prematurely, the spell unbroken." MDB, pp. 415420. But that's as far as anyone can responsibly go. In 1924, d.i.c.kinson's niece, Martha d.i.c.kinson Bianchi, published an uncorroborated story that, if true, would fulfill all requirements of romance: A few days after they met, Wadsworth appeared on the doorstep in Amherst, Vinnie crying, "'Sue, come! That man is here!-Father and Mother are away, and I am afraid Emily will go away with him!'" Bianchi continues: "But the one word he implored, Emily would not say. Unable to endure his life under the old conditions, after a short time he left his profession and home and silently withdrew with his wife and only child to a remote city, a continent's width remote, where echo at least could not mock him with its vain outcry: dying prematurely, the spell unbroken." MDB, The Life and Letters of Emily d.i.c.kinson, The Life and Letters of Emily d.i.c.kinson, p. 47. p. 47.