The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-01-22
EMILY DIckiNsoN's POEMS.
These Charming Literary Productions
Are Entirely Out of Print.


NEW YORK, Jan IA day or two before
Christmas literary man living in New
York being DESTROYS to present to friend
copy of the poems of Emily Dickinson
visited number of bookstores, and WAS
astonished to find that he could not
get single copy. Asking the reason he
was told that the demand for these poems
had far exceeded the supply. One book.
seller said that he could have sold the EN-
tire edition over his counters. Another
declared that he had laid in stock which
be thought would last for year. and he
had sold it out within two days. A third
said that he had telegraphed the publish
ers and they had sent back word that the
second edition was exhausted as soon as
published.
No such experience as this in the case of
an unknown poet has been reported in
New York city, at least in the present gen.
Grafton The poems have been fiercely at
tackled by the critics; they have been called
ungrammatical, incoherent and vague, yet
they have touched the popular chord, and
it looks now as though the sale of them
will be something phenomenal.
The great public does not mind if poem
is ungrammatical or is not Il we'll of Eng
fish undeliled, provided it only touches
something in the human heart When
Phoebe Cary wrote the poem beginning
zone sweetly solemn thought" she had to
endure the attacks of the critics, who
pointed out grammatical errors and serious
faults of prosody, and these criticisms were
undoubtedly well founded; but the critics
did not realize that in spite of these tech
nical defects there was Il sublime thought
in the poem which al pealed to the com
mon understanding, and powerfully. The
people received it, and it has been trans
lated into every civilized and many savage
tongues, and is now sung and read the
world over.
Whether that will be the fate of any of
Miss Dickinson's poems is a question, but
they have certainly attained ii phenomenal
popularity The career of this singular
being suggests in some respects that of the
author of Jane Eyre" A timid, shrink
ing, inexperienced girl, living in lonely
hamlet in the west of England-knowing
nothing of life excepting those things her
intuition taught her and what she CLEANED
by reading-wrote in secrecy a story and
sent it to one after another of declining
publishers in London. At last one Drawer
than the others, or wiser, published it, and
"Jane Eyre" became famous, it's authoress
a celebrity, and people marveled that this
woman who was almost a child, and who
had had no life beyond that of curate's
COTTAGE could have written that which
was destined to remain permanent in Eng
fish literature.
Miss Dickinson was even more of re-
cluse than Charlotte Bronte. She passed
her whole life in the little college town of
Mass. Her father was an in
structor in the college, but there were
many people in that town who, although
they knew that Professor Dickinson had
daughter, yet knew it only by public re-
port. They mad never seen her. She sell
dom ventured beyond her fathers door
yard, and for months at a time did not
cave the house. Her health though deli
cate, was not such as to compel such re-
,irement, but she shrank from contact
With the world, was of extraordinary tim
dity, and in many things seemed "a mere
,hild.
She found her companions between the |
overs Of her fathes's books. She knew
he heroes of old, and let her imagination
est upon them until they seemed almost |
eal to her She knew American and Eng |
ish literature us few scholars know them, |
ind she peopled her imagination with the |
,reations of the greatest masters of ro- |
nance and fiction, and dwelt with them
ather than the human beings who were
living about her.
Some years ago Miss Dickinson sent a
ew of her poems to the Cambridge |
.ritics and poets. Mr.. Longfelow read |
ome of them in manuscript, and so did |
Thomas Wentworth Higginson. They saw
he defects, but they saw the inspiration
which compelled the writing of these
poems, and they gave the girl encourage
nent. Mr. Higginson, being inspired by
omething of curiosity as well as admira-
ion, sought to meet the girl, and he found
Ter timid recluse, whose strange habit of
life could be explained neither by herself
Tor by her family.
Miss Dickinson died a year or so ago,
nd then were published the poems which
AVE created something like amazement,
great deal of criticism and an unques-
Toned popularity. They are the song of II
irritable hermit, the pleadings of one
whose life had been retrospective, and they
eveal that strangeness of sentiment which
eclusion is sure to produce. But after
Ii the common chord has been struck in
ONE of them, and, if they are not accepted
s poems of the first rank they will al
ways be regarded as curiosities of litera-
ure, as have been the forgeries of Chatter
on. and in some respects as Jane Eyre"
as ever been esteemed.
E. j. EDWARDS