The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-09-20
EMILY DICKINSON
LETTERS AND POEMS OF n LONELY
NEW ENGLAND WONHN WHO
BELIEVED In RRT
FOR TRUTH"

American poets only by the demand for the
posthumous volume of Emily Dickinson, re-
calls the work of the singular and gifted New
England woman. There appears to be an in
teresting coincidence in this fact in view of
rather Tabb's remark, quoted by The Book
man, that "of late American poets there is
none worthy to 60 down to posterity except
MISS Dickinson" Her poems appeared several
years ago, four years after their authors death.
Her recently published Letters edited by
Mabel Loomis Todd, reveal in part the strange
personality of the woman who for years and
from her own choice never stepped outside her
fathers house.
Emily Dickinson was born i'll Amherst,
Mass, in the year 1880. There seems to have
been nothing exceptional about her girlhood.
Her father was a prosperous man, for years
treasurer of Amherst College, and at one time
member of Congress. The pictures of her
home show us an attractive colonial house,
spacious and dignifed, surrounded by spread
ing elm trees. There were three children
Austin, Emily and Lavinia. Their mother was
apparently sensible and practical New Eng
land woman with little time for sentiment.
Emily as young girl appears to have had
happy life. Her education was begun at the
village academy" and FINISHED" by year
at Mount Holyoke. Her letters at this time
are the letters of the average schoolgirl and
show no trace of the epigrammatic trsnscen-
dentallsm which marks them later. Neither is
passion in her after life She seems to have
joined in the social life of her mates and lived
the normal life of the young woman of that
time. Her early friend, Mrs. Ford, to VIII ON
some of her letters are addressed, pretaces
their publication by a short sketch of Emilys
girlhood According to Mrs. Ford she was one
OF a circle of talented young girls, several of
whom became famous in after years. Fanny
Montague, the art critic, was one, and another
was Helen Fiske, who wrote under the pen
name, ''H. H. and whose death in San Fran
cisco few years ago was sad loss to Ameri-
can letters. Emily Dickinson, strange TO say,
was the wit of the group and furnished the
funny items for the school paper. The only
hint she gave her friend of her future strange
aloofness from her fellows was by asking her
one day if it did not make her shiver to hear
some people talk las though they took all the
clothes off their souls" Not until she is about
20 do we find symptoms of that later malady-
if malady be the word for her almost fierce Sc
clusion.
The friend who most helped to form her
girlish aspirations was teacher in the acad-
envy, a Mr.. Leonard Humphrey, who was a
few years older than herself. He was gradu-
ate OF Amherst and had showed unusual in
tellectual ability and penetration. letter
10 q friend at this time briefly records his
death. His name is only mentioned twice in
the course of her whole correspondence and
once in a letter to her literary godfather, Mr..
hlgSl0SOQ. S06 says MY dying LOlQ
me he would like TO live till had been q
poet" This was twelve years after his death
We cannot help wondering whether this was
not the key of those minor cadences to which
her life was henceforth set. 1t seems almost a
sort of sacrilege to try to pierce that reserve
in which she yelled herself. There souls
as tremulous as sensitive plants. A year
later in a letter to the same friend she de-
cltnes proffered invitation, saying: ~ don't
go from home unless emergency leads me by |
the hand, and then I do it obstinately and
draw back if l cam
There is no hint as vet of her writing
poetry. About this time her brother Austin,
left home and college to take position in Bos-
ton. Her letters to him delightfully."- clever,
full of wit, with undercurrent of sadness
and loneliness, ostensibly because of his being
gone In these letters we begin to detect the
beat of words, the sense of cadence which
marks her poetry rather than perfect rhyme
OF meter. Even in homely sentences one per-
ceives the writer to have that ''ear for words
which is somewhat rarer than an ear for mu-
sic. However 1t need not take a verse-maker
to write in that manner This fragment from
a letter to her cousin, on the death, in his first
battle, OF a friends son, suggests the poet:
"Poor little widows boy, riding tonight in
the mad wind, back to the village Durying
ground, where he never dreamed of sleeping.
All, the dreamless sleepp'
Her letters to her brother detail the family
and neighborhood doings, with here and there
asuggestion of her growing dislike of meeting
people. She mentions great village fete on
the opening of the new railroad. "They all
said it was fine. 'spose' it was. sat in Pro-
fessor Tylers woods and saw the train move
off, and then came home for fear some body
would see or ask me how did. DR.. Holland
was here and called to see u.s. CDR. Holland"
was j. G. Holland, the well-known author and
later the editor of the Century Magazine A
visit to the Hollands a short time after this
was one of the few she ever made. Her letters
to them are extremely interesting and show
constantly increasing brilliancy.
The letters to her young cousins in the begin !
ming of the second volume show the womanly |
and affectionate side of her nature. that had |
no warp in its attitude toward those she loved |
But by far the most fascinating letters of all |
are those addressed to Thomas Wentworth |
Higginson. With her constantly increasing |
seclusion the necessity for some expression |
seemed to grow. She made no occupation of |
writing but while busy with her house duties |
or her sewing-for she was pre-eminently |
practical, capable New England woman-she |
would jot down the thoughts that came to her |
in fragments of verse, writing them often on |
the margin of newspapers or the backs OF old |
envelopes There was no system or order in |
her production and no thought of publication.
Any sort of publicity would have been unbear-
able to the woman, whose shrinking from the |
eyes OF strangers was so great that she re-
sorted to all sorts of devices to avoid address
ing her letters in her own hand Some |
times she used newspaper labels, or if |
these were not to be had one of |
the family performed the Office for her. |
Her penmanship, ofwhich fac-simile is given, |
seems Characteristic of her isolation, each let
ter standing alone. Writing for herself alone |
it was not to be expected that her verses |
should be finished in form. Indeed it is doubt. |
full whether she understood anything of the |
theory or technique of poetry. But, as one of !
her critics said: when thought taxes our |
breath away, a lesson in grammar seems an i'm |
pertinence." And though her poems may be |
fragmentary in form, they are never so in SUBJ
stance. Each contains a distinct thought |
AS, for example, this:
Presentiment is that long shadow on the lawn
indicative that suns go down;
The notice TO the startled grass
THAT darrneas fs about mass