dear marcy et al--i'd LOVE for y'all to go through the newly revamped "Emily
Dickinson Writing a Poem" and give us some feedback on its design,
navigability, objectives, etc. this section of the DEA is primarily used
for teaching, though quite a few folks who specialize in textual editing use
it to think through such questions as "what counts as a Dickinson poem?" as
far as the exchange itself goes, i'd ask the same questions that are on the
DEA itself--what does the surviving record tell us about the identity of
this particular poem (or poems), about Dickinson as a writer, about her
consultations with Susan Dickinson, etc. one way that folks routinely
dismiss this exchange is to say that when Emily sent a version of this poem to
Thomas Higginson this poem she ignored Susan's preference (which seems to be
for the "Light laughs the breeze" second stanza). yet i have a question
about that--how do we know that Susan recommended Emily send the stanza that
Susan herself preferred? how do we know she 1) recommended anything at all;
and 2) if she did recommend something, why it couldn't it be a stanza she
thought better suited his druthers than her own?
cheers,
mn
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