Could Adamant refuse
So small a Grace
So scanty put,
Such agonizing terms?
Would not a God of Flint
Be conscious of a sigh
As down His Heaven dropt remote
"Just Once" Sweet Deity?
F478 (1862) J1076
Dickinson put this little prayer in a note to Samuel Bowles, urging him to accept a barrel of apples that her mother wanted to send him. Why Dickinson makes it seem as if he is likely to refuse is something of a mystery as he wrote about the gift "from the elder Mrs. Dickinson" and said he found apples "a real treat."
But the poem does double duty. It not only served its purpose at the time of providing a bit of droll flirtation to the beloved Samuel Bowles, but a little poem we can all trot out when praying for our horse to pull ahead.
Hmm, wonder if this is related to the poem a little earlier in the same fascicle, "The Himmaleh was known to stoop/ Unto the daisy low". If this was sent to Bowles, then perhaps he is the "God of flint" and the Himmaleh, conscious of the sigh, stooping unto the daisy low.
ReplyDeleteThe fascicle version of this has some interesting changes, most notably an exclamation point at the end of the poem instead of a question mark.
Interesting. That exclamation point makes a big difference.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteED struggled with this poem, penning three variants: A, 1862 (for Fascicle 22), B, 1863 (to Bowles), and 1866 (saved unfolded). She listed 12 alternative words/phrases in eight/nine lines.
ReplyDeleteHer earliest variant (A, 1862), which may reveal originally recorded intentions, has two quatrains:
Just Once! Oh Least - Request!
Could Adamant – refuse?
So small - a Grace -
So scanty put -
Would not a God of Flint -,
Be conscious of a sigh,
As down His Heaven,
“Just Once”!, Sweet Deity -!
Variant B, 1863, to Bowles, nine lines, two stanzas
Just Once! Oh Least – Request -
Could Adamant – refuse?
So small - a Grace -
So scanty - put –
Such agonizing Terms?
Would not a God of Flint -,
Be conscious of a Sigh,
As down His Heaven dropt remote -,
“Just Once” - Sweet Deity ?
Emily
Variant C, 1866, unfolded, unsent, one nine-line stanza:
Just Once! Oh Least Request!
Could Adamant – refuse
So small a Grace -
So scanty put,
Such agonizing Terms?
Would not a God of Flint -,
Be conscious of a Sigh
As down His Heaven dropt remote
“Just Once” Sweet Deity ?
ED scores again, saying stuff so subtly it slips under our poetry radar.
ReplyDelete“Would not a God of Flint -,
Be conscious of a Sigh,
As down His Heaven dropt remote -,
“Just Once” - Sweet Deity ?”
Dickinson channels Dickens, second novel, ‘Oliver Twist’, 1837:
“’Please, sir,' repeated Oliver, ‘I want some more.’ The master hit Oliver with his spoon, then seized him and cried for help.”
“About late 1862” (Franklin), 31-year-old ED begs “Sweet Deity” to reveal, “Just Once! Oh least Request!”, some kind of credible evidence that He and Heaven really exist. With two caps and two exclamation marks in Line 1, her “Request” sounds more like a demand.
ReplyDeleteOn 14 November 1882 ED’s mother died; ED was 51. Two weeks later she wrote her favorite cousins, Louise and Francis Norcross:
“There was no earthly parting. She slipped from our fingers like a flake gathered by the wind, and is now part of the drift called "the infinite."
“We don't know where she is, though so many tell us.
“I believe we shall in some manner be cherished by our Maker - that the One who gave us this remarkable earth has the power still farther to surprise that which He has caused. Beyond that all is silence. . . .” (L1040).
Apparently, after her 1862 “Just Once! Oh least Request” for some kind of credible evidence that He and/or Heaven really exist, “a God of Flint” had answered with adamantine silence, leaving her, in 1882, with only “I believe . . .”.
Correction: The letter to the Norcross cousins is L785.
ReplyDelete