Where Daffodils—abide—
Her Maker—Her Metropolis—
The Universe—Her Maid—
To fetch Her Grace—and Hue—
And Fairness—and Renown—
The Firmament's—To Pluck Her—
And fetch Her Thee—be mine—
-F744, J671, Fascicle 36, 1863
When I first read this poem I assumed from the first line that it was about a woman buried in the ground. But then as I read further and further into the poem this reading no longer made sense. I was stuck. I did some research and found the following helpful information from David Preest:
“We are saved from guessing the name of the flower in this riddle poem, because Fanny Norcross, Emily’s cousin, noted on her copy of the poem that Emily had sent it to her ‘with a crocus,’ and the crocus does indeed dwell and live her life in that ground where the daffodils are biding their time before they appear next. This explanation of the poem is derived from Judith Farr’s book, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson.’”
Ah, thank you David, Judith and Fanny.
Once you have this “key” to the poem, then it is quite lovely to think of the crocus, the first flower of spring, having a maker (and, by extension, all of creation) as its bustling metropolis and the universe as its maid, with the firmament (the sky) bringing the flower grace and hue (color) and fairness (beauty) and renown (fame). That's the job of the firmament and the universe, but the job of plucking the flower and giving it to her cousin Fanny, belongs to Emily.
To fetch Her Grace—and Hue—
And Fairness—and Renown—
(is the job of) The Firmament's—To Pluck Her—
And fetch Her (to) Thee—be mine—
If people can be compared to flowers (a comparison Dickinson has made in other poems,) then the wonderful idea of this poem can be transferred to the self. All of creation is our city, the universe is our maid, and the sky brings us grace and color and beauty and fame. This idea can be seen in a poem from earlier in this fascicle, with mother nature showing us infinite affection and infiniter care.
When I first read this poem I assumed from the first line that it was about a woman buried in the ground. But then as I read further and further into the poem this reading no longer made sense. I was stuck. I did some research and found the following helpful information from David Preest:
“We are saved from guessing the name of the flower in this riddle poem, because Fanny Norcross, Emily’s cousin, noted on her copy of the poem that Emily had sent it to her ‘with a crocus,’ and the crocus does indeed dwell and live her life in that ground where the daffodils are biding their time before they appear next. This explanation of the poem is derived from Judith Farr’s book, The Gardens of Emily Dickinson.’”
Ah, thank you David, Judith and Fanny.
Once you have this “key” to the poem, then it is quite lovely to think of the crocus, the first flower of spring, having a maker (and, by extension, all of creation) as its bustling metropolis and the universe as its maid, with the firmament (the sky) bringing the flower grace and hue (color) and fairness (beauty) and renown (fame). That's the job of the firmament and the universe, but the job of plucking the flower and giving it to her cousin Fanny, belongs to Emily.
To fetch Her Grace—and Hue—
And Fairness—and Renown—
(is the job of) The Firmament's—To Pluck Her—
And fetch Her (to) Thee—be mine—
If people can be compared to flowers (a comparison Dickinson has made in other poems,) then the wonderful idea of this poem can be transferred to the self. All of creation is our city, the universe is our maid, and the sky brings us grace and color and beauty and fame. This idea can be seen in a poem from earlier in this fascicle, with mother nature showing us infinite affection and infiniter care.
It may be the work of the firmament and the universe to take care of us, but it’s the pleasure of the poet to pluck this grand conception of ourselves, put it in a poem, and give it to us.
-/)dam Wade l)eGraff
Imagine receiving this lovely “be mine” Valentine and a crocus from ED.
ReplyDeleteThere were at least four variant copies (Franklin 1998):
Variant A, lost, was sent to ED’s young cousins, Louise and Frances Norcross, presumably about 1863. The first two lines survive on a list Frances made of ED poems received, along with the note that Adam quotes.
Variant B includes the remains of a flower, apparently a crocus. Signed "Emily" but not addressed, it was sent to an unidentified recipient about spring 1863.
Variant C, addressed to "Sue" and signed "Emily", was sent to Susan Dickinson, about spring 1863.
Variant D appears in Fascicle 36, recorded about the second half of 1863.
The likely lag-time between ED’s composition of this Valentine poem, presumably February 1863, and copying it into a fascicle (second half of 1863) was about six months.
Franklin, R. W. (ed.). 1998. The Poems of Emily Dickinson – Variorum Edition. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Vol. 2, pp. 705-706.
Terrific to think of Dickinson writing specific poems to accompany certain flowers and then giving them out to special recipients. I know we've come across a few flower-riddle-letters so far, and I assume we will encounter more as we travel through the next 1200 of Emily's poems. I'm sure a book has already been made of these. It would be a great little book with the poem on the left side of the page and a photo of flower as a space meant for pressings on the right. Fill the book up with your own flowers and pretend you are one of the recipients, which you, in fact, would be.
ReplyDeleteNow I want to read Judith Farr's book on the Gardens of Emily Dickinson. I bet Susan has.
I did notice the sly "be mine" at the end of this poem and thought about Valentine's, but then, since it wasn't capitalized, I dismissed it as an unintentional connection. But thanks to your sleuthing here, and remembering that crocus come out as early as Valentine's Day, I see it must be intentional. I imagine she didn't capitalize the B of "be mine" because it would have made the first reading of it, as an end of the clause "to Pluck Her and Fetch Her Thee be Mine," too difficult to follow with that dash in there.
Farr's book is great -- an important addition to any Dickinson book shelf!
ReplyDelete