Emily Dickinson: Lexicon and Philology

1830-1886

Cynthia L. Hallen

What is a Lexicon?

(photo credit: www.earlywomenmasters.net)

Lexicon Definitions• A dictionary (Samuel Johnson’s 1798 Dictionary

of the English Language; Noah Webster’s 1828/1844 American Dictionary of the English Language)

• A bilingual dictionary (Frederick Percival Leverett’s 1839 A new and copious lexicon of the Latin language)

• A specialized dictionary for the works of a particular author or the words used by a particular audience (Schmidt’s 1902 Shakespeare Lexicon and Quotation Dictionary)

Tools for Dickinson Studies (EDIS)

• Rosenbaum’s 1964 Concordance to the Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.

• Webster’s 1844 An American Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amherst, Massachusetts: J.S. & C. Adams Brothers.

• Hallen’s 2007 Emily Dickinson Lexicon (EDL), web ed. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.

Why Emily Dickinson?

Background

• Dickinson wrote over 1,789 poems from 1850-1886, edited by Thomas H. Johnson in 1955 and revised by Ralph W. Franklin in 1997.

• She wrote over 1,046 letters from 1842-1886, edited by Johnson in 1958.

• The collected poems contain over 9,275 unique words and nearly 100,000 word occurrences in nineteenth-century American English.

• Emily Dickinson used the word “lexicon” in three of her poems and in two of her letters.

25 April 1862, Dickinson Letter 261,

To mentor Thomas W. Higginson

(about Benjamin F. Newton, 1821-1853) ... When a little Girl, I

had a friend, who taught me Immortality – but venturing too near, himself – he never returned – Soon after, my Tutor, died – and for several years, my Lexicon – was my only companion ...

Ambiguity: J246/Fr264 (1861)

Forever at His side to walk – The smaller of the two! Brain of His Brain – Blood of His Blood – Two lives – One Being – now –

Forever of His fate to taste – If grief – the largest part – If joy – to put my piece away For that beloved Heart –

All life – to know each otherWhom we can never learn – And bye and bye – a Change

– Called Heaven – Rapt Neighborhoods of men – Just finding out – what

puzzled us – Without the lexicon!

Pun: J728/Fr754 (1863)

Let Us play Yesterday – I – the Girl at School – You – and Eternity – the untold

Tale –

Easing my famineAt my Lexicon – Logarithm – had I – for Drink – ’Twas a dry Wine –

Somewhat different – must be –

Dreams tint the Sleep – Cunning Reds of MorningMake the Blind – leap –

[cont.]Still at the Egg-life – Chafing the Shell –When you troubled the

Ellipse – And the Bird fell –

Manacles be dim – they say – To the new Free – Liberty – commoner – Never could – to me –

’Twas my last gratitude When I slept – at night – ’Twas the first Miracle Let in – with Light –

[cont.]Can the Lark resume the Shell

– Easier – for the Sky – Would’nt Bonds hurt more Than Yesterday?

Would’nt Dungeons sorer grateOn the Man – free – Just long enough to taste – Then – doomed new –

God of the Manacle As of the Free – Take not my Liberty Away from Me –

Definition: J254/Fr314 (1862)

“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the

words – And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –

And sore must be the storm – That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm –

I've heard it in the chillest land – And on the strangest Sea – Yet, never, in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of Me.

Humor: J185/Fr202 (1861)

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you – Nobody – too? Then there's a pair of us!Dont tell! they'd banish us – you

know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!How public – like a Frog – To tell your name – the livelong

June – To an admiring Bog!

Allusions: J1342/Fr1277 (1874)

“Was not” was all the statement.

The Unpretension stuns –Perhaps – the Comprehension

– They wore no Lexicons –

But lest our SpeculationIn inanition dieBecause “God took him”

mention – That was Philology –

Proper Nouns: J555/Fr561 (1863)

Trust in the Unexpected –By this – was William KiddPersuaded of the Buried Gold –As One had testified –

Through this – the old Philosopher –

His Talismanic StoneDiscerned – still withholdenTo effort undivine –

’Twas this – allured Columbus –When Genoa – withdrewBefore an ApparitionBaptized America –

The Same – afflicted Thomas –When Deity assured’Twas better – the perceiving not –Provided it believed –

Riddle: J1463/Fr1489 (1879)

A Route of EvanescenceWith a revolving Wheel – A Resonance of Emerald – A Rush of Cochineal – And every Blossom on the

Bush Adjusts it’s tumbled Head – The mail from Tunis,

probably, An easy Morning's Ride –

Circumlocution: J1129/Fr1263 (1872)

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –

Success in Circuit liesToo bright for our infirm DelightThe Truth’s superb surpriseAs Lightning to the Children

easedWith explanation kindThe Truth must dazzle graduallyOr every man be blind –

CIRCUMLOCUTION, n. (NW 1844)

A circuit or compass of words; a periphrase; the use of a number of words to express an idea, when a suitable term is not at hand, or when a speaker chooses to avoid the use of a single term, either from delicacy or respect, or with a view to soften the force of a direct expression, or for other reason.

Dickinson’s Lyric Poetry

• She inherits the Indo-European bard tradition from the Classical Track at Amherst Academy (Watkins 1995).

• The genius of Emily Dickinson is that she condenses epic themes into lyric verses.

• She writes poetry instead of common prose: the tongue of the gods vs. the tongues of men (1 Cor. 13:1).

• Her language is aesthetically marked in all major language areas: phonology, prosody, morphology, syntax, semantics, lexis, pragmatics.

• Her lexical craft includes antithesis, idioms, kennings, metaphors, polyptoton, polysemy, symbols, and synonymy.

6-5-6-5 Syllabic Verse: J698/Fr727 (1863)

Life – is what we make it –Death – We do not know –Christ’s acquaintance with

HimJustify Him – though

He – would trust no stranger –

Other – could betray –Just His own endorsement –That – sufficeth Me –

All the other DistanceHe hath traversed first –No New Mile remaineth –Far as Paradise –

His sure foot preceding –Tender Pioneer –Base must be the CowardDare not venture – now –

Poetry vs. Prose: J657/Fr466 (1862)

I dwell in Possibility –A fairer House than Prose –More numerous of Windows –Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –Impregnable of Eye –And for an Everlasting RoofThe Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –For Occupation – This –The spreading wide my narrow

HandsTo gather Paradise –

Oak Tree at the Dickinson Homestead

Dickinson: the “Bard of Amherst”

• Dickinson lived in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1830-1886, during a religious revival, a gospel restoration, a philosophical revolution, and a philological renaissance.

• She used Noah Webster’s 1844 American Dictionary of the English Language as part of her poetic composition.

• Her life span was contemporary with the development of the Oxford English Dictionary.

• She wrote in nineteenth-century American English, a neglected area in the history of the English language.

• Her period of greatest poetic productivity (1858-1865) coincided with the Civil War.

The Dickinson Homestead on Main Street in

Amherst, Massachusetts

Dickinson’s Garden

Poems as Flowers

The Poet in the Dell

The Poet Takes a Dog:

Carlo 1850-1865

Elegy to Carlo the Dog: J1068/Fr895 (1865)

Further in Summer than the Birds –

Pathetic from the Grass –A minor Nation celebratesIt's unobtrusive Mass.

No Ordinance be seen –So gradual the GraceA pensive Custom it becomes –Enlarging Loneliness –

Antiquest felt at Noon –When August burning lowArise this spectral CanticleRepose to typify –

Remit as yet no Grace –No Furrow on the GlowYet a Druidic DifferenceEnhances Nature now –

Webster Entry for MINOR, adj.

MI'NOR, a. [L. the comparative degree of a word not found in that language, but existing in the Celtic dialects, W. main, Arm. moan, Ir. min, mion, the root of L. minuo, to diminish. See Mince.]

1. Less; smaller; sometimes applied to the bulk or magnitude of a single object; more generally to amount, degree, or importance. We say, the minor divisions of a body, the minor part of a body; opposed to the major part. We say minor sums, minor faults, minor considerations, minor details or arguments. In the latter phrases, minor is equivalent to small, petty, inconsiderable, not principal, important or weighty.

2. In music, less or lower by a lesser semitone; as, a third minor. Encyc.

Asia Minor, the Lesser Asia, that part of Asia which lies between the Euxine on the north, and the Mediterranean on the south.

Webster Entry for MINOR, n.

MI'NOR, n. 1. A person of either sex under age; one who

is under the authority of his parents or guardians, or who is not permitted by law to make contracts and manage his own property. By the laws of Great Britain and of the United States, persons are minors till they are twenty one years of age. . . .

3. A Minorite, a Franciscan friar.4. A beautiful bird of the East Indies. Dict.

Nat. Hist.

OED Citation for Minorminor, adj. and n.

e. In fig. context, esp. with reference to the sombre, plaintive, or subdued effect associated with minor chords and keys.1820 J. SEVERN in Keats Lett. (1958) II. 342 Here I must change to a Minor Key Miss C fainted...I was very ill...Keats assended his bed. 1825 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 23 The bard sets off in a most brilliant bravura style; and when he comes to the tricolored flag...sinks into a charming minor key of pathos and sentiment. 1878 H. JAMES Watch & Ward viii. 168 ‘It would simplify matters vastly; it’s at least worth thinking of,’ he went on, pleading for very tenderness, in this pitiful minor key.

minor-keyed, adj.1869 T. W. HIGGINSON Army Life 222 This minor-keyed pathos used to seem to me almost too sad to dwell upon. 1973 Harvard Jrnl. Asiatic Stud. 33 15 It would be inept to end a day’s program with a minor-keyed N[umber].

Noah Webster in Amherst

• Before Emily Dickinson was born, Webster had worked on the 1828 edition of his “big dictionary” in Amherst, Massachusetts, from 1812-1822.

• He worked with Emily’s grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, to establish educational institutions, including Amherst Academy and Amherst College.

[cont.]

• Webster’s granddaughter Emily Elizabeth Fowler Ford was a school chum of Emily Dickinson.

• The last edition of the ADEL that Webster worked on before his death in 1843 was published by the Adams Brothers of Amherst in 1844.

• In 1844 Edward Dickinson purchased Webster’s rare final edition of the ADEL.

[cont.]

• Emily's brother Austin recalled seeing “Webster’s big dictionary” on the kitchen table of the Dickinson home (Sewall 1965, p. 12).

• Martha Dickinson Bianchi reported that her aunt Emily read the dictionary “as a priest his breviary” (1932, p.80).

• Buckingham and Benvenuto identified Dickinson’s “lexicon” as Webster 1844 dictionary (1977, 1983).

The Kingman House on Main Street and Webster

Avenue

Noah Webster statue behind the

Frost Library at Amherst College

“I Know in Whom I Have Believed”

http://edl.byu.edu/index.php

J48/Fr65 (1859)

Once more, my now bewildered DoveBestirs her puzzled wings.Once more, her mistress, on the deep Her troubled question flings –

Thrice to the floating casement The Patriarch’s bird returned – Courage! My brave Columba! There may yet be Land!

“Expect a Miracle!”

J1126/Fr1243 (1872)Shall I take thee, the Poet

said To the propounded word?Be stationed with the

Candidates Till I have finer tried –

The Poet searched PhilologyAnd was about to ringFor the suspended

CandidateThere came unsummoned in

–

That portion of the Vision The Word applied to fill Not unto nomination The Cherubim reveal –

J1651/Fr1715 (Undated)

A word made Flesh is seldomAnd tremblingly partookNor then perhaps reportedBut have I not mistookEach one of us has tastedWith ecstasies of stealthThe very food debatedTo our specific strength –

A word that breathes distinctly

Has not the power to die Cohesive as the Spirit It may expire if He – “Made Flesh and dwelt among

us” Could condescension be Like this consent of Language This loved Philology

“my Lexicon - was my only companion”