When "Complete" is Incomplete
When is “complete” not complete? I recently found out that my volume The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson” is, in fact, incomplete. It is missing more than a dozen poems by Dickinson, and I had no idea until a few months ago. Here’s how I discovered this incongruity:
During the summer of 2011 I was in Chicago for a conference. On a free afternoon, I stopped by the Poetry Foundation and spent some time in their public library. I thumbed through a book of Dickinson’s poetry, and I came across a few poems that I was not familiar with so I jotted down their first lines. I figured I would re-read the poems once I returned home. One of the poems was Fly – fly – but as you fly. However, once I got home and checked for that poem in my copy of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, it was not included. I couldn’t even find the poem on the Internet. I began to wonder if, perhaps, it was discovered at some point that Fly – fly – but as you fly was not , in fact, written by Dickinson and therefore not included in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.
Then, about a year later, when I wrote my blog entries on July 14 and 16, 2012, about my “TOP TEN” list of references to time in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, I remembered that the poem Fly – fly – but as you fly had a particularly clever reference to the passage of time, so I renewed my search for the poem. Once again, I had no luck in locating it.
I mentioned this mystery of the missing poem in a blog entry dated June 16, 2012, but, alas, no one responded with any information. Then I remembered that I had a contact who could probably solve this mystery for me. When I worked on my books, Great American Poems – REPOEMED, I e-mailed back and forth with a contact at Harvard University Press about copyright information and permission to include copies of Dickinson’s poems in my two volumes – so I wrote to her to ask about the missing poem.
Here’s what she told me about Fly – fly – but as you fly:
“Johnson published in 1955 and was unaware of this one, which was hiding in fragments of prose. It had been discovered by the time Franklin revisited Dickinson’s work in 1998. It looks like there are several dozen more that Johnson missed but that were captured by Franklin.”
The poems missing from Johnson ‘s “complete” edition are the following:
No rose yet felt myself a’bloom F 190
Let others show this Surry’s grace F 290
Life is death we’re lengthy at F 502
The lovely flowers embarrass me F 808
Fly – fly – but as you fly F 1244
It is the meek that valor wear F 1252
When continents expire F 1321
Incredible the lodging F 1452
One note from one bird F 1478
Ferocious as a bee without a wing F 1492
I do not care – why should I care F 1534
The blood is more showy than the breath F1 558
If I should see a single bird F 1591
Show me eternity and I will show you memory F 1658
I held it so tight that I lost it F 1659
But that defeated accent F 1660
A chastened grace is twice a grace F 1676
Well, once I received this information, I went immediately to a book store and purchased Franklin’s “complete” edition of Dickinson’s poetry – so maybe now I have all of her poems?
The other night I wondered just how similar or different the two “complete” editions are, so I began a comparison of Johnson’s compilation to Franklin’s collection. I’ve compared the first 250 poems in the books, and I have to admit – I was more than a bit surprised by what I discovered. In the coming days, I’ll post information about how the two books compare. I think you’ll be surprised too!
During the summer of 2011 I was in Chicago for a conference. On a free afternoon, I stopped by the Poetry Foundation and spent some time in their public library. I thumbed through a book of Dickinson’s poetry, and I came across a few poems that I was not familiar with so I jotted down their first lines. I figured I would re-read the poems once I returned home. One of the poems was Fly – fly – but as you fly. However, once I got home and checked for that poem in my copy of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, it was not included. I couldn’t even find the poem on the Internet. I began to wonder if, perhaps, it was discovered at some point that Fly – fly – but as you fly was not , in fact, written by Dickinson and therefore not included in The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson.
Then, about a year later, when I wrote my blog entries on July 14 and 16, 2012, about my “TOP TEN” list of references to time in the poetry of Emily Dickinson, I remembered that the poem Fly – fly – but as you fly had a particularly clever reference to the passage of time, so I renewed my search for the poem. Once again, I had no luck in locating it.
I mentioned this mystery of the missing poem in a blog entry dated June 16, 2012, but, alas, no one responded with any information. Then I remembered that I had a contact who could probably solve this mystery for me. When I worked on my books, Great American Poems – REPOEMED, I e-mailed back and forth with a contact at Harvard University Press about copyright information and permission to include copies of Dickinson’s poems in my two volumes – so I wrote to her to ask about the missing poem.
Here’s what she told me about Fly – fly – but as you fly:
“Johnson published in 1955 and was unaware of this one, which was hiding in fragments of prose. It had been discovered by the time Franklin revisited Dickinson’s work in 1998. It looks like there are several dozen more that Johnson missed but that were captured by Franklin.”
The poems missing from Johnson ‘s “complete” edition are the following:
No rose yet felt myself a’bloom F 190
Let others show this Surry’s grace F 290
Life is death we’re lengthy at F 502
The lovely flowers embarrass me F 808
Fly – fly – but as you fly F 1244
It is the meek that valor wear F 1252
When continents expire F 1321
Incredible the lodging F 1452
One note from one bird F 1478
Ferocious as a bee without a wing F 1492
I do not care – why should I care F 1534
The blood is more showy than the breath F1 558
If I should see a single bird F 1591
Show me eternity and I will show you memory F 1658
I held it so tight that I lost it F 1659
But that defeated accent F 1660
A chastened grace is twice a grace F 1676
Well, once I received this information, I went immediately to a book store and purchased Franklin’s “complete” edition of Dickinson’s poetry – so maybe now I have all of her poems?
The other night I wondered just how similar or different the two “complete” editions are, so I began a comparison of Johnson’s compilation to Franklin’s collection. I’ve compared the first 250 poems in the books, and I have to admit – I was more than a bit surprised by what I discovered. In the coming days, I’ll post information about how the two books compare. I think you’ll be surprised too!
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