The Case of Johnson v. Franklin -- Part 2

In my Goodreads blog post on July 25, 2012, I began a discussion about the differences between two “complete” volumes of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, one edited by Thomas H. Johnson, and another edited by R. W. Franklin.

A major difference between the two books, of course, is that poems were discovered after Johnson’s 1955 anthology, so Franklin’s includes more than a dozen additional poems. Plus, the two editors had dissimilar criteria for ordering the poems (explained in my 7/25 post), so many of them differ beyond an alternate number. Some of them vary almost insignificantly (for example, a capital letter in place of a lower case one). Others have different structures, word choice, or both. Still others change significantly. For example, check out the differences between two versions of “It sifts from Leaden Sieves,” (J 311 and F 291, both from 1862).

Here’s the version in Johnson’s book:

It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –

It makes an Even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain –
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again –

It reaches to the Fence –
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces –
It deals Celestial Vail

To Stump, and Stack – and Stem –
A Summer’s empty Room –
Acres of Joint, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them –

It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen –
Then tills its Artisans – like Ghosts –
Denying they have been –


Below is the same poem in the Franklin book. It will be easy to spot differences beyond the fact that the poem was condensed from five stanzas to three:

It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –

It scatters like the Birds –
Condenses like a Flock –
Like Juggler’s Figures situates
Upon a baseless Arc –

It traverses yet halts –
Disperses as it stays –
Then curls itself in Capricorn –
Denying that it was –

Another difference with some of Dickinson’s works is that a single poem in Johnson’s book is offered as multiple poems in Franklin’s book. For example, “The Gentian weaves her fringes,” J 18 in Johnson’s book, is a 3 stanza, 19 line poem. In Franklin’s book, the same work is divided into three different poems, F 21 (“The Gentian weaves her fringes”), F22 (“A brief, but patient illness”), and F 23 (“In the name of the Bee”). The sixteen line poem J 20, “Distrustful of the Gentian,” is two eight-line poems for Franklin, F 26 (“Distrustful of the Gentian”) and F 27 (“Flees so the phantom meadow”). A third example is J 22, “All these my banners be.” In Franklin’s volume, the poem is split into three: F 29 (“All these my banners be”), F 30 (“To lose – if one can find again”), and F 31 (“To him who keeps an Orchis’ heart”).

There are other distinctions between similar poems in the two editions. For example, some of the poems in Franklin’s book have titles (not found, as far as I know, for any of the poems in Johnson). F 208, “A feather from the Whippowil” (spelled “Whippoorwill” in the Johnson book, J 161) is titled “Pine Bough.” F 198, “Teach Him – when He makes the names” (also J227), is called “Baby.” Other poems differ by their number of lines. For example, J 57 and F 55 are identical at the start:

To venerate the simple days
Which lead the seasons by –
Needs but to remember
That from you or I,
They may take the trifle
Termed mortality!

The Franklin version, F55, includes a second stanza with five additional lines:

To invest existence with a stately air –
Needs bu to remember
That the Acorn there
Is the egg of forest
For the upper Air!

So far I’ve compared a little over 300 of the poems, and while many do not differ at all (aside from their order and number), others vary substantially. One day (probably later than sooner), I’ll invest in Franklin’s three-volume variorum edition of Dickinson’s work which includes editorial emendations and information on the publication history, including variants, for each poem. I would love to delve deeper into the evolution of Dickinson's work and study the reasons behind the transformations of her poems. And yet, for all the types of variations I’ve mentioned so far, there is still one perplexing mystery between Johnson’s and Franklin’s editions. I’ll divulge that puzzlement next time!