All posts tagged: Emily Dickinson’s poetry Somewhere Among

Numbering Dickinson, Knowing Stevenson

Emily Dickinson did not number her poems. She didn’t give them titles. My college anthology of American literature (1978) presented her work using Thomas H. Johnson’s numbering notations in his 1955 edition, The Poems of Emily Dickinson. He used a J. plus a number. The Academy of American Poets uses the first line and a number for the Dickinson poem mentioned in Somewhere Among;  “There is a certain slant of light” # 258. The Poetry Foundation uses the first line as a title and (320). Other anthologies use combinations or variations of the title, number and  J.  Mom and Nana in Somewhere Among had an anthology that used Johnson’s numbering. If you google Emily Dickinson 258 you will find the poem: There’s a certain Slant of light, Winter Afternoons – That oppresses, like the Heft Of Cathedral Tunes –  Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –  We can find no scar, But internal difference, Where the Meanings, are –  None may teach it – Any –  ‘Tis the Seal Despair –  An imperial affliction Sent us of the Air –  When it comes, the …