nothing

Of tribulation these are they
Denoted by the white;
The spangled gowns, a lesser rank
Of victors designate.

All these did conquer; but the ones
Who overcame most times
Wear nothing commoner than snow,
No ornament but palms.

Surrender is a sort unknown
On this superior soil;
Defeat, an outgrown anguish,
Remembered as the mile

Our panting ankle barely gained
When night devoured the road;
But we stood whispering in the house,
And all we said was “Saved”!

Podcast music by Antonio Meneses

Her final summer was it,
And yet we guessed it not;
If tenderer industriousness
Pervaded her, we thought

A further force of life
Developed from within, –
When Death lit all the shortness up,
And made the hurry plain.

We wondered at our blindness, –
When nothing was to see
But her Carrara guide-post, –
At our stupidity,

When, duller than our dulness,
The busy darling lay,
So busy was she, finishing,
So leisurely were we!

Emily Dickinson’s 177th birthday arrives next Monday, December 10 (and she looks hardly a day over 150 . . .). Celebratory events are gearing up; we’ve already mentioned the reading and discussion at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, on Monday evening.

Closer to home (at least, to Dickinson’s home), the Emily Dickinson Museum has a few events planned:

• “my Verse is alive”, an exhibit that “explores the tangled private and public motives of several figures closely associated with Emily Dickinson,” closes on December 8.
• Emily Dickinson Birthday Lecture, at 4:00 PM today, Thursday, December 6, given by scholar and biographer Polly Longsworth; the title for her lecture is given as “‘Nothing but a Sword’: Austin and Mabel and the Publication of Emily Dickinson’s Poems.”
• Birthday Open House, 1:00 – 4:00 PM on Saturday, December 8; “the first 177 visitors will receive a rose, courtesy of an anonymous donor.”

The Amherst Bulletin lists some of the many entertainments to expect at the open house, including music, crafts, and a book signing by Barbara Dana and Cindy MacKenzie. If you find yourself in Amherst on Saturday, this is a must-see event!

‘Tis the busy holiday buying season, all a-glitter and a-dazzle with things that blink and beep and demand our attention. There are still a few quiet corners of commerce, though, and some of them feature items that might delight a Dickinson lover.

At Shakespeare’s Den, find a silk scarf with Emily Dickinson poems printed on it. (Found by way of Cheryl Rainfield; she lists quite a few other items that book lovers would love to find in their stockings.)

littlebuttons offers an Emily Dickinson tote bag at Etsy.

Also at Etsy, papermenagerie offers several Gocco-print cards featuring Dickinson verse and Victorian engravings.

Here’s a lovely little necklace featuring the first two lines of “Hope is the thing with feathers”, at the Signals shop (the Public Broadcasting catalog spinoff).

letterarypress offers poetic letterpress cards.

Inspired by La Pulcina and the Clothespin Repertory Theatre? Start casting your own miniature Amherst opera with a magnetic Emily Dickinson finger puppet.

The Emily Dickinson Museum offers a lovely poster by Penelope Dullaghan.

The official Daily Dickinson 2008 Calendar is available, featuring poems and pictures that have been featured on this site.

And, of course, there are the Daily Dickinson note cards, featuring photos from this site and the words of Emily Dickinson.

It makes no difference abroad,
The seasons fit the same,
The mornings blossom into noons,
And split their pods of flame.

Wild-flowers kindle in the woods,
The brooks brag all the day;
No blackbird bates his jargoning
For passing Calvary.

Auto-da-fe and judgment
Are nothing to the bee;
His separation from his rose
To him seems misery.

As if some little Arctic flower,
Upon the polar hem,
Went wandering down the latitudes,
Until it puzzled came
To continents of summer,
To firmaments of sun,
To strange, bright crowds of flowers,
And birds of foreign tongue!
I say, as if this little flower
To Eden wandered in –
What then? Why, nothing, only,
Your inference therefrom!

This photo is available as a greeting card.

That I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.

That I shall love alway,
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.

This, dost thou doubt, sweet?
Then have I
Nothing to show
But Calvary.

I asked no other thing,
No other was denied.
I offered Being for it;
The mighty merchant smiled.

Brazil? He twirled a button,
Without a glance my way:
“But, madam, is there nothing else
That we can show to-day?”