Emily Dickinson’s Poems: As She Preserved Them

I can only kneel and thank the scholar for those annotations and footnotes. An exceptionally thorough study!

This is it! If you want only one book presenting all of Emily Dickinson's poems, this is the book for you.I acquired the Johnson one-volume edition ( The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ) on March 3, 1989, and that was my only Dickinson until I got Shurr's "New Poems" ( New Poems of Emily Dickinson ) on July 12, 1994. Eventually, I acquired the Franklin one-volume edition ( The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Belknap) ) on December 13, 2010. Finally, I got this Miller edition on July 21, 2016.The Johnson and Miller editions are the only complete editions that I've read straight through. I spent nine weeks this summer (2016) reading the Miller edition, and I enjoyed every page.The chief difference between Franklin's and Johnson's is the order of the poems: Franklin concluded that Johnson had dated many of the poems wrongly; since each edition presents the poems in roughly chronological order according to the editor's best judgement, the order of poems in Franklin's book differs markedly from that of Johnson's.Miller's differs even more dramatically in the order of the poems: Miller generally accepts Franklin's dating of the poems, but presents them in five sections based on how Emily "preserved them". The first section presents the poems that Emily herself had assembled into little booklets called fascicles; the second section presents poems that Emily herself had saved on "unbound sheets" joined together with a brass fastener (though we don't know whether Emily herself did the fastening); the third section presents "loose poems" that Emily had kept in her possession; the fourth section presents "poems transcribed by others" for which no manuscript in Emily's hand has been found; finally, the fifth and last section presents "poems not retained" by the poet herself but given to others. The first three sections are by far the longest, and a majority of the poems appear in the first two sections.One wouldn't go far wrong getting any of the three complete editions -- Johnson, Franklin, or Miller. I think Miller's is best, though, in three respects. First, simply because most of the poems are presented by Miller in fairly small groups (sheets, leaves) whereas the only division of poems in Johnson's and Franklin's books are by year, which makes for a run-on effect after reading for a while. Second, Miller also presents variant readings -- alternative lines and words written by the poet herself on the manuscript pages. (Thus, we get the most significant aspects of a "variorum" edition in a reader's edition.) Third, Miller footnotes to whom (if anyone) the poet shared each poem and provides some helpful annotation about possible sources, references, and allusions, in endnotes.Miller's index of first lines provides the Johnson and Franklin numbers for cross-referencing those older complete editions; alas, though, she provides no numbering system for the poems in her own edition, a deliberate choice that I think was imprudent. (I myself have resorted to referring to the poems in Miller's edition by page and poem number. For instance, one of my favorites, "The Life we have is very great", is Johnson # 1162, Franklin # 1178, and Miller "number" 707.3.)A magnificent work of scholarship, and a very enjoyable read. This is it!P.S. This is only the fourth review of this book here: I don't provide many reviews, and this is the first time I've been one of the earliest reviewers. The Complete Poems of Emily DickinsonNew Poems of Emily DickinsonThe Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition (Belknap)

Amazing book very heavy and brilliant poems!Only downfall is the book wasn’t packed very well so the corners arrived a bit damaged and bent maybe next time use bubble wrap and put it in a cardboard box instead of just a paper bag ? But above all superb poetry !

This should now be the definitive book of Emily Dickinson's poetry. It is important to know the sequence in which she wrote her poetry. (And helps even more if you have read "The Life of Emily Dickinson" by Richard B. Sewell, a wonderful biography of her life.) There are so many books of poetry out there supposed to be her poetry, but instead are poems doctored by well-meaning family and friends. I have yet to read the entire book, as it is long, but I intend to compare it to the prior authoritative version of her poetry by R. W. Franklin.I had thought from the advertisement of the book that it would have more photographs of her actual handwritten poetry fragments. However, there weren't very many of such illustrations. I might add that I also have the book, "Emily Dickinson: The Gorgeous Nothings," by Marta Werner andJen Bervin which includes multiple photographs of her handwritten poems or scraps of them. However, this book has its own problems as the poems from which they are drawn is listed in the end of the book as a Directory of the Envelope Writings rather than with the photographs of her writing in the main part of the book. The scraps photographed themselves do not necessarily help identify the actual poems by themselves.

I read reviews about this book and it sounded perfect for me. As a writer, I appreciate studying the processes of other writers, and this book demonstrates exactly that. I must admit, I was attracted to the black cover with the flowers in hand, but was aware that there was another less vibrant cover that some people received. I finally made up my mind to go for it anyway, because it’s the contents, right?But still, I was beyond happy when it arrived with the black cover. It just feels so “Emily” to me. I’ve glanced through the opening and I’m already entranced. If you are looking for a premiere collection, rest assured this is it, no matter the cover