15 November 2020: "In Dickinson’s poetry, cheer and mischief statistically outshine bleaker topics. The word despair appears only six times in the letters and 31 times in the poems, whereas derivatives of the word delight appear 108 times in Dickinson’s letters and about 55 times in her poetry. Mentions of the word pain are comparatively fewer, too: they can be found in only 30 places in her letters and a little over 50 times in her poems. Sometimes the word pain is paired with the word delight, like the poem, 'Wonder – is not precisely knowing,' in which she writes, 'Whether Adult Delight be Pain/Or of itself a new misgiving –/ This is the Gnat that mangles men' (F1347). In other words, Dickinson seldom frames difficult experiences in wholly negative terms." --Eleanore Lewis Lambert, "Emily Dickinson's Joke about Death"
Came across this article--this specific passage--while reading a student's paper proposal. It immediately stood out to me, particularly the observation about "delight." It's one of my favorite emotions, of course, surprise and joy linked with a kind of vulnerability, I think. And it's seemingly in short supply these days.
Lambert reminds us, though, that delight and pain are linked, almost dependent on each other. Interesting thoughts on Sunday afternoon...
Work Cited
Lambert, Eleanore Lewis. "Emily Dickinson's Joke about Death." Studies in American Humor, vol. 3, no. 27, 2013, pp. 7-32. EBSCOHost.
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