Thomas Wentworth Higginson

     After hearing about Thomas Wentworth Higginson in class I was fascinated by him.  What was the relationship like between him and Emily?  Who was he as a person?  And what was the reasoning behind editing Emily's poems? While this isn't an essay and I'm only scratching the surface, I did come across some interesting information about the man.

     Being one of the very few people that Emily kept in contact with, it must be assumed that Thomas had to be an interesting person, which is accurate.  He was a Captain of a Union regiment during the Civil War. This group was one of the first to enlist African Americans into their ranks.  Being a Minister before the war was another one of his occupations.  He also read a poem by Emily Bronte at Dickinson's funeral.  

     His relationship with Emily was one, as she would call him her, "preceptor."  He was also referred in one article I read as, "her only critic."  He advised her on her writing, and had much to do with her works finally being published.  His reasoning behind editing Emily's poems as far as I found out, is because it couldn't be classified, making them difficult to publish in his eyes.  While at the same time referring to her as, "wholly new and original poetic genius," he chopped up some of the critically best works of poetry in the English language.  I'm not saying that he has bad taste or could not write, quite the opposite in fact, but I find it interesting that he, along with Mabel Loomis Todd, found her works in a way, needing polishing.  After looking at some of the decisions they made when editing in class, I cannot say that they were completely wrong, and I can say any of the poems were completely butchered.  They were just, different.

Does anybody agree with the decisions they made?


Sources:

http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/ed/node/70

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/308

Weblog Post #1

            After reading Twain’s selected readings I feel like I gained a good amount of perspective on the man’s sense of humor.  Two stories in particular struck as something only a very intelligent comedian would do: Letters From Earth, and The War Prayer.  

            While Letters I found to be very funny by playing with expectations and turning preconceived notions on their head, War Prayer is in its construction one big joke.  A joke essentially is a setup, and a punch line.  The set up was a church in the midst of a rousing, patriotic prayer from the preacher is then deflated by the observations of an aged stranger.  The stranger posits that, in a nutshell, praying for victory is praying for failure for somebody else.  The punch line is in fact the last line of the story: “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.”  I found it to be paralleling the same kind of thought process as George Carlin.  He drops a new idea on you, and then to break the tension pops in a punch line that makes the whole thing hilarious.  But while it makes you laugh, you feel like you are learning something important as well.  As well as juggling with such taboo topics as religion and war also put him in familiar territory with Carlin.

Or am I misinterpreting his sincerity with sarcasm?  Is his tone more dreadful and serious?