Thanks, I never thought about it in that way.
Robert

-----Original Message-----
From: Carrol Cox [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 2:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: OT: Nonexistent scholarship by nobody


Meyer Robert K GS-9 99 CES/CECT wrote:
>
>  I personally hope that the "banish us" version
> is the more accurate one because it makes more
> sense, to me at least.
>

Her earliest editors edited some (many) of her poems to seem more
"poetical," hence the banish rather than the advertize. I would presume
that all editions of the last 40+ years read "advertise."

I have Thomas H. Johnson's one volume edition of the poems, but the text
there follows his original three volume edition, which is based directly
on Dickinson's manuscripts. I forget now whether the dashes are grounded
in certainty as to her punctuation or merely reflect ambiguities of
penmanship, but I think the former.

Probably someone on the list is an actual Dickinson scholar and can
provide more precise information.

I would argue strongly that the "advertise" makes sense while the
"banish" is unintelligible. The poem is about _avoiding_ public notice.
Banishing would aid in such avoidance, while advertising her existence
is the _one_ thing to be most avoided. "They" don't banish nobodies:
they advertise them as freaks.

Carrol