How to Kill Time:Emily Dickinson and the Indo-European Bard Tradition

Cynthia L. Hallen

Associate Professor of Linguistics

Brigham Young University

1870 Putnam Magazine article:“Linguistics – the New Philology”

“Within the past seventy years of this century, a new study, Linguistics, or The Science of Language, has invaded the circle of the sciences, demanding, as her own assigned place in the world of knowledge, an arc of its circumference” (J.G.R. McElroy 90).

Calvert Watkins (1995)How to Kill a Dragon.

Comparative Indo-European Poetics is “a linguistic approach to the form, nature, and function of poetic language and archaic literature among a variety of ancient Indo-European peoples.”

Calvert Watkins

Poetics is “the study of what makes a verbal message a work of art.”

The two main aspects of Indo-European (IE) poetics are the poet’s technique, and the poet’s purpose.

Poetic Technique

Metrics: isosyllabic, quantitative, bi/tri-colonic versification.

Stylistics: phonological, morphological, and syntactic devices; rhetorical figures.

Formulaics: lexical/semantic cognate phrases.

IE Stylistic Figure: Ring-composition

“the beginning and ending of a discourse … with the same or equivalent word, phrase, or just sound sequence” (Watkins 34).

Based on the Irish concept of closing a ring-fort, or circle of stones (37).

Dickinson’s Ring-Compositions

… "morning" … "morning" ... Poem Fr 148

… summer's Day … summer's Day! 104

… "Heart's Ease" … Heart's Ease … 167

… Ebon Box … Ebon Box … 180

… Cathedral Aisle … Chapel Aisle. 211

I'm "wife" … I'm "Wife"! Stop there! 225

… Agony … Anguish … 339

Knows how … Don’t you know? 391

… Draught of Life … Dram of Heaven! 396

Just once! … "Just Once" … 478

… Prayer … "pray" -- 525

Dickinson Poem Fr89/J139

Soul, Wilt thou toss again?

By just such a hazard

Hundreds have lost indeed –

But tens have won an all –

Angels' breathless ballot

Lingers to record thee –

Imps in eager Caucus

Raffle for my Soul!

Indo-European Formulaics

Formulas are verbal and grammatical devices “for encoding and transmitting a given theme or interactions of themes” (17).

IE formulaics include lexical-semantic set phrases (18), and

Simple and Complex grammatical formulas that function symbolically and indexically (41-49).

Fr479/J712

Because I could not stop for Death –He kindly stopped for me –The Carriage held but just Ourselves –And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children stroveAt Recess – in the Ring –We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –The Dews drew quivering and chill –For only Gossamer, my Gown –My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemedA Swelling of the Ground –The Roof was scarcely visible –The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yetFeels shorter than the DayI first surmised the Horses HeadsWere toward Eternity –

IE Verbal Formulas in Dickinson

cattle and men (Watkins 15)

God the Father; sky-father (8)

hero slaying the serpent; bane (10)

imperishable fame (12-13)

language of Gods and men

Lord-King; father of the nation (8)

overcoming death (12)

ruler/king/lord as driver/charoiteer (9)

swift horses (12)

tomb as house

water, gold, fire (11)

writing as stitching/weaving

Fr536/J406 Some – Work for Immortality –The Chiefer part, for Time –He – Compensates – immediately – The former – Checks – on Fame –

Slow Gold – but Everlasting –The Bullions of Today –Contrasted with the CurrencyOf Immortality –

A Beggar – Here and There –Is gifted to discernBeyond the Broker’s insight –One’s – Money – One’s – the Mine –

IE Grammatical Formulas in Dickinson

the seen and the unseen, Vedic That knows – and does not know

(Fr/1438J1413)

gods above and below, Greek Convex – and Concave Witness Fr830/J906

true and not false, Old Persian Honor and not shame Fr1445/J1427

prayer and incantations, Greek full, and perfect time (Fr822/J962)

shepherd of the people, Old English Awful Father of Love (Fr1200/J1204)

bread and wine, Greek Grape – and Maise” = (Fr862/J681)

Fr830/J906 The Admirations – and Contempts – of time –Show justest – through an Open Tomb –The Dying – as it were a HightReorganizes EstimateAnd what We saw notWe distinguish clear –And mostly – see notWhat We saw before –

'Tis Compound Vision –Light – enabling Light –The Finite – furnishedWith the Infinite –Convex – and Concave Witness –Back – toward Time –And forward –Toward the God of Him –

Fr1445/J1427

To earn it by disdaining itIs Fame's consummate Fee –He loves what spurns him –Look behind – He is pursuing thee.

So let us gather – every Day –The Aggregate of Life's BouquetBe Honor and not shame –

Fr822/J962

Midsummer, was it, when They died –A full, and perfect time –The Summer closed upon itselfIn Consummated Bloom –

The Corn, her furthest kernel filledBefore the coming Flail –When These – leaned into Perfectness –Through Haze of Burial –

The Poet’s Purpose

Say something wholly traditional in a new and interesting way (Watkins 188)

Let your light shine (Watkins 188; Matthew 5:16) Transcend time by keeping it and killing it in

forms Healing; overcoming death Locate poets and readers in a cosmology that is

permanently everlasting (Watkins 303)