{
(set: $bible to (a: "antique", "untold"))
The Bible is an (link-repeat: "[(print: $bible's 1st)]<aab|")[(replace: ?aab)[(set: $bible to (rotated: -1, ...$bible))(print: $bible's 1st)]] Volume -
}
{
(set: $men to (a: "faded", "unknown"))
Written by (link-repeat: "[(print: $men's 1st)]<aac|")[(replace: ?aac)[(set: $men to (rotated: -1, ...$men))(print: $men's 1st)]] Men
}
{
(set: $atthe to (a: "At the suggestion", "By the direction", "At the request"))
(link-repeat: "[(print: $atthe's 1st)]<aai|")[(replace: ?aai)[(set: $atthe to (rotated: -1, ...$atthe))(print: $atthe's 1st)]] of
}{
(set: $spectres to (a: "Holy", "hallowed"))
(link-repeat: "[(print: $spectres's 1st)]<aad|")[(replace: ?aad)[(set: $spectres to (rotated: -1, ...$spectres))(print: $spectres's 1st)]] Spectres -
}
Subjects - Bethlehem -
{
(set: $eden to (a: "Eden - the ancient Homestead", "Genesis - Bethlehem's Ancestor"))
(link-repeat: "[(print: $eden's 1st)]<aae|")[(replace: ?aae)[(set: $eden to (rotated: -1, ...$eden))(print: $eden's 1st)]] -
}
Satan - the Brigadier -
{
(set: $judas to (a: "Great", "first", "great"))
Judas - the (link-repeat: "[(print: $judas's 1st)]<aaf|")[(replace: ?aaf)[(set: $judas to (rotated: -1, ...$judas))(print: $judas's 1st)]] Defaulter -
}
David - the Troubadour -
Sin - a distinguished Precipice
{
(set: $sin to (a: "Others must resist", "But I must desist", "But we must desist"))
(link-repeat: "[(print: $sin's 1st)]<aag|")[(replace: ?aag)[(set: $sin to (rotated: -1, ...$sin))(print: $sin's 1st)]] -
}
{
(set: $boys to (a: "very lonesome", "bastinadoed"))
Boys that "believe" are (link-repeat: "[(print: $boys's 1st)]<aah|")[(replace: ?aah)[(set: $boys to (rotated: -1, ...$boys))(print: $boys's 1st)]] -
}
Other Boys are "lost" -
{
(set: $teller to (a: "thrilling", "typic", "hearty", "bonnie", "breathless", "spacious", "tropic", "warbling", "ardent", "friendly", "magic", "pungent", "winning", "mellow"))
Had but the Tale a (link-repeat: "[(print: $teller's 1st)]<aaa|")[(replace: ?aaa)[(set: $teller to (rotated: -1, ...$teller))(print: $teller's 1st)]] Teller
}
All the Boys would come -
Orpheu's Sermon captivated -
It did not condemn -
//Emily Dickinson//
<table align=center style="width:100%">
<tr><td colspan=2>(display: "the Bible")</td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td width=80% valign=top align=right><small>
<i>Dickinson, Emily. The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. Ed. R. W. Franklin. Cambridge and London: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1999. Print.</I>
Dickinson never intended to be published, though published she was--posthumously, by her sister Lavinia. Her poems were often sent to friends and family in different formats and styles--sometimes around the edge of the envelope, sometimes on the back of a train ticket--before she bound them herself into what she called "fascicles." What made her private/self publishing so interesting was she also made use of alternate words and phrases when writing, leaving the tone and intent of the poem malleable. I don't personally believe this was due to indecision or lack of confidence on her part--forgive the romanticism at play here, but I believe English itself failed Dickinson, and she was forced to create an impressionistic image through an inadequate language, at least able to create the sense of what she wanted out of the negative space left in words that just-quite-almost captured her true meaning.
The alternate words provided in hypertext here are collected from earlier manuscripts, variants, and transcriptions of the same poem, which, like all Dickinson poetry, was unnamed.
</small></td></tr>
</table>