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

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”.

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

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  1. How to Kill Time:Emily Dickinson and the Indo-European Bard Tradition Cynthia L. Hallen Associate Professor of Linguistics Brigham Young University

  2. 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).

  3. 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.”

  4. 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.

  5. Poetic Technique • Metrics: isosyllabic, quantitative, bi/tri-colonic versification. • Stylistics: phonological, morphological, and syntactic devices; rhetorical figures. • Formulaics: lexical/semantic cognate phrases.

  6. 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).

  7. Dickinson’s Ring-Compositions

  8. 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!

  9. 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).

  10. 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 haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –

  11. We passed the School, where Children strove At 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 –

  12. We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground – The Roof was scarcely visible – The Cornice – in the Ground – Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses Heads Were toward Eternity –

  13. IE Verbal Formulas in Dickinson

  14. 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 Currency Of Immortality – A Beggar – Here and There – Is gifted to discern Beyond the Broker’s insight – One’s – Money – One’s – the Mine –

  15. IE Grammatical Formulas in Dickinson

  16. Fr830/J906 The Admirations – and Contempts – of time – Show justest – through an Open Tomb – The Dying – as it were a Hight Reorganizes Estimate And what We saw not We distinguish clear – And mostly – see not What We saw before – 'Tis Compound Vision – Light – enabling Light – The Finite – furnished With the Infinite – Convex – and Concave Witness – Back – toward Time – And forward – Toward the God of Him –

  17. Fr1445/J1427 To earn it by disdaining it Is 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 Bouquet Be Honor and not shame –

  18. Fr822/J962 Midsummer, was it, when They died – A full, and perfect time – The Summer closed upon itself In Consummated Bloom – The Corn, her furthest kernel filled Before the coming Flail – When These – leaned into Perfectness – Through Haze of Burial –

  19. 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)

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