You cannot put a Fire out—

A Thing that can ignite

Can go, itself, without a Fan—

Upon the slowest Night—

You cannot fold a Flood—

And put it in a Drawer—

Because the Winds would find it out—

And tell your Cedar Floor—

This may seem odd but let hear me out. I’ve been doing some reading of Emily’s poems and her life. A lot about her lover was Sue but Sue was married to her brother so obviously it was a secret at the time. Even after it took a long time for historians to catch on and actually acknowledge it. I’m not sure if other people suspected Emily of being gay at the time but I feel like this is what’s happening with Taylor. Taylor’s songs are what Emily’s poems were to her. Only they know the real meaning behind it. And I saw a meme about how Emily had written a letter to Sue saying I tore open your letter and licked the envelope’s seal for any lingering trace of you. This made me think of how in cardigan taylor goes but I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss. Which then made me think of I get mystified by how this city screams and if you’d ever walk away I’d never walk Cornelia street again. I’m not sure if this makes sense but what I’m getting at is that like Emily, only Taylor and her lover(s) know the truth. And that her songs give us some glimpse into the truth if you pay attention.

EDIT I know it’s Bon Iver but I can’t change the title looool sorry my phone played a joke on me

So I’m a swiftie and a longtime fan of Emily Dickinson. I haven’t yet watched the new series that features Ivy, but I wrote this in my notes last year the night that Evermore came out and wanted to share it lol. I would be suuuper interested in hearing the perspective of people who have seen the show or other Dickinson fans.

Evermore (the song ft. Bon Iver) is a nod to Emily Dickinson.

(1) I’ll start with what we already knew. First, the song came December 10th, which is Dickinson’s birthday. It’s called Evermore, a reference to one of Dickinson’s poems, “one sister have I in our house”

(2) The aforementioned poem was written about Dickinson’s sister-in-law Susan, who is regarded as her first and greatest love. She frequently used the word “forevermore” (or just more) in their correspondences.

(3) A big theme in the song is death/loss, which Dickinson was famous for. She wrote about death in a curious and reverent way rather than fearfully. In “because I could not stop for death” she welcomes death like an old friend. Something as natural as “catching one’s breath”? 🤔

(4) We also know that Taylor has found inspiration in famous poets lately, as we heard in “the lakes.” “Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die”? That entire song reads like a Dickinson letter tbh.

(5) death,continued: the opening lyrics of the song are, “gray November, I’ve been down since July” Late in her life, lots of people close to Emily died around the same time. This took a toll on her, and during the summer soon after, she fainted and fell very ill.

(5) Fire: She was bedridden for the rest of her life, but during that time, she continued to write letters. The song says, “writing letters, destined for the fire.” Emily had her sister Lavania promise to burn her letters when she died.

(6) Isolation: She burned a lot of it, but when she found the poetry she knew she had to keep it. Emily lived most of her life in extreme isolation. She stayed in her room and wrote, for the most part. No one knew just how much she had written until after she died.

(7) Isolation continued: the song makes lots of references to her being alone in her room: “In the cracks of light I dreamed of you” “the creaks on the floor” “staring out an open window”

(8) Ocean references: Emily Dickinson was always talking about the ocean. Idk but she loved it. Evermore makes a lot of refe

Emily Dickinson would deliberately change gender pronouns in her love letters and poems to Susan Gilbert. Check this excerpt out of an article I read:

“Dickinson would frequently and deliberately reassign gender pronouns for herself and her beloveds, recasting her love in the acceptable male-female battery of desire. Throughout her life, she would often use the masculine in referring to herself — writing of her “boyhood,” signing letters to her cousins as “Brother Emily,” calling herself a “boy,” “prince,” “earl,” or “duke” in various poems, in one of which she unsexes herself in a violent transfiguration:

Amputate my freckled Bosom! Make me bearded like a Man!

Again and again, she would tell all the truth but tell it slant, unmooring the gender of her love objects from the pronouns that befit their biology. Later in life, in flirting with the idea of publication, she would masculinize the pronouns in a number of her love poems — “bearded” pronouns, she called these — to fit the heteronormative mold, so that two versions of these poems exist: the earlier addressed to a female beloved, the later to a male”.

Doesn’t this sound like what Taylor Swift also does with a ton of her songs to fit a heteronormative mold (switching the female to an “acceptable” male pronoun like in The Very First Night for example). It’s also interesting that Dickinson referred to herself as prince (giving me King Taylor vibes).

Check out the whole article here

Merry Christmas, fellow Gaylors!

but this time it’s the fictional emily dickinson!

i binged the entire first season of dickinson today (merry christmas😁) and the final episode “i felt a funeral in my brain” (named for one of dickinson’s poems) REALLY struck me. in short, there’s a lengthy scene where emily is imagining ber own funeral as sue (her lover) is being married to austin.

does that imagery sound familiar to anyone?

enter: my tears ricochet.

the song begins with a common wedding opener (“we gather here”) then outlines a metaphorical funeral. taylor also ties weddings/engagement back into the song with the line: “we gather stones never knowing what they’ll mean / some to throw, some to make a diamond ring.” though it’s not said explicitly, i’m assuming the mention of stone here is also meant to signify headstones.

also: this may not mean much, but it’s worth pointing out that emily did not attend sue’s wedding (also mentioned in this episode), just as taylor didn’t attend either of karlie’s. there just seem to be so many parallels between emily & taylor: i think it’s entirely possible that writing these last two albums she found some sort of sanctuary in emily’s story & related it back to her own experiences of loss n love that wasn’t quite hers.

to be fair, i could be making connections where there aren’t any & i know we’ve been milking dickinson on this sub ever since ivy was included, but taylor isn’t often featured in soundtracks, so i feel like it’s significant that she chose this show. what do you guys think?

Show me Eternity, and I will show you Memory - Both in one package lain And lifted back again -

Be Sue, while I am Emily - Be next, what you have ever been, Infinity -

I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you – Nobody – too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody! How public – like a Frog – To tell one's name – the livelong June – To an admiring Bog!

You left me – Sire – two Legacies –

A Legacy of Love

A Heavenly Father would suffice

Had He the offer of –

You left me Boundaries of Pain –

Capacious as the Sea –

Between Eternity and Time –

Your Consciousness – and me –

Fame is a fickle food

Upon a shifting plate

Whose table once a

Guest but not

The second time is set

Whose crumbs the crows inspect

And with ironic caw

Flap past it to the

Farmer’s corn

Men eat of it and die

I measure every grief I meet With analytic eyes; I wonder if it weighs like mine, Or has an easier size.

I wonder if they bore it long, Or did it just begin? I could not tell the date of mine, It feels so old a pain.

I wonder if it hurts to live, And if they have to try, And whether, could they choose between, They would not rather die.

I wonder if when years have piled— Some thousands—on the cause Of early hurt, if such a lapse Could give them any pause;

I took my Power in my Hand—

And went against the World—

‘Twas not so much as David—had—

But I—was twice as bold—

I aimed my Pebble—but Myself

Was all the one that fell—

Was it Goliath—was too large—

Or was myself—too small?

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne'er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host

Who took the Flag today

Can tell the definition

So clear of victory

As he defeated – dying –

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear!

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

A word is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.

I was looking for a dickinson specific subreddit so apologies if this isn’t the place I should be

I made a playlist after finishing the show and was wondering if anyone on here has any songs you think I should add?

I want to make sure the songs at least loosely blend together genre wise so I (and maybe others) can listen to it easily but apart from that any suggestions would be massively appreciated

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1PEqkZzYsqSUPwx3LIuhZ5?si=W9co_rswT7G4o-aPztlrSQ

Thanks!!

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 –

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 –

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 –

I dwell in Possibility –

A fairer House than Prose –

More numerous of Windows –

Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –

Impregnable of eye –

And for an everlasting Roof

The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –

For Occupation – This –

The spreading wide my narrow Hands

To gather Paradise –

Wild nights - Wild nights!

Were I with thee

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!

Futile - the winds -

To a Heart in port -

Done with the Compass -

Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden -

Ah - the Sea!

Might I but moor - tonight -

In thee!

Emily Dickinson (Mordiggian)

https://preview.redd.it/kf1e65t5c6781.png?width=900&format=png&auto=webp&s=27c9249458a28ba6ea613ef11852b2d0a972333f

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Japanese Name: エミリー・ディキンソン

AKA: The New England Mystic, Mordiggian, Cynothoglys

(Note: I have a head canon of Emily, through her facination with death, searching for the Necronomicon, only to come across Culte des Goules. She later forms a connection with Mordiggian and Cynothoglys, changing her into a Foreigner.)

Class: Foreigner

Gender: Female

Traits: Divine, Existence Outside the Domain, Female, Hominidae Servant, Humanoid, Servant, Threat to Humanity, Weak to Enuma Elish

Q:3 B:2 A:2 EX:5

Active Skills

First Skill

Skill Level

Skill Cooldown

Second Skill

Skill Cooldown

Second Skill, after Strengthen 1

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;

If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,

Or help one fainting robin

Unto his nest again,

I shall not live in vain.

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air -

Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset - when the King

Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable - and then it was

There interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -

Between the light - and me -

And then the Windows failed - and then

I could not see to see -

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,

And Mourners to and fro

Kept treading - treading - till it seemed

That Sense was breaking through -

And when they all were seated,

A Service, like a Drum -

Kept beating - beating - till I thought

My mind was going numb -

And then I heard them lift a Box

And creak across my Soul

With those same Boots of Lead, again,

Then Space - began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell,

And Being, but an Ear,

And I, and Silence, some strange Race,

Wrecked, solitary, here -

And then a Plank in Reason, broke,

And I dropped down, and down -

And hit a World, at every plunge,

And Finished knowing - then -

The Soul selects her own Society — Then — shuts the Door — To her divine Majority — Present no more —

Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing — At her low Gate — Unmoved — an Emperor be kneeling Upon her Mat —

I've known her — from an ample nation — Choose One — Then — close the Valves of her attention — Like Stone —

Split the lark and you’ll find the music,

Bulb after bulb, in silver rolled,

Scantily dealt to the summer morning,

Saved for your ear when lutes be old.

Loose the flood, you shall find it patent,

Gush after gush, reserved for you;

Scarlet experiment! sceptic Thomas,

Now, do you doubt that your bird was true?

So I just stumbled upon this amazing take on RED and I am speechless. I knew I had to share it here. Enjoy, fellow Gaylors. 💕

1272

So proud she was to die

It made us all ashamed

That what we cherished, so unknown

To her desire seemed –

So satisfied to go

Where none of us should be

Immediately – that Anguish stopped

Almost to Jealousy –

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody – too?

Then there's a pair of us!

Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!

How public – like a Frog –

To tell one's name – the livelong June –

To an admiring Bog!

I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading – treading – till it seemed That Sense was breaking through –

And when they all were seated, A Service, like a Drum – Kept beating – beating – till I thought My mind was going numb –

And then I heard them lift a Box And creak across my Soul With those same Boots of Lead, again, Then Space – began to toll,

As all the Heavens were a Bell, And Being, but an Ear, And I, and Silence, some strange Race, Wrecked, solitary, here –

And then a Plank in Reason, broke, And I dropped down, and down – And hit a World, at every plunge, And Finished knowing – then –