Publication Flashcards
What
In __, a speaker defines publication as a sacrilegious act, reflecting Dickinson’s strained relationship with the literary marketplace.
C1
‘Publication - is the Auction / Of the Mind of Man - ‘
> Initiates definition
- L1 + 2 = initiate definition as well as juxt. bw commercial + spiritual.
- ‘pub’ = ‘auction’ of ‘mind of man’ (i.e: sells off intangible & sacred human imagination)
Connotations
- conn. slave auctions (assoc. with decreased freedom) accen. by internal rhyme: ‘tion’
Trochaic rhythms + cacophanous /k/ + internal rhyme.
-cacophonous /k/ -> pub = harsh, unforgiving, barbaric, accentuated by trochaic rhythm.
C2
‘Poverty - be justifying’ + ‘so foul’ + ‘possibly’
-Pub = spiritual pollution (connot. ‘foul’), only ‘justified’ by material deprivation (‘poverty’)
-Enjambment onto qualified ‘possibly’ -> even poverty no excuse, all should be martyrs to artistic + spirit. freedom
‘but We - would rather / From Our Garret go / White -‘
-imagery of whiteness shows speaker rather die ‘pure’ (unpublished) than sullied by process of publication / emphatic enjambment of lines 5/6/7 shows sp’s conviction.
Why
Thus, for Dickinson, publication is a sordid transaction which defies the imagination; like the speaker of “Letter”, who prefers the intimacy of epistolary model to commercialism of print, the speaker suggests that all poets should resist the profit motive if they are to maintain their aesthetics and spiritual integrity.
C2
‘Thought belong to Him who gave it -‘
- Simple diction = aphoristic tone to convey, as in “Slant”, where God ‘gives’ thoughts + feelings (using N as a kind of conduit) God = source of poetic inspo - t/f poet not at liberty to sell it via pub.
C2
‘corporeal illustration’ +
‘sell the Royal Air’
- debasing conn. of ‘corporeal’ + ‘sell’ show sp. sees pub. as tantamount to prostituion of mind
-Imperial diction of ‘Royal Air’ (also seen in “Slant” + “Letter”) reveals ‘selling’ words same as selling imagination, property of God.
