TEXTS: Some Favored Nook By Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) Adapted by Mark Campbell (b. 1953) and Eric Nathan (b. 1983) (Note: The source of each text is cited in the footnotes. In many cases, the text used in the libretto has been adapted from the original, with the frequent omission of words for dramatic and artistic purposes. However, the words used have not been altered from the original, except in the rare cases of altering tenses for grammatical cohesion, which are noted in the footnotes. Emily Dickinson’s poetry is given below in italics).
PART I I. To tell me what is true? [Dickinson letter to Higginson, received April 16, 1862; and Higginson’s commentary in “Emily Dickinson’s Letters,” in the Atlantic Monthly, October 1891] 1 DICKINSON: Mr. Higginson, Are you too deeply occupied to say if my verse is alive? The mind is so near itself It cannot see distinctly, And I have none to ask. Should you think it breathed, And had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude. HIGGINSON: The letter was postmarked “Amherst,” In a handwriting so peculiar As if the writer might have taken her first lessons By studying fossil bird-tracks. DICKINSON: If I make the mistake, That you dared to tell me Would give me sincerer honor toward you. HIGGINSON: Of punctuation there was little; She used chiefly dashes But the most curious thing Was the total absence of a signature. As if the shy writer wished to recede As far as possible from view —in pencil, not in ink. DICKINSON: I inclose my name, asking you, If you please, sir, To tell me what is true?
1
Adapted from Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “Emily Dickinson’s Letters,” Atlantic Monthly, October 1891.