reading with Emily Dickinson...

     Emily Dickinson in 1862 wrote this to Thomas Higginson: 'You inquire my books - For Poets - I have Keats - and Mr and Mrs Browning. For Prose - Mr Ruskin - Sir Thomas Browne - and the Revelations,' (L404). Let's see, I just happen to have a volume of Browne's works right over there, and lo, he is indeed next to Mr and Mrs Browning, and a few inches away we find Keats himself. I confess that Ruskin bores me, even though he's essential not only for Dickinson but for Hopkins as well. What's curious is that reference to John's Revelation. Does hearing her mention that strange and wonderful work in conjunction with the strange and wonderful works of Sir Thomas Browne give you pause? It should. She's stranger and deeper than we thought, my friends.