"No man saw awe nor to his house" by Emily Dickinson

E.E. Phone Poem

Episode 2: The Adventures of Tricky Dickieson

This poem was a tough one, but I believe we perservered through some delightfully arcane syntax. That said, I do feel compelled to give a "head's up" about the nature of some of the subject matter in this week's episode.

Probably Unnecessary Warning

So, the poem we picked this week ended up relying on some pretty specific allusions to the Book of Exodus, as such spend a good portion of this episode talking about religion. Our personal religious veiws are too complicated to get into here, but essentially we treat religious texts the same as we treat poetry. That is to say, we take it seriously but we're also not afraid to crack a few jokes of possibly questionable taste about it too . I also want to take this opportunity to clearly and openly state that while we both have complex and evolving views on religious questions, we are unequivicably opposed to any institution or system of beliefs that seeks to opress and/or invalidate the experiences and perspectives of women and LGBTQ individuals.

Actual Show Notes

Since Dickinson's work is firmly in the public domain, I've reproduced the text of the poem below. The original handwritten manuscript we refer to in the episode is available online here at the Emily Dickinson Archive. You can also find a slightly more extensive version of these very show notes at our website.
This episode definitely ended up a bit more on the serious side of the spectrum than our first, but worry not, the jokes will be back next week in full force.

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"No man saw awe, nor to his house" by Emily Dickinson
No man saw awe, nor to his house Admitted he a man
Though by his awful residence
Has human nature been.
Not deeming of his dread abode
Till laboring to flee
A grasp on comprehension laid
Detained vitality.
Returning is a different route
The Spirit could not show
For breathing is the only work
To be enacted now.
"Am not consumed," old Moses wrote,
"Yet saw him face to face"—
That very physiognomy
I am convinced was this