Sunday’s strip took a few liberties with Emily Dickinson’s famous “hash-mark” punctuation. I felt bad about that, and started to think of how I would apologize to her, were she alive today. Referencing the wonderful caricature of her I’ve created in my mind, here’s how I think it would go down:
Me: (Knocking at her front door with “I’m sorry” brownies in hand) Miss Dickinson? Hello? My name’s Dave. I wanted to apologize for —
Her: G’WAY! GET OFF MY LAWN!
Me: But I —
Her: G’WON! SCOOT!
Me: But —
Her: DON’T MAKE ME COME OUTSIDE! ‘CAUSE I’LL DO IT! EVEN THOUGH IT’S BEEN TWO WEEKS!
Me: (Walking away from her front door) Um, OK.
Her: (Immediately composing her next poem) “Death’s dear-dark hand was at my door….etc, etc”
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Also! A fun fact I wasn’t aware of: Thirty or so Sheldonistas dropped me a note to let me know that every Emily Dickinson poem can be sung to “Yellow Rose of Texas”. Rad! I think we can all feel pretty sure that was her authorial intent! Try it with Sunday’s strip!