“Although Dickinson did lead an active life outside the home in her youth, her increasing reclusiveness in her later years give the very notion of house and home a special resonance in her work. As such, the unusual piece pictured below is of particular interest, just one of Dickinson’s many “envelope poems” – the focus of a recent book, The Gorgeous Nothings by Marta Werner and Jen Bervin. In this instance, Dickinson has cut apart an envelope so all that remains are the flap and a portion of the body. She orients the paper so the point of the flap is at the top then she fills that peak with words: “The way hope builds his house…” Or, to phrase it more directly, she writes a poem about a house on a piece of paper that looks like a house.”
More in #codex:
- Initial, “Epistolae, etc.”: Spain, 15th century via The British Library, Public Domain.
- A letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra, cross written to save paper, February 8-9, 1807
- Paul Thek: Notebooks
Paul Greer 