The selection of Emily Dickinson's poems in college textbook anthologies, 1890-1976

Judging by inclusion in college anthologies, Emily Dickinson's poetry has grown remarkably in popularity, especially since 1930. In comparison with the works of other poets, as represented by selected writers used here as controls, her poems have been anthologized increasingly more frequently in the last forty-five years. In addition, recent anthologists tend to choose her best works for inclusion over traditionally popular, but somewhat flawed poems. An examination of all the major types of college anthologies reveals, first, the growing number of Dickinson poems that have been anthologized in each decade by the textbook editors as compared to those of the control poets and, second, the titles of the twenty-five of her 1,775 poems that have been chosen most frequently by them in each decade since l900 (the date of the earliest college anthology available). Furthermore, the survey of Dickinson's major critics determined that the majority of those most frequently anthologized poems are among her best.

In the summer of l976 all college anthologies available on the shelves of the Library of Congress were surveyed-in all, four hundred, forty-two texts. Notes were made regarding the purpose of each book, the level of student for which it was designed, and the type of course for which it was intended. The anthologies were divided into the following types: freshman composition readers, introduction to literature texts, introduction to poetry texts, American literature texts, and American poetry texts. Six tables were compiled to represent the data gathered from each type of anthology surveyed. The six poets chosen iv

for controls were Donne, Eliot, Frost, Robinson, Shakespeare, and Whitman. Cummings and Sandburg were substituted for Donne and Shakespeare in the survey of the American literature and the American poetry texts.

The summary tables compiled at the end of the dissertation reveal that the American literature and the American poetry anthologies contain approximately 32.4 of Dickinson's poems per book as compared to 15.9 of Whitman's (the second most frequently anthologized poet among those surveyed), and the freshman composition readers, the introduction to literature texts, and the introduction to poetry texts contain approximately 5.8 of her poems per book as compared to 7.2 of Shakespeare's (the most frequently anthologized poet among those surveyed). Only the number of poems included in each anthology was counted; word counts were not made. Hence, the comparisons drawn in the tables are more accurate in most cases for Shakespeare than for Whitman whose most frequently anthologized poems are almost always longer than Dickinson's. On the other hand, the tables often reflect that in certain decades, as compared to preceding decades, increasingly more Dickinson poems were chosen than Whitman poems.

The summary tables also include a listing of the twenty-five Dickinson poems which have been most frequently included in the texts surveyed. The majority of these poems, by the consensus of her most distinguished critics, are "great," but a few of lesser merit have also been anthologized frequently while far superior poems have been neglected. Her most frequently anthologized, as well as her most frequently explicated poem is "Because I could not stop for Death-." Six of the critics surveyed praised it highly. On the other hand, two of the critics surveyed disparaged "I never saw a Moor," which, though high on the list of her most frequently anthologized poems, has shown a decline in popularity in recent decades. Because Dickinson is such a frequently anthologized poet in college textbooks, it is reassuring to see evidence that the Dickinson poems which students read are more and more frequently among her best.