創作の軌跡 : エミリ・ディキンスンの詩の異稿研究(2)

This paper is the second report of our research into Emily Dickinson's variant readings. Focusing on the nearly 1,600 suggested changes printed in Poems, we first examined their forms and then considered the intentions which the poet may have had in writing the suggested changes into her fair copies. By analysing the suggested changes, we can inductively conclude that Dickinson seems to have tried to revise her poems with the following intentions: 1. Dickinson tried to correct misspellings and grammatical errors. She also tried to correct loosely quoted words and logical contradictions. 2. Dickinson made necessary corrections in relation to rhyme, though she avoided touching words at the end of the lines as much as possible. 3. Dickinson tried revision because she did not want the same words or words of the same sound to be used repeatedly in a poem. 4. Dickinson strongly wanted to make the meanings of words or sentences clearer or easier to understand. As a result, (1)she tried to add words to fill up the parts which she thought required more words, (2) she tried to change difficult words or expressions to easier ones, (3) she tried to change images and metaphors to plainer ones, (4) she tried to change 'eccentric' words or expressions to more common sensical ones, and (5) she tried to change strongly shocking words and phrases to less shocking ones. The other results of our examination into the suggested changes in Dickinson's poems will be reported in the next paper.