The opening paragraph of an article published on the Best American Poetry blog, February 19, 2021, Introducing Emily Dickinson, part 1, ends with this sentence:
“Today the power of her dash is acknowledged as an element of style in any university course in which her work is taught.”
Thus writes David Lehman, noted anthologist and poesyturge.* But Ms. Dickinson, as a non-colored woman of privelege, did not work, nor is her poetry laborious, by any stretch of the imagination.
This illustrates the ultimate incompatibility between what poets do and what scholars do. All a poet wants from yesterday, or from the previous week, even, is the literary analogue to a diving board or a launch pad.
What scholars require is a piece of the past to hang their hat on. Well, a piece torn off and polished with special scholar powder, which may earn the scholar bags of dollars.
*poesyturge = one who does in poetry class what dramaturges do in theatres.