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Emily Dickinson wrote short elegiac (elegy-like) poems for several people in her life and writers she admired. One candidate for the subject of “Fame is a fickle food” is a famous writer Dickinson knew: Helen Hunt Jackson. Dickinson and Jackson were childhood classmates at Amherst Academy and exchanged letters after Jackson moved to Colorado Springs.
Jackson, a celebrated poet in her own lifetime, attempted to get Dickinson to publish her poems. Jackson wrote to an ill Dickinson, “I wish you would make me your literary legatee & executor” (Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters edited by Thomas H. Johnson, pg. 312). However, Jackson died unexpectedly from stomach cancer. In a letter written shortly after her death in 1885, Dickinson says, “Helen of Troy will die, but Helen of Colorado, never” (Selected Letters, pg. 325). Jackson lives on in her published writings, but she is never able to write a letter to Dickinson again.
The birds that appear in “Fame is a fickle food” recall the times Dickinson referred to Jackson using avian imagery. In 1884, after Jackson wrote to Dickinson about breaking her leg, Dickinson replied, “I shall watch your passage from Crutch to Cane with jealous affection. From there to your Wings is but a stride — as was said of the convalescing Bird” (Selected Letters, pg.
By Emily Dickinson
A Bird, came down the Walk
A Bird, came down the Walk
Emily Dickinson
A Clock stopped—
A Clock stopped—
Emily Dickinson
After great pain, a formal feeling comes
After great pain, a formal feeling comes
Emily Dickinson
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
A narrow Fellow in the Grass (1096)
Emily Dickinson
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Because I Could Not Stop for Death
Emily Dickinson
"Faith" is a fine invention
"Faith" is a fine invention
Emily Dickinson
Hope is a strange invention
Hope is a strange invention
Emily Dickinson
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
"Hope" Is the Thing with Feathers
Emily Dickinson
I Can Wade Grief
I Can Wade Grief
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind
Emily Dickinson
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
I Felt a Funeral, in My Brain
Emily Dickinson
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Emily Dickinson
If I should die
If I should die
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall
If you were coming in the fall
Emily Dickinson
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
Emily Dickinson
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
Emily Dickinson
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Much Madness is divinest Sense—
Emily Dickinson
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Success Is Counted Sweetest
Emily Dickinson
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Tell all the truth but tell it slant
Emily Dickinson
The Only News I Know
The Only News I Know
Emily Dickinson