Poetry Thursday - I died for beauty - Emily Dickinson

Read aloud and brief discussion on this poem from The Complete Poems.
Fellow poetry lovers mentioned:
‪@poetrycrone6061‬
‪@StrippedCoverLitMedia‬
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[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

I’ve always had a fair faith in Johnson, and never heard that he’s been superseded. Possibly the other version comes from a tampered source? Not that Johnson can’t be wrong, to be sure, but this would have to be documented somewhere.

[@willchambers8065]

That was part of my uneasiness with how pronounced a declaration it was in the front of the book. I'm pretty sure also that the US version of the same book (also curated by Johnson) had the variation so perhaps it has localised amendments based on the market? Americans would appreciate the berries line and us in Europe would better read the Rhine line.

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

@@willchambers8065 I remember one of the poems - “Safe in their alabaster chambers” - occurs in two versions in Johnson (both under one number). It’s a curious question.

[@poetrycrone6061]

Thanks for sharing the "pedigree" of the volume you're reading from. I suppose the controversy will never end. You did a great job of working your way through the pronoun ambiguity. I've never agreed with the equating of truth with beauty, but I don't begrudge its emphasis in the mythos of poetry. You questioned the year of 1862 and I couldn't resist looking it up. Dante Rossetti's wife (and model) Elizabeth Siddall died of an overdose of laudanum in that year. Maybe a source of inspiration for this poem?

[@willchambers8065]

I was befuddled by the ambiguity even having heard it several times from various readings. The rhetorical nature of it in the asking and then being met by an answer is striking to me.
It's a long shot whether it was from real deaths but I like the idea of there being a real impulse for the writing of it.