Part 1.

1. A fascicle is one installment of a book that is published in pieces before it is published together. Emily Dickinson published most of her poetry this way, choosing roughly twenty poems per fascicle and binding them (pg. 1587). Her poem [One sister have I in our house] was published in her second fascicle, which was at some point cancelled by a family member. Dickinson chose not to publish her works altogether, only publishing ten in total in her life, and it wasn’t until after her death that a complete book of her poetry was published. She, as we know from photostats of her work, often used dashes and other unconventional forms of punctuation in her poetry. This, when combined with her lack of a complete book and preference for smaller installments of poetry, speak to her desire to avoid an abrupt ending. Perhaps Dickinson continued to write fascicles because she did not want the finality of a book. In any regard, Dickinson most commonly bound her work in these shorter installments, and did not publish them all together. She had nearly 1,200 poems written and tied off into fascicles, but she did not publish any of them, which I find fascinating. 
2. Free verse is a form of poetry that does not form itself to any modern conventions or rules. There is no formula for writing it. Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” is an 1855 line free verse poem combining meditation, autobiography, sermon, and a scandalous amount of eroticism. The free verse form gives Whitman room to play around. He has no rules to set his poetry to, there is nothing but his words. For “Song of Myself” this is a brave choice. The poem becomes almost like an epic, and certainly so in length. The free verse fits with the winding nature of the poem. There is no end goal that needs to be accomplished, there is no formula needing adherence. Whitman can simply write as he wants, and the winding form of the poem fits with the free spirited nature of the words.

Part 2.

1. The lines “The brain is just the weight of God- / For- heft them- pound for pound- / and they will differ- if they do / as syllable form sound-/” come from the third and final stanza of Emily Dickinson’s untitled poem, referred to by its first line [The Brain- is wider than the Sky-] (ll. 9-12). This poem talks about the divinity of humankind, the inherent ability to be equal with God, that the brain is “wider than the Sky,” “deeper than the sea,” and “just the weight of God,” three lines that emphasize the importance of the human mind (ll. 1, 5, 9). It is not until the third stanza that the mention of God is brought in, but it truly encapsulates what Dickinson is trying to convey about the intelligence and wonder of the human mind. She is saying that the gifts of the human brain are no different from God, that they differ only, “as syllable from sound,” which is to say only in name (ll. 12). As I said in my response to the reading questions, it is the self-made person that can equal God. There is no difference between the vast power of the human brain and that of God. Humanity can create new life, we can condemn and judge, we can love and cherish just as well as God, and this makes our brain in equal measure to God. Humanity, with the capacity of that brain that is equally weighted, “pound for pound,” with the weight of God, can accomplish so much more than God ever could because of our ability to equal him as individuals (ll. 10). This poem is very hopeful, it is a deep breath before digging into a pile of work, and this last stanza truly emphasizes Dickinson’s appreciation for humanity. It is a love poem of a kind, that shows just how much faith one person can have. It is not a poem of braggadocio, in which Dickinson claims her own brain equals God’s, but rather that “The brain” is of the same merit as the Creator’s (ll. 9). The collective brain of humanity, the brain of the inventor, the brain of the writer, the brain of the teacher. It is a love poem to humanity for all their accomplishments, that they may remember how brilliant and creative humanity can be, and that because our brains hold this wonderful power, we can reach the same heights as God can if we just try.