He fumbles at your Soul

As Players at the Keys

Before they drop full Music on He stuns you by degrees Prepares your brittle Nature
For the Etherial Blow
By fainter Hammers - further heard Then nearer - Then so slow Your Breath has chance to straighten Your Brain - to bubble Cool Deals One - imperial - Thunderbolt That scalps your naked Soul When Winds hold Forests in their Paws The Firmaments- are still -

Overall, we wanted to put emphasis on certain aspects of the poem, while also
maintaining a fluid flow of ideas and words. We accomplished this through the use of m-dashes,
capitalization of certain letters, and the selection of words that differed between versions of the
poem. While editing this poem, we used and read m-dashes as pauses between certain ideas,
which is seen as a separation of thoughts, as well as a way to emphasize certain aspects. On line
eleven, in many of the versions of this poem, there is an m-dash between deals and one. We
didnt like the use of this m-dash because it added a pause that broke up the flow of the phrase;
however, we still wanted to keep the emphasis on the word one so we capitalized it. In line
eight, we added another m-dash because the two ideas presented in line eight and nine, though
partly similar, wasnt coherent enough for there to be a lack of separation between the lines.
Also, with the inclusion of this m-dash, lines nine and ten are more accentuated and hold a
deeper meaning in the poem. When we wanted to stress a certain idea or word without putting a
pause in the phrase, we would utilize capitalization. For example, with words such as ethereal,
cool, and degrees we either capitalized the first letter or kept it lower case in order to
demonstrate the importance of some ideas and themes over others. Another major part of our
editing and publication process was choosing words that best articulated the theme of the poem.
This occurred in a few circumstances. In line one, the Loomis Todd edition of the poem used the
word spirit instead of soul, which is used in all other publications. Despite spirit and
soul being very similar in their general meanings, when one looks closer at the definitions, it
appears that soul has a much grander and spiritual meaning. We chose soulover spirit,
because it fit better with the spiritual undertones of the poem. In line five, there was another
difference in publications between the usage of the word nature and substance. According to
the lexicon, substance is related to the character or quality of a person while nature is defined
as something that pertains more towards the soul and spirituality of a person. Because of this, we
used the word nature. In line nine, in the alternate version of the poem, Dickinson changed the

word time and made it chance. We decided to use chance because it gives more
importance to the opportunity of preparing yourself for death and dying. In line 13, we chose to
use the word hold instead of take because it makes the wind seem like a much more
powerful being who is able to contain and hold the wind instead of just taking it. Finally, in line
fourteen, the alternate Emily Dickinson version of the poem uses firmaments instead of
universe, which is seen in all of the other referenced versions of the poem. The Emily
Dickinson Lexicon defines universe as a more physical entity, something material in origin,
while firmaments is defined as something more difficult to comprehend. With firmaments in
the phrase, death becomes something of a much greater importance in power.