Emily Dickinson's Cannabis Plant

May 15, 2016 10:36 AM

...is but one of over 400 plants held in the poet's digitally-accessible herbaria [NYT slideshow] "Her first assembled collection was not, as one might expect, a collection of writing, but a collection of [pressed] plant specimens." The collection is available for digital access through Harvard's Houghton Library: "The digital edition also notes corrected identifications when Dickinson got the plants' names wrong. That wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. Fair enough—she was only 14." Cannabis Culture has its own set of opinions about 14 year old Emily's herbaria: "It’s quite possible that she was content with her life of seclusion because she was having daily mystical experiences, aided by psychotropic plants she grew in her garden, or found in the woods."
posted by nightrecordings (20 comments total)

Considering that she was not far, in time or distance, from the Salem Witch Trials

Maybe try smoking after history class from now on? Sites with names like "Cannabis Culture" always seem so much more interested in the former than the latter.
posted by RogerB at 11:12 AM on May 15, 2016 [5 favorites]

It’s quite possible that she was content with her life of seclusion because she was having daily mystical experiences, aided by psychotropic plants she grew in her garden, or found in the woods."

OR MAYBE SHE WAS SECRETLY BATMAN YOU HAVE NO EVIDENCE TO DISPROVE THIS
posted by dersins at 11:16 AM on May 15, 2016 [32 favorites]

BUT I DO HAVE SUPPORTING EVIDENCE:

[347]

I dreaded that first Robin, so,
But He is mastered, now,
I'm accustomed to Him grown,
He hurts a little, though—

THERE'S A REASON SHE CAPITALIZED ROBIN, PEOPLE. IT IS BECAUSE IT IS THE PROPER NAME OF HER BOYWONDER SIDEKICK
posted by dersins at 11:23 AM on May 15, 2016 [44 favorites]

you cannot deny that she inserted all those dashes in her work to indicate when to take a hit. you cannot.
posted by sallybrown at 11:23 AM on May 15, 2016 [24 favorites]

It speaks embarrassingly of the author that they'd look at Emily Dickinson, who wrote so much and so elegantly about the many pleasures of solitude, and say, "Bet she was high as balls."
posted by vathek at 11:26 AM on May 15, 2016 [10 favorites]

On a more serious note, this is another facet of the (sexist) attitude about Dickinson's work as something that happened to her rather than something she produced through labor.
posted by sallybrown at 11:31 AM on May 15, 2016 [22 favorites]

Considering that she was not far, in time or distance, from the Salem Witch Trials

Time between Salem witch trials and birth of Emily Dickinson: 138 years.

Time between Emily Dickinson's death and today: 130 years



It's too bad about the idiotic business with weed, because the actual story (and images) of her interest in plants is fascinating. I'm excited as well about the garden restoration project at the Dickinson Museum.
posted by dersins at 11:33 AM on May 15, 2016 [9 favorites]

Geez, Cannabis Culture, mellow out your enthusiasm for Emily Dickinson as a weed obsessed 14 year old. You are totally reminding me of Slater from Dazed and Confused, and his view of Martha Washington:

Slater: Behind every good man there is a woman, and that woman was Martha Washington, man, and everyday George would come home, she would have a big fat bowl waiting for him, man, when he come in the door, man. She was a hip, hip, hip lady, man.

posted by mosk at 11:54 AM on May 15, 2016 [5 favorites]

[1096]

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him—did you not
His notice sudden is,
The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your feet,
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn,
But when a boy and barefoot,
I more than once at noon
Have passed, I thought, a whip lash,
Unbraiding in the sun,
When stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled and was gone.

Several of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality.
But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bong.
posted by chavenet at 12:02 PM on May 15, 2016 [9 favorites]

With no doubt, the most expensive 1/8 oz. in history if her herb book come up for sale.
posted by clavdivs at 12:02 PM on May 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Have you ever—like, Really looked at your Hand—dude,
posted by threeants at 12:31 PM on May 15, 2016 [16 favorites]

Come to think of it, though, Emily Dickinson's Herbarium really would be a great brand for a dispensary.
posted by RogerB at 12:39 PM on May 15, 2016 [11 favorites]

"Give me two grams of Imperial Affliction and an eighth of Tell It Slant."
posted by dersins at 12:53 PM on May 15, 2016 [3 favorites]

She put her weed in there.
posted by entropicamericana at 12:59 PM on May 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

you cannot deny that she inserted all those dashes in her work to indicate when to take a hit. you cannot.

In academic writing that’s what the semicolons are for.
posted by D.C. at 1:24 PM on May 15, 2016 [4 favorites]

well, if we must get off on this stuff, try this by her


XCVII

WE never know how high we are
Till we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Our statures touch the skies.

The heroism we recite 5
Would be a daily thing,
Did not ourselves the cubits warp
posted by Postroad at 2:10 PM on May 15, 2016 [2 favorites]

With no doubt, the most expensive 1/8 oz. in history if her herb book come up for sale.

I'm reasonably confident we're not going to sell it.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 2:28 PM on May 15, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yup, em dash = bong hit
Always has-
Totes always will-
posted by Bob Regular at 5:24 PM on May 15, 2016

There is no Frigate like a Bong
To take us Lands away
posted by ActingTheGoat at 8:26 PM on May 15, 2016

Close but weed leaves are serrated. They said it never flowers so maybe the day length is not conducive to flowers. Many plant IDs require flowers, and both weed and hops are closely related and have the same kind of tiny densely packed flowers with lots of scaly bits
posted by Postroad at 12:32 AM on May 16, 2016