About the poems and their structure
Hans left a total of 1173 typewritten analyses of Emily’s poems, 171 of which appear in two versions. For his initial studies, Hans used the first editions of Dickinson’s poetry that were published in the 1890’s, probably because he was concerned with copyright issues surrounding the Johnson 1955 Variorum edition. His first volume of analyses contains 348 poems that he marked with “90’s” or “Variorum Edition.” These transcriptions are indicated in the archives with the prefix “Var.” They represent the state of Hans’s knowledge and insights by 1979.
From 1980 onward, when Hans felt compelled to restart his analysis from scratch, he grouped his analyses, as Dickinson had done with her poems, into nine separate packets according to as yet unidentifiable criteria (arbitrarily marked by Rolf as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J). Hans appears to have analyzed the poems more or less in the chronological order established by Thomas H. Johnson. In some of his analyses Hans comments on his reasons for thinking that Johnson had not placed certain poems in their chronologically correct order. In his comments to his German translations he also mentions that he has grouped the translated poems chronologically according to the secret language of the poems. Many of these analyses bear a date or at least the year of their creation.
Hans’s original Dickinson manuscripts include the following:
One thick volume marked “90’s” containing the analysis of 344 Variorum poems. Onto the first page he had attached a note, reading:
“These typewritten copies started in Spring 1979 – April 21, 22, 23, 1979 booklet 82 – ends with poems 1104 July 17, 1979.”
In this volume Emily’s booklets or fascicles (as numbered by Mabel Loomis Todd) are arranged in the following order:
82, 80, 1, 2, 3, 83, 7, 4, 15, 14, 23, 37, 32, 8, 20, 85, 6, 5, 13, 16, 17, 21, 25, 33, 29, 27, 28, 9, 11, 26, 34, 40, 19, 12, 84, 18, 24, 22, 30, 31, 91, 86, 81, 39, 87, 92, 88, 90, 35. The numbers marked bold are analyzed only in this “90’s” volume.
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Seven volumes, each containing analysis of poems belonging to Dickinson’s booklets and written between February and June 1980:
Volume A: ED fascicles 89, 84, 17,13, 5, 85, 6, 16, 18.
Volume B: ED fascicles 21, 25, 29, 27, 28, 26, 9, 11, 26, 34, 40, 19.
Volume C: ED fascicles 91, 86, 87, 39, 92.
Volume D: ED fascicles 90, 88, 35.
Volume E: ED fascicles 12, 24, 22, 30, 31, 81.
Volume F: (no date when analyzed): No fascicle numbers.
Volume G: Six poems only: 1326,1327, 1328, 1329, 1330, 1331.
Volume H contains poems belonging to the following ED fascicles: 89, 84, 91, 18, 12, 31, 30, 22 and which are also contained in volumes A, C, and E. To the first inside page is clipped a postcard with a portrait of the poet by Scott Prior (ink and ink wash, 1976), as if Hans had chosen to use this volume for publication. The volume contains handwritten corrections which are not made in the corresponding copies of volumes A, C, and E, suggesting that in this volume Hans arranged the poems more to his liking.
Volume I contains the same fascicles as in B and A, but in reverse order .
Volume J contains the analyzed poems of fascicles 81, 87, 86, 92, 90, 88, 35, which are also contained in E, C, and D.
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