MORE DICKINSON OR LESS

If Emily Dickinson had never been
Or some other walked in her place
Never dreaming she wasn't the right
Miss Emily, her poems, unwritten,
Would -- for a time at least --
Stay together, seeking someone
To midwife them into to the world.
Adjectives and adverbs might be first to leave
They can find work anywhere but always
Are the first to be fired. Then some verbs
Would begin to wander, coming back 
When evening fell but one evening
Not coming back at all. The nouns
Might huddle together and go to sleep
Turning as they slept to stone. At last,
There'd be just small heaps of dashes,
Variously sized, lying by the road
So oddminded folk could wonder
What possible use they might have.

TO THE TUNE

When I was in law school I lived much
Among English majors. Several of them,
At one point or another, told me
That most Emily Dickinson poems
Can be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas."
Apparently they felt I needed to know this
Which I did. Still, they might have mentioned
That singing her poems to that tune
Was Miss Dickinson's party piece.
A few glasses of Madeira and she'd
Be up on a table, banjo in hand,
Warbling "Because I cudden stop fer Death
He kinely stopped fer me." After she died
Amherst parties became so much duller.