Fame Is a Fickle Food (1702)

"A Bird, came down the Walk" by Emily Dickinson (1891)

The Poetry Foundation website reprinted the version of Dickinson’s poem from R.W. Franklin’s 1999 book The Poems of Emily Dickinson: Reading Edition. “A Bird, came down the Walk” was originally published in Dickinson’s posthumous 1891 collection titled Poems.

This poem shares the narrative gesture of a bird refusing a human’s “Crumb”/”crumbs” with “Fame is a fickle food” (Line 14 and Line 6, in the respective poems). In both poems, Dickinson characterizes the bird as discerning. “A Bird, came down the Walk” also showcases Dickinson’s influential use of em dashes and idiosyncratic capitalization.

"There is a June when Corn is cut" by Emily Dickinson (1955)

This poem, while a part of Dickinson’s 19th-century manuscripts, was not published until 1955 in a collection edited by Thomas H. Johnson. The source cited above, The Emily Dickinson Archive, offers several versions of the poem: 1) Dickinson’s handwritten version, 2) Johnson’s edit of the poem, and 3) Franklin’s edit of the poem.

The “Corn” (Line 1) in this poem informs the metaphoric reading of “corn” (Line 9) in “Fame is a fickle food.” Both poems also explore the ideas of coming second. In “There is a June when Corn is cut,” the concept of “Second” is contrasted with the “First” and references seasons. In “Fame is a fickle food,” the “second time” (Line 5) is contrasted with “once” (Line 3) and refers to how many times a guest can eat of fame.

"To the memory of H.H." by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1886)

This poem is hosted on the Tufts University website. “To the memory of H.H.” was originally published in Century Magazine in May 1886. However, Emily Dickinson wrote a letter in response to this poem (Letter 1042) prior to its publication, indicating that she received a copy before the publishers put it out in print. Higginson is famous for his correspondence with Dickinson and assisted in the posthumous publication of her poems. Higginson also encouraged Dickinson and Helen Hunt Jackson—who were childhood schoolmates—to exchange letters as well.

“To the memory of H.H.” is a sonnet about Helen Hunt Jackson. Higginson, as an abolitionist and women’s rights activist, admired Jackson’s famous activist work on Native American rights, what he poetically refers to as “Lifting with slender hands a race’s wrong” (Line 2). In the sonnet’s sestet (last six lines), Higginson imagines Jackson’s disembodied soul among famous literary figures, like Shakespeare’s Juliet and “Rossetti’s Rose Mary” (Line 14). This poetic imagining connects to Dickinson’s ideas about short-lived fame in “Fame is a fickle food.” It could be argued that Dickinson wrote “Fame is a fickle food” about Jackson.

"Flowers on a Grave" from Poems by Helen Hunt Jackson (1898)

Google Books includes a scan of Jackson’s collection of poems published in 1898. Helen Hunt Jackson, in her and Dickinson’s lifetimes, was a famous poet and writer, as well as Native American rights activist. On Page 246 of Jackson’s Poems is “Flowers on a Grave.” This poem addresses similar themes as Dickinson’s “Fame is a fickle food.” Jackson writes, “How poor is all that fame can be or bring!” (Line 31). In both poems, fame is transient, or fleeting. Jackson continues, “The poet breathes his last. Who next will sing?” (Line 35). This recalls the elegiac tone of Dickinson’s poem.