We dive into Episode 9 of Season 2 of Dickinson, "I like a Look of Agony" and discuss the parallels between Austin and Mrs. Dickinson, Sue and Mary, and of course young men and the old men who seek to exploit them for profit. Join us as we dive into the role of manhood in modern society (apologies for us treating most of the discussion as a binary. We here at Edicts on E. Dicks say "fuck the gender binary."). And of course, what discussion of Emily Dickinson is complete without a bit of death discourse?

Emily's got two poems for us today:

I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it's true—
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe—

The Eyes glaze once—and that is Death—
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.

AND

The Doomed—regard the Sunrise
With different Delight—
Because—when next it burns abroad
They doubt to witness it—

The Man—to die—tomorrow—
Harks for the Meadow Bird—
Because its Music stirs the Axe
That clamors for his head—

Joyful—to whom the Sunrise
Precedes Enamored—Day—
Joyful—for whom the Meadow Bird
Has ought but Elegy!