“A Precious — mouldering pleasure —‘tis —” Dickenson alludes to great writers of the past in her poem “A Precious — mouldering pleasure —‘tis —”: Plato, Sophocles, Sappho, Beatrice, and Dante.  In the phrase “His quaint opinions”, she is metaphorically relating the old vellum volumes, “the Dress of his Century”, of classical literature to elderly … Continue reading Emily Dickinson: A Precious Mouldering, My American Poetry Review