The Emily Dickinson Fan Club

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by sun-star

Dickinson was a recluse, so isn't it right that her fans should be a little reticent?

how dare you!


Anyway, BUMP!
How about trying to interpret this poem (I can't make any sense out of it):

I know that he exists
Somewhere, in silence.
He has hid his rare life
From our gross eyes.

'Tis an instant's play,
'Tis a fond ambush,
Just to make bliss
Earn her own surprise!

But should the play
Prove piercing earnest,
Should the glee glaze
In death's stiff stare,

Would not the fun
Look too expensive?
Would not the jest
Have crawled too far?

[sun-star]

I'll have a go (as penance )

I think "he" refers to God and therefore it's about the fear that the apparent absence of God, which could be seen as a way of increasing the joy at his presence, may actually turn out to be a real absence. She's afraid of finding only "death's stiff stare" where she expected to find a loving God.

[Beren3000]

Great explanation! I think you're right. But why would she call it a "jest"?

Originally Posted by sun-star

I'll have a go (as penance )

You're forgiven!

[sun-star]

Originally Posted by Beren3000

Great explanation! I think you're right. But why would she call it a "jest"?

Perhaps because she thinks it's a fun game God's playing with us? I don't quite understand it. I think she's suggesting the situation that God is playing peek-a-boo with us like parent would with a baby to make it laugh, and then the game turns into a nightmare if the parent really disappears.

You're forgiven!

Well thank you

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by sun-star

Perhaps because she thinks it's a fun game God's playing with us? I don't quite understand it. I think she's suggesting the situation that God is playing peek-a-boo with us like parent would with a baby to make it laugh, and then the game turns into a nightmare if the parent really disappears.

This all makes sense, but it breaks apart at one point: if she had meant God, wouldn't she have written it as "I know that He exists"?

[sun-star]

You mean she would have used a capital letter? Yes, you're probably right... hmm...

Well, she didn't really have hard and fast rules on capitalisation, I suppose. It usually depends on the editor of the poems. This version has lots of capitals in it.

[Minielin]

Originally Posted by Beren3000

But why would she call it a "jest"?

Would not the fun
Look too expensive?
Would not the jest
Have crawled too far?

Maybe this is simply a follow-up to the previous stanza, which according to the direction this is taking is interpreted to be about her fear that instead of God she would simply find death. In that case, my thought is this is maybe actually a questioning of the validity of her faith- if her devotion etc. proved simply to be a farce...?

[Beren3000]

Welcome to the club, Minielin!

Originally Posted by Minielin

In that case, my thought is this is maybe actually a questioning of the validity of her faith- if her devotion etc. proved simply to be a farce...?

Possible...

[Minielin]

Originally Posted by Beren3000

Welcome to the club, Minielin!

Thanks- considering I was named after Emily Dickinson, I certainly should be in it.

[Bombadillo]

The poem reminds me very much of religion classes last year, where we were told that as much as we want to see God, we wouldn't be able to handle the pure embodiment of happiness. Our souls would leap from our bodies to Heaven in joy, and so we have to wait for death. In her first stanza, she touches upon God's holding back in that sense; in the second she relates to him as that instant happiness, which I think implies also immeasuarbility; and the third sort of says "if we were on the edge of life, and he revealed himself," the fourth completes "we'd die--he's too good for us." I think by "jest" she's refering to how we kid our own selves, wishing to see God.


I really enjoy art. Even watching movies or reading simple little books, I'm thrilled by the depth and the moral, never the mindless action sequences. But I've never actively researched poetry, really art at its highest in my opinion. Still, this one is the one poem I most relate to, by any author:

We never know how high we are
Till we are asked to rise
And then if we are true to plan
Our statures touch the skies—

The Heroism we recite
Would be a normal thing
Did not ourselves the Cubits warp
For fear to be a King—

[Beren3000]

This poem is one of my favorites, too, Bombadillo. It's amazing how much meaning she can put into a few lines!

[Minielin]

Originally Posted by Beren3000

This poem is one of my favorites, too, Bombadillo. It's amazing how much meaning she can put into a few lines!

It is. And it goes without saying how many of her poems are probably some of the best example of analogies and symbolism (particularly in nature) out there...

[Beren3000]

Read to this ED poem about love:

Awake ye muses nine, sing me a strain divine,
Unwind the solemn twine, and tie my Valentine!
Oh the Earth was made for lovers, for damsel, and hopeless swain,
For sighing, and gentle whispering, and unity made of twain.
All things do go a courting, in earth, or sea, or air,
God hath made nothing single but thee in His world so fair!
The bride, and then the bridegroom, the two, and then the one,
Adam, and Eve, his consort, the moon, and then the sun;
The life doth prove the precept, who obey shall happy be,
Who will not serve the sovereign, be hanged on fatal tree.
The high do seek the lowly, the great do seek the small,
None cannot find who seeketh, on this terrestrial ball;
The bee doth court the flower, the flower his suit receives,
And they make merry wedding, whose guests are hundred leaves;
The wind doth woo the branches, the branches they are won,
And the father fond demandeth the maiden for his son.
The storm doth walk the seashore humming a mournful tune,
The wave with eye so pensive, looketh to see the moon,
Their spirits meet together, they make their solemn vows,
No more he singeth mournful, her sadness she doth lose.
The worm doth woo the mortal, death claims a living bride,
Night unto day is married, morn unto eventide;
Earth is a merry damsel, and heaven a knight so true,
And Earth is quite coquettish, and beseemeth in vain to sue.
Now to the application, to the reading of the roll,
To bringing thee to justice, and marshalling thy soul:
Thou art a human solo, a being cold, and lone,
Wilt have no kind companion, thou reap'st what thou hast sown.
Hast never silent hours, and minutes all too long,
And a deal of sad reflection, and wailing instead of song?
There's Sarah, and Eliza, and Emeline so fair,
And Harriet, and Susan, and she with curling hair!
Thine eyes are sadly blinded, but yet thou mayest see
Six true, and comely maidens sitting upon the tree;
Approach that tree with caution, then up it boldly climb,
And seize the one thou lovest, nor care for space, or time!
Then bear her to the greenwood, and build for her a bower,
And give her what she asketh, jewel, or bird, or flower --
And bring the fife, and trumpet, and beat upon the drum --
And bid the world Goodmorrow, and go to glory home!

What do you think of that?

[inked]

Humanity is the pinnacle of the created order and thus recapitulates in proper order the animal and spiritual aspects of love from the insensate material through the nonsentient plant kingdom and sentient animal kingdom to the conscious, gloriously material consummation of them all in human love between man and woman! " 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!"

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by inked

Humanity is the pinnacle of the created order and thus recapitulates in proper order the animal and spiritual aspects of love from the insensate material through the nonsentient plant kingdom and sentient animal kingdom to the conscious, gloriously material consummation of them all in human love between man and woman! " 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!"

Great insight, inked! Are you an ED fan?

[inked]

Beren3000,

I've always enjoyed ED. This thread has re-ignited the enjoyment. I shall have to read her more and not only anthologized!

[Beren3000]

Here's a new question:
ED said that she chose exile by herself, but I always felt that this was her reaction to her being unpopular in her community. Do you think it was self chosen exile and that she thought (like Thoreau) "to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life" or was it merely a defensive attitude towards people who rejected her?

[Minielin]

From ED:

"This is my letter to the world
that never wrote to me."

"The soul selects her own society
and then shuts the door."

"I guess it's best to abandon paths
when you find they lead nowhere."

[Beren3000]

But ED also wrote:

My story has a moral --
I have a missing friend --
"Pleiad" its name, and Robin,
And guinea in the sand.
And when this mournful ditty
Accompanied with tear --
Shall meet the eye of traitor
In country far from here --
Grant that repentance solemn
May seize upon his mind --
And he no consolation
Beneath the sun may find.

and:

It might be lonelier
Without the Loneliness --

[Minielin]

I have heard speculation that she was agoraphobic (complete with panic attacks) as well as that she felt too deeply to take part in a superficial society life. Not sure how much validity there are in those theories.