tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post1155817018683133704..comments2024-03-27T11:02:20.107-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: The Soul's Superior instantsSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-19553873752030543762024-01-22T14:18:32.023-08:002024-01-22T14:18:32.023-08:00A digression:
The “Omnipotent’s” favored few, inc...A digression:<br /><br />The “Omnipotent’s” favored few, including ED, of course, get a mystical peep at the colossal substance of immortality. Must be nice. <br /><br />So she had a few mystical moments, what of it?<br /><br />A good friend once suggested mystical experiences are intrinsic creations of our own mind-body, evolutionary adaptations buried in our DNA to convince us life is good, worth living, and, naturally, we should to give copies of that DNA to future generations by making babies. Clever strategy on DNA’s part, no?. <br /><br />But don’t let such thoughts spoil every love scene in every movie you ever see. Especially, don’t think about it when screwing.<br /><br />[Shakespeare’s] first 17 poems, traditionally called the procreation sonnets, are addressed to a young man—urging him to marry and have children in order to immortalize his beauty by passing it to the next generation, e.g., Sonnet VI:<br /><br />“Then let not winter's ragged hand deface<br />In thee thy summer, ere thou be distill'd:<br />Make sweet some vial; treasure thou some place<br />With beauty's treasure, ere it be self-kill'd.<br />That use is not forbidden usury,<br />Which happies those that pay the willing loan;<br />That's for thyself to breed another thee,<br />Or ten times happier, be it ten for one;<br />Ten times thyself were happier than thou art,<br />If ten of thine ten times refigured thee:<br />Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart,<br />Leaving thee living in posterity?<br />Be not self-will'd, for thou art much too fair<br />To be death's conquest and make worms thine heir.<br /><br />Wikipedia<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procreation_sonnets<br />https://shakespeares-sonnets.com/Archive/allsonn.htm<br /><br />By Shakespeare's exhortations, ED was a complete failure.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-77100659366667615522022-10-15T11:12:25.773-07:002022-10-15T11:12:25.773-07:00I read "substance" with the meaning: 2....I read "substance" with the meaning: 2. substance - the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience. <br />I didn't read it as referring to a type of matter.<br />That said, thanks to you for the explication and analysis of a great poem.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-73591424336919845052017-02-18T08:39:35.991-08:002017-02-18T08:39:35.991-08:00Thank you -- in particular I had been reading '...Thank you -- in particular I had been reading 'Recognition' as from the Soul's perspective, not as from an outside vantage. It puts the following stanza in a different light, too. One of the great joys – and struggles – of Dickinson's poetry is her deftness with ambiguity. The resulting space, like a vacuum, invites meanings to pour in.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-25391124337248226572017-02-15T13:52:51.831-08:002017-02-15T13:52:51.831-08:00Thanks for your analysis of this poem -- it is spo... Thanks for your analysis of this poem -- it is spot on. <br /><br /> And I appreciate Tim Davis' observation about EDs unusual use of the word "instants". The first stanza explains the experience of epiphany in terms of time and space. The experience comes in flashes -- instants -- of insight that "occur". In these "instants" the experiencer (Soul) is alone in space and time -- an "infinite" withdrawing from friends and from "Earth's occaision" -- an odd phrase that describes earth as a momentary mortal, thing -- bound by time. This first stanza is described from the perspective of the Soul.<br /><br /> The second stanza describes the withdrawing as a physical ascent to a "Height". This stanza and the next are from the perspective of the mortal world -- the ascended Soul, viewed in the context of space and time, is "remote" and "seldom". The word "Recognition" is interesting -- it implies that the Soul could be seen, the epiphany accessed -- but it is not recognized or understood. This idea is echoed in in the last stanza's phrase "Eternity's disclosure" -- immortality is revelation -- clear seeing. <br /><br />The third stanza has a beautiful rhyme of "Abolition" and "Apparition" and the wonderful sound of the words "Autocratic Air" -- sounding to my ears like electricity, maybe a lightning bolt striking a mountain peak. <br /><br />In the last two stanzas, the invisible has emerged -- first as an Apparition -- then as something "Colossal". Mortal time and space have become eternal and omnipotent. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-32384180204792193512017-02-13T15:03:16.162-08:002017-02-13T15:03:16.162-08:00Thank you for sharing the information and links.Thank you for sharing the information and links.RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-80276779302019568962017-02-13T14:59:11.077-08:002017-02-13T14:59:11.077-08:00Much has been written about Dickinson's uses o...Much has been written about Dickinson's uses of 'Soul'. I think of it as a precious inner essence. Two poems that I think shed light on this are "The Soul has bandaged moments: [http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-soul-has-bandaged-moments.html] and "If your Nerve deny you" [http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2012/08/if-your-nerve-deny-you.html].Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-81019151826676297362017-02-13T11:51:21.240-08:002017-02-13T11:51:21.240-08:00Barely scratching the surface of the poem and stum...Barely scratching the surface of the poem and stumbling at the gate (while shamelessly mixing metaphors here) -- and being very impressed with your explication and analysis -- I am intrigued with two words in the first line: Soul's and instants. The latter comes to me as a diction surprise (i.e., with the unintentional (?) pun on instance which puzzles me), and the definition of the Soul becomes the problematic lynchpin on which the poem depends. So I stop at that word. Just what is the Soul in the context of this poem? That I utter as a rhetorical question, a snapshot of my puzzlement.RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.com