tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post1237272967598894330..comments2024-03-29T00:07:13.458-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: Cocoon above! Cocoon below!Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-12405532511267497182023-12-27T07:08:13.781-08:002023-12-27T07:08:13.781-08:00Someltimes a poem—a Dickinson poem, even—can be ab...Someltimes a poem—a Dickinson poem, even—can be about what the poet says it’s about. This is apparently a good example. But we wonder (my wife and I) if maybe this poem at least parallels Dickinson’s thoughts or wishes about her poems.<br />She hides most of them, most of the time, in a “cocoon” and we know she must have had some yearning that they would finally “escape” into the universe, carrying with them meaning that far exceeds normal knowledge. Just wondering,.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-5280761877336326052022-10-26T15:06:14.683-07:002022-10-26T15:06:14.683-07:00ED’s prescient conjecture about butterflies learni...ED’s prescient conjecture about butterflies learning “the Universe” in a brief moment rings even truer today, now that we know monarchs go through several generations during their migration north. Each generation inherits the knowledge of where its progenitures spent the previous winter. The last generation of the summer lives eight times longer than its parents and grandparents and somehow migrates south to the exact location where its ancestors spent the previous winter. We have no idea how they do that. <br /><br />(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch_butterfly_migration)Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-33884635548896847512021-09-30T11:04:12.959-07:002021-09-30T11:04:12.959-07:00I think it interesting that ED is marveling at the...I think it interesting that ED is marveling at the need of the butterfly to shed its cocoon so as to know [experience] the universe, but she is soon to construct her own cocoon because her universe is too painful to flutter about in.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00725261030659667439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-40405643704031805182015-01-23T05:45:13.554-08:002015-01-23T05:45:13.554-08:00Surrogate as judge makes senses. I just noticed ye...Surrogate as judge makes senses. I just noticed yesterday your link to the Lexicon; it looks like a very useful resource for some of her more obscure references. Again, thank you for this wonderful project. I will be visiting the blog often.Erratichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01172371174541372809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-70115644849152210362015-01-20T10:10:45.949-08:002015-01-20T10:10:45.949-08:00Thanks for the comment. I just turned to the Dicki...Thanks for the comment. I just turned to the Dickinson Lexicon -- which I wasn't fully utilizing this early in Dickinson's opus, to my chagrin – and find that "Surrogate" means "Delegate of an ecclesiastical judge; judge". So perhaps it is just a simple conclusion: the butterfly takes a moment to catch its bearings (or something; I'm not sure about the interrogate part) before, wiser than a judge, taking off into the universe. Maybe the butterfly does question others about where to go but it turns out it is wiser even than a Surrogate. Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-38321585985941680112015-01-20T08:15:18.987-08:002015-01-20T08:15:18.987-08:00Just found your blog - a perfect place to indulge ...Just found your blog - a perfect place to indulge my Dickinson fascination!<br />Your explanation of the "hour in Chrysalis" cleared up some confusion for me, but I still find "Surrogate" puzzling. Your interpretation makes sense, that natural beings will enter the Universe in a way that our thoughts can't, that the poem itself is a kind of surrogate for the thing it describes.<br /><br />On the other hand, I wonder if it could be flipped. Could the interrogator be the butterfly asking directions from a somewhat clueless narrator? Erratichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01172371174541372809noreply@blogger.com