tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post3313770985173710943..comments2024-03-28T14:04:54.557-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: From Cocoon forth a ButterflySusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-11918356382661311802024-01-03T14:19:04.392-08:002024-01-03T14:19:04.392-08:00F609 and F610 feel related, both about passing day...F609 and F610 feel related, both about passing days, both in languid language, and actors in both, grains of sand and butterflies, vanish in time’s sea. Perhaps that’s why Franklin numbered them consecutively. <br /><br />However, he dated them “summer 1863” and “last half 1863”, and ED put them in Fascicle 26 (Poem 21) and Fascicle 29 (Poem 1), respectively. Also, F609 is a love poem of patient waiting for reunion in heaven, while F610 segues from a summer day (Stanzas 1-4) to meaningless merging with the sea (Stanzas 5-6). <br /><br />F609-F610 inference? Make hay while the sun shines for tomorrow the bell tolls for thee? <br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-79293499812114829732023-11-14T20:53:56.302-08:002023-11-14T20:53:56.302-08:00Rereading this poem after your so thoughtful and i...Rereading this poem after your so thoughtful and interesting comments made me fall in love with it again. It's both beautiful and, as you suggest, radical.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-25239405183146342032023-11-14T17:48:01.153-08:002023-11-14T17:48:01.153-08:00This poem starts with such an oddly inverted, but ...This poem starts with such an oddly inverted, but beautiful, syntax.<br /><br />"From Cocoon forth a butterfly/ as a Lady from her Door/ Emerged..."<br /><br />This would, in normal prose, be, "A butterfly emerged from her cocoon as a lady from her door."<br /><br />By phrasing it like ED does here, you get more of a meaning in every line,<br /><br />"From Cocoon forth a Butterfly"<br /><br />That word "forth" is almost a verb here. Or maybe the verb suggestion here is "cocooning forth". Either way, the butterfly has already emerged in this line.<br /><br />"As Lady from her Door"<br /><br />By putting this line second you get an emphasis on the lady. Is the lady a metaphor for the butterfly, or vice versa? <br /><br />By conflating the lady and the butterfly in the first two lines, the "Emerged" of the following line is emphasized and seems to qualify them both. This sets up "repairing everywhere". The lady emerges in summer and is repairing everywhere, which makes you wonder how exactly a lady "repairs".<br /><br />The way ED weirds language to such delirious effects is no small part of her enduring charm.<br /> <br />That third stanza is curiously phrased too. The pretty parasol contracting in the field makes you wonder to what it is contracting, or with what, so that the juxtaposition to the following line, "Where men made hay", gives a kind of sexual undertone to the proceedings. Is that what "repairing" is referring to? The juxtaposition to the following lines, "Then struggling hard/ with an opposing cloud", set in the very same stanza, by contraction, gives a feeling of resistance to the men "making hay". <br /><br />Her pretty Parasol be seen<br />Contracting in a Field<br />Where Men made Hay —<br />Then struggling hard<br />With an opposing Cloud —<br /><br />There is a lot of contraction in that stanza! <br /><br />I agree with your reading of this poem. This sentence, of yours, is a great one,<br /><br />"When darkness drowns the light, when life and time are over, what does it matter if we have laid up hay or honey, or been prudent like Aesop's hard-working ants; or, like lady and butterfly, flitted about, conducting miscellaneous Enterprise in the finery of our prime? (And I suspect Dickinson appreciated the ecological role of both butterfly and lady in their respective niches.)<br /><br />It's a radical poem seen in that light. <br /><br />d scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08242682202760522439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-21013360596809081542020-09-10T21:54:30.921-07:002020-09-10T21:54:30.921-07:00Oh, yes -- thanks!Oh, yes -- thanks!Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-75332640612691533722020-09-10T20:09:23.646-07:002020-09-10T20:09:23.646-07:00It leaves an everlasting memory of sunshine, float...It leaves an everlasting memory of sunshine, floating clouds, fluttering of colourful butterflies and a mesmerising nature all around which saunter in your leisurely mind to emulate a trace of heavenly pleasure.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07468737519982722876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-35386594741959780622017-01-09T14:04:56.275-08:002017-01-09T14:04:56.275-08:00lovely poem..you can just hear the rush of the sea...lovely poem..you can just hear the rush of the sea in the word "Extinguished"<br /><br />The "audience of idleness" in "purposeless circumference" "Disdained them, from the Sky"...I just love it. And the simile of the Lady in the second line is just perfect as the two images just swim in your mind as you read through the poem!Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10047678873938396282noreply@blogger.com