tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post4368749525128230799..comments2024-03-28T18:48:28.471-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: Going to Heaven!Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-75511330209652317012023-12-18T06:58:19.469-08:002023-12-18T06:58:19.469-08:00The combination of flippancy and deep grief in thi...The combination of flippancy and deep grief in this poem is, in itself, startling. I once lost a child, and—like the person in the poem asking about Heaven—I had not one, not two, but three different people trot out their “God needed another angel.” Oh, grief—-and resentment.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-13406818867540655102023-10-18T21:45:57.554-07:002023-10-18T21:45:57.554-07:00When someone we love dies, we hope for some sort o...When someone we love dies, we hope for some sort of sign (even searching desperately) from the loved one in nature, in a dream, somehow…and if it never happens, we despair that the heaven of even a sense of that kindred soul is lost forever.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-17511173064960467182022-10-01T07:51:54.056-07:002022-10-01T07:51:54.056-07:00“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infin...“Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale<br />Her infinite variety. Other poets cloy<br />The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry<br />Where most she satisfies …..”<br /><br />Apologies to WS (Act 2, Scene 2)<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-10601870208000098482022-09-30T16:05:34.126-07:002022-09-30T16:05:34.126-07:00The directness of ED’s statement of disbelief in C...The directness of ED’s statement of disbelief in Christian dogma stunned me, as it probably did her readers after Mabel Todd published this poem in 1891. ED, Queen of Ambiguity, casts caution aside and tells us in no uncertain terms that she doesn’t buy into Christian dogma. At the very least she’s agnostic, but for her to say so definitively, “I'm glad I don't believe it” shocked me, as it did Susan K, especially given the milieu ED endured. She sent the first copy (Variant 1) to Sue and signed it “Emilie”, evidence of their mutual trust. <br /><br />Unpredictable surprises like this are why I love this amazing poet. And she has the temerity to think of Susan as Cleopatra!Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-27056344853922036712022-09-30T15:00:41.165-07:002022-09-30T15:00:41.165-07:00Not that poets need fret over facts, but F39, comp...Not that poets need fret over facts, but F39, composed 1858, says the poet lost two best friends in the past and now (?) a third has died. ED left no list, but likely candidates are Sophia Holland (died April 29, 1844), Emily Lavinia Norcross (July 2, 1852), and Benjamin Franklin Newton (March 24, 1853), none in “mighty Autumn” (Comment 5, F39, Prowling Bee). <br /><br />Either we have no idea of the identity of “the two I lost”, or Line 5, Stanza 2 and Line 7, Stanza 3 in F128 are poetic license, intentional or not.Larry Bnoreply@blogger.com