tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post4683207645280789571..comments2024-03-28T18:48:28.471-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: Not probable — The barest Chance —Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-78964632093064467242024-02-20T15:15:57.377-08:002024-02-20T15:15:57.377-08:00Stanza 1 seems about a long sought but barely miss...Stanza 1 seems about a long sought but barely missed human relationship, though it could concern failed poetry<br /><br />Stanza 2 could continue the human scenario but could just as well concern a poet of obscure but meaningful poems who forgets her commitment to her craft, succumbs to composing sweet tripe, and perishes from forgetting flight and losing footing on her quest for fame. She dies groping for a firm bough, losing that Phantom Queen, Fame.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-8687420443156880772023-12-29T07:27:45.400-08:002023-12-29T07:27:45.400-08:00How does ED stay so consistently difficult? And ye...How does ED stay so consistently difficult? And yet, the more difficult it is, the more it seems imperative to crack the nut and get to its fruit. This is one I want to sit with for awhile longer, to try to understand what "sweets" in the second stanza has to do with "a smile too few -- a word too much" of the first stanza. Are these "niceties" tied into the ideas of "sweets", a kind of surface pleasure that doesn't allow for the depth needed for "paradise"? <br /><br />And what is the "secret of the wing"? To really fly (in a relationship w/ person or God) you have to not be distracted by the sweets, by the smiles, by the pleasures. Sometimes there will be frowns, there will be complaining, and perhaps this is where the real relationship lies. Seeing past the surface into each other's pain is the secret to flying together, in a more true kind of love. <br /><br />I love the aphorism by itself, "The bird confused by sweets forgets the secret of his wing." That could apply to many situations, to any distraction, and even to actual sweets. I'm going to say that to myself next time I go for a cookie. d scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08242682202760522439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-18650394177456445022021-08-20T19:17:59.635-07:002021-08-20T19:17:59.635-07:00Sue was married when this poem was written. As far...Sue was married when this poem was written. As far as whether Dickinson had Sue in mind when writing this, we will never know. She certainly has written in retrospect before. <br /><br /><br />She warned Higginson that the "I" in her poems was often not her but an imagined person. So while Preest's reference to the Sue letter is tantalizing I don't think we can draw conclusions from it. Judith Farr's The Passion of Emily Dickinson, however, emphasizes Dickinson's continued references to Sue in her 1860s poetry -- as well as letters that betray her continued love.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-33821695753331023662021-08-20T17:34:50.170-07:002021-08-20T17:34:50.170-07:00Forgive my confusion ... This must have been writ...Forgive my confusion ... This must have been written, then, before Emily's sister-in-law was married? For Sue would not have been beset by suitors once she was married, right?John B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00388963455212923758noreply@blogger.com