tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post607083638512949645..comments2024-03-27T11:02:20.107-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: As Watchers hang upon the East -Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-1921316774430822692023-12-10T21:50:45.176-08:002023-12-10T21:50:45.176-08:00Thanks for this. What is the letter number/ID? I&#...Thanks for this. What is the letter number/ID? I'd love to read it.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-84398504036505479752023-12-06T22:01:41.367-08:002023-12-06T22:01:41.367-08:00As she wrote to Samuel Bowles: God is not as wary ...As she wrote to Samuel Bowles: God is not as wary as we, else he would give us no friends, lest we forget him! The Charms of the Heaven in the bush are superceded I fear, by the Heaven in the hand, occasionally.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-17224509185591902552023-11-27T03:29:19.545-08:002023-11-27T03:29:19.545-08:00I think the poem is about two different kinds of h...I think the poem is about two different kinds of heaven. The first stanza describes the heaven that we imagine when thirsty, hungry, unhappy. In that situation we turn to religion for hope and consolation. This is the heaven that beguiles/deceives. In the second stanza all needs are fully satisfied, everything is perfect, the beggar is an honored guest (hardly ever happens in reality). If true, this is our heaven on earth. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-51027911088271726292022-09-16T15:27:57.511-07:002022-09-16T15:27:57.511-07:00An interpretation of ‘As Watchers hang upon the Ea...An interpretation of ‘As Watchers hang upon the East’ (F120), based on Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’<br /><br />As Antony hangs upon Cleopatra in the East and at her banquet imagines his desire for her will soon be satisfied, as mirages in deserts inspire hope in a traveler dying of thirst, Susan deludes tired Emily.<br /><br />Emily, when (and if) Susan opens her heart and reveals her affection, will be certain of love and press her thirsty lips to Susan’s, transporting them to heaven.<br />Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-76867759370493652822022-07-26T07:45:34.796-07:002022-07-26T07:45:34.796-07:00At a different level, “Watchers” may seek heaven c...At a different level, “Watchers” may seek heaven closer than “Heaven”. For some, it’s capital H, for others lower case and “a hedge away” (F5, 1858). For some, Heavenly “Brooks … babble sweet”, for others, heaven sings “a different tune / herself to her a music / as bumble bee of June.” For some, “Heaven beguiles the tired”, for others she “deceives the butterfly”. For some, Heaven “Opens the lid of Amethyst / And lets the morning go”, for others heaven is a “single star / from out the wide night's numbers / Sue - forevermore!”<br /><br />Each stanza of ‘Watchers’ consists of two three-line repeats; each repeat consists of two lines of iambic tetrameter and one of iambic trimeter.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-9973103036625076992020-06-27T09:51:10.489-07:002020-06-27T09:51:10.489-07:00Wonderful insight into this poem, Susan.
I love t...Wonderful insight into this poem, Susan.<br /><br />I love the onomatopoeic verb 'babble' describing the cool rush of the desert brook. The word suggests an indistinct and muffled, murmuring sound that conveys the distance between the stricken 'ear' and the water, which is desperately sought and only faintly heard.<br /><br />The verb 'beguiles' is an apt choice of word as it implies deception, foreseeing the clause of doubt ('if true') introduced at the end of the poem. The word suggests the elusiveness of heaven, the concept of which is perhaps a treacherous one after all.<br /><br />The richness and abundance of the supposed Heaven is contrasted with the impoverishment of earthly existence. Those that pertain to the latter realm ('us') are 'tired', famished and thirsty. Heaven, however, is represented as precious, with its 'lid of Amethyst', and plentiful, with its thirst-quenching rewards of 'flagons' of wine.<br /><br />It is interesting that the plural 'Watchers' and the 'Beggars' in the first stanza are reduced to single entities in the second stanza. We are therefore given the unsettling intimation that perhaps some failed, dying of hunger or thirst during their quest for the elusive Heaven. And, alternatively, if the Heaven referred to is interpreted as eternity or the afterlife, rather than some distant paradise on earth, then the 'Watcher' or the 'Beggar' would have perished in any case in order to finally access it (if they ever do).<br /><br />In the first stanza, the yawning abyss between Heaven and those that resolutely seek is evoked by the metrical distance between certain words. The placement of the 'Watchers' and 'Beggars' early in the stanza (in lines 1 and 2), separates them substantially from 'Heaven', which is not referred to until the final line of the stanza (line 6). This conveys the sense of a long, continuous journey to Heaven, which is heightened by the present tense verbs. And, as mentioned, the goal of this (potentially futile) journey, whether it some earthly paradise or posthumous eternity, may in fact be forever of reach.Jimmynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-36942655113562933092017-11-10T04:07:11.768-08:002017-11-10T04:07:11.768-08:00🤗🤗Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06928430191101743107noreply@blogger.com