tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post6233371296584414221..comments2024-03-27T11:02:20.107-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: The difference between DespairSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-40253861020241124412023-12-09T13:49:06.348-08:002023-12-09T13:49:06.348-08:00Most wrecks take weeks or months or years, like he...Most wrecks take weeks or months or years, like health or marriage going south, not “instant” like a car crash. Who can count emotions going down? Fear is only one. Resourceful souls draw on reserves and gradually move on. Less healthy souls founder, frozen bust-like with despair. They, perhaps like ED, use years to repair, if they can. Does her mind seem “smooth”? Not to me, but she’s the one who knows.<br /><br />Sorry, Susan, biography again.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-18547742126626207712023-10-04T20:25:52.618-07:002023-10-04T20:25:52.618-07:00This was loveely to readThis was loveely to readTiger Bites Arthttps://tigerbites-art.tumblr.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-67878475022230838632020-06-05T05:48:06.537-07:002020-06-05T05:48:06.537-07:00Hi Susan, thanks for your commentary. I think the ...Hi Susan, thanks for your commentary. I think the reversed order of the placement of the words 'despair' and 'fear' and the subsequent mismatch with the order of their concomitant similes is a conscious stylistic choice on the part of Dickinson, reflecting the subject matter of the poem. This reversal/discrepancy can be seen to imitate the turbulence and oscillation of a ship tossed hither and thither in a sea storm. This turmoil is further enhanced by the enjambment in lines 1 and 2 and the dash after 'fear' which interrupts the flow of the line and further evokes a sense of chaos/disorder. I do also think you are correct in thinking that the mismatch in the order of the two nouns and their accompanying similes implies that our emotions as human beings overlap, and can never be completely categorised. <br />In the second stanza, in the aftermath of the wreck, the pace is slower and more 'balanced'. The image of the bust certainly evokes the emotional numbness and inertia experienced in despair. The reference to the statue's lack of sight possibly alludes to a sailor visually maimed in the wreck. In metaphorical terms, the image may suggest that in our despair, we no longer envisage fear; we have already been ruined by tragedy. And furthermore, the numbness of our despair has shut down our capacity for mental sight as well as our sensory visual faculties. The image of the bust carries the suggestion that in our despair, we become but a frozen effigy of our formerly alive and dynamic selves. <br />Furthermore, in its timeless and immortal state as a work of art, the image of the bust also eerily suggests that there may be no end to our despair.Jimmynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-34391882605039615532015-01-12T17:24:06.598-08:002015-01-12T17:24:06.598-08:00I hadn't read the poem's subject as death,...I hadn't read the poem's subject as death, but it makes sense. It reminds me of Dante's Hell: "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." That is surely a definition of despair (the unforgivable sin).<br /><br />However, I think the despair in this poem is more kin to the 'quartz contentment' discussed above, the sort of reduced existence Dickinson details in "I tie my Hat -- I crease my Shawl".<br /><br />She describes the corpse life in a few poems and, in support of your reading, the mindful dead do seem to experience a flat, affectless sort of contentment. <br /><br />Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-33563891789876666162015-01-12T07:37:54.041-08:002015-01-12T07:37:54.041-08:00Dickinson has a unusual approach to the word "... Dickinson has a unusual approach to the word "despair". In "There is a certain slant of light", she refers to the "seal despair" as an "imperial affliction." And in "I cannot live with You --" she calls despair that "white sustenance".<br /><br /> I am not sure that each of these poems addresses the same or similar emotional experiences. The subject of this poem is death (the "wreck" is the wreck of the lifeless body, the eyes of the marble statue are like the sightless eyes of the corpse). Here despair is a release from fear; life is a storm and death the calm (contentment) that follows the storm. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-90348531437335340142015-01-11T16:05:30.633-08:002015-01-11T16:05:30.633-08:00Thank you!
Self blinding, or preferring some form...Thank you! <br />Self blinding, or preferring some form of blindness has been rich literary material. (I have no idea how common it is in 'real' life.) Dickinson seems to think it helps her inner eye and allows her to not see what would deepen despair (the wreck, the pit, etc.). You mention Milton -- I wonder how he felt about his blindness.<br /><br />The Satan quote sounds like the despair Dickinson writes about: without hope and fear leading us or driving us on, what is there to keep us from despair? I would think one option would be love, but so far in Dickinson's poems I've only seen her write about intense romantic love -- and it's intense ups and downs.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-90197559410103290502015-01-11T13:30:06.964-08:002015-01-11T13:30:06.964-08:00an illusion* an illusion* Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-1314595772755199602015-01-11T11:32:43.966-08:002015-01-11T11:32:43.966-08:00This poem reminds me of the pivotal moment in Para...This poem reminds me of the pivotal moment in Paradise Lost when Satan says "farewell hope and with hope farewell fear" – the statement that leads to his tragedy, even the image of wreck echoes the fall (and you mentioned Oedipus the King, the fall of a great man). Dickinson can be said to be exploring the moment in tragedy when possibility (hope) changes to unrelenting destiny (despair).<br /> Additionally, the second simile echoes Adam and Eve (whose story for Northrop Frye is the quintessential tragedy): when they eat the fruit, their eyes "open", which, of course, is a illusion: when they eat the fruit, their senses fall, become imperfect, actually they have become blind.<br /> I am a regular reader of your blog. Your analyses helped me a lot when I started reading Dickinson. I would like to thank you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com