tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post642010101418742880..comments2024-03-29T00:07:13.458-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: Of Course — I prayed —Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-35561413553931038162024-02-23T10:15:21.263-08:002024-02-23T10:15:21.263-08:00As so often with ED's poetry, you get to bring...As so often with ED's poetry, you get to bring your own interpretation to the party. I previously read this poem as an "angry with God" poem. Today it strikes me as a petulant foot-stomping tirade at Father or Mother (most likely Father) for God-knows-what domestic dust-up has occurred. "I wouldn't have life but for you" relates to one's parents as much as it relates to God and far more directly than it relates to a lover. The meanest thing a child can say to a parent in a heated moment is "I wish I were DEAD!" And that's just what Emily is saying here (yes, at the age of 32 but she loved that childhood voice of hers and used it strategically). I can imagine Emily - the only one of the 3 children with the fortitude to stand up to her father and decline his rules - getting into a poetic froth at some transgression of the soul committed by Edward. Like, for example, "yes we have Lucretius in our extensive library but, no, you may not read it." Refusing her access to knowledge would be some real "smart misery." (Somewhere I read - I think in Jerome Charyn's book - that Father did not allow Emily access to the complete family library. I know she loved her Father deeply and he loved her and allowed her to be her unique, eccentric self, but he was otherwise one patriarchal, reverent stuffed shirt.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-20176888549732124482023-12-11T13:25:46.513-08:002023-12-11T13:25:46.513-08:00Lines 1-5 picture perfectly a three-year-old, stan...Lines 1-5 picture perfectly a three-year-old, standing in front of mama, demanding “give me!” They set the stage for Lines 6-7 to explain: <br /><br />“My reason for prayer? I would never have lived, “but for Yourself”, and now you’ve abandoned me for San Francisco.”<br /><br />The denouement:<br /><br />“Twere better Charity<br />To leave me in the Atom's Tomb —<br />Merry, and nought, and gay, and numb —<br />Than this smart Misery.”<br /><br />Of course, the love affair existed only in ED’s imagination, which was incredibly self-deceiving.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-3999059811906392022023-12-11T13:00:34.492-08:002023-12-11T13:00:34.492-08:00Were I trying to imagine the most impossible poem ...Were I trying to imagine the most impossible poem a 32-year-old spinster in a rural town in 1863 could compose, it would be this one. Note to self, again, never ever underestimate ED.Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-5472104421118339862020-11-02T18:38:13.071-08:002020-11-02T18:38:13.071-08:00Hmmm, interesting but I don't quite buy it. Re...Hmmm, interesting but I don't quite buy it. Re-reading it again (thank you for all the re-readings), I"m struck more forcefully that she is talking to God, complaining that it would have been more charitable to have left her unborn -- no more than uncollected/unorganized atoms than in her live state of knowingness that, vis a vis God, just brings frustration and misery. <br /><br />The commas, I think, are meant to slow us down in a sort of singsong. The merry and nought are paired as are gay and numb -- but the commas make them rather equal in a seesaw kind of way. I like visualizing atoms like this. Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-21492269211563284102020-11-02T05:08:39.516-08:002020-11-02T05:08:39.516-08:00In Stephen Greenblatt’s “The Swerve” he tells the ...In Stephen Greenblatt’s “The Swerve” he tells the story of the church’s desperate repression of the teachings of Lucretius, one of the first Epicurean atomists, who were the first to articulate the theory that all matter in the universe - is made of tiny recombinant particles. They also suggested that the moment of death was it for the soul, but that our immortality lay in the fact that our atoms go on indefinitely in other forms. You can see why the church was so desperate to repress all teachings of this, and way into the 19th century, Lucretius was on a “do not read” list. Do you think that ED might be calling institutionalized religion “Atom’s Tomb”? And modern day church goers “merry, and nought, and gay, and numb”? And not smart? Sounds like<br />Something Emily would say...<br />Her use of commas separating the adjectives is stylistically odd - to what end?Pphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01023162636086533197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-53524237439458932462015-01-28T07:42:43.992-08:002015-01-28T07:42:43.992-08:00I agree; she is not one to be Merry and nought. A ...I agree; she is not one to be Merry and nought. A couple of other commentators I read found word play in 'smart Misery' -- as if suggesting 'smarting' misery. But I don't think that adds anything at all to the poem. <br /><br />I was tempted to refer back to a couple of other poems with hungry sparrows and crumbs -- and ED's observation that Jesus' claim that God protects them rings false.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-32379046848238414212015-01-28T07:25:42.540-08:002015-01-28T07:25:42.540-08:00Thank you for this analysis. In particular, your ... Thank you for this analysis. In particular, your phrase "interred in entropic numbness nad 'nought" helped with a difficult line.<br /><br /> I really like this poem. The first five lines are a self-reflection on petulant complaint -- with a delightful image of the bird.<br /><br /> In the last six lines the poem turns serious. These lines are. themselves, a prayer -- similar to Christ's prayer on the cross: "Why hast thou forsaken me?". ED's god gives us reason as well as life -- and the gift of reason and sentience is a gift of suffering. <br /><br /> I expect ED prefers her "smart misery" to the charity she describes -- at least the part of her that sees her petulant first reaction with a sense of humor. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com