tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post6735387360084312098..comments2024-03-28T18:48:28.471-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: A charm invests a faceSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-69917579585162469622023-08-27T06:38:40.414-07:002023-08-27T06:38:40.414-07:00any but her chosen, with poetry at the front of a ...any but her chosen, with poetry at the front of a short wait line.Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-15374067769915603692023-08-26T15:08:33.420-07:002023-08-26T15:08:33.420-07:00Just as a veil or make up hide skin imperfections ...Just as a veil or make up hide skin imperfections or enhance physical features, “persona” behaviors hide personality imperfections or enhance attractive features. We chose clothing for similar reasons, dressing up or dressing down for effect. It’s hard to imagine an almost-closed door as a veil except for a pathologically shy or seriously antisocial personality.<br /><br />ED in her mid-40s could be attractive and in love, as she was with Judge Otis Lord during the late 1870s. His proposal of marriage and her coy refusal, “Dont you know you are happiest while I withhold and not confer - dont you know that "No" is the wildest word we consign to Language?”(L562, about 1878).<br /><br />These are not words of pathological shyness or serious antisociality. Rather, they are words of a person selective with her time, unwilling to spend it with any but her chosen.<br />Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-68644110670225959352017-05-05T03:36:37.545-07:002017-05-05T03:36:37.545-07:00I'd also like to thank you for your amazing bl...I'd also like to thank you for your amazing blog. I'm just beginning to learn to read poetry and the insight and understanding I've gained from reading your explanations of these beautiful poems has helped me so much. Thank you once againAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-663613587274448592016-09-24T21:59:27.232-07:002016-09-24T21:59:27.232-07:00Thank you, Israa!Thank you, Israa!Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-83327059841232100512016-09-18T18:51:23.714-07:002016-09-18T18:51:23.714-07:00hey prowling bee
I just wanted to say thank you f...hey prowling bee <br />I just wanted to say thank you for your blog , it is very helpful , I am Arabic writer and poet and I am starting to read american poetry and I do not want to read translated versions because I believe the poems will lose a lot by translation and your blog is helping me a lot in understanding these poems , thank u again and keep the great work up .Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15416031547193782508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-79187286938861943562015-03-05T09:08:28.750-08:002015-03-05T09:08:28.750-08:00I hadn't thought of the peering from behind th...I hadn't thought of the peering from behind the door or window. This poem does foreshadow it -- and the alluring mystery that ED became in her own time in her own town.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-19147728254267114642015-03-05T05:25:31.758-08:002015-03-05T05:25:31.758-08:00This seems her credo: the primacy of the imaginati...This seems her credo: the primacy of the imagination over the reality of the Interview. ED, the last many years of her life, would many times allow guests to speak with her only outside of her closed, or ajar, bedroom door.<br /><br />The power lies in the secret not revealed, that's why, in a more shadowy context, it's important for survivors of sexual or other kinds of trauma to reveal what they have kept either consciously or unconsciously veiled; once revealed the secret begins to lose its powerful grip.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-73718896128427280552013-03-25T19:53:39.295-07:002013-03-25T19:53:39.295-07:00This is one of her poems which exquisitely exhibit...This is one of her poems which exquisitely exhibits how universal her work is. It's inconceivable that some critics have claimed her scope was limited.Kevin Ryannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-91440724770558469302013-03-25T18:43:22.706-07:002013-03-25T18:43:22.706-07:00Your distinction between the first and second stan...Your distinction between the first and second stanza seems just right to me and is beautifully put. <br /><br />Another good word in the poem: "peers." The mesh veil is clearly over the eyes and so it works both ways. The wearer must peer at the world as if standing in front of a screen door. She is not clearly seen, but then neither does she see clearly.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-42106344461950853432013-03-25T10:38:09.257-07:002013-03-25T10:38:09.257-07:00The two stanzas are interesting -- the first objec... The two stanzas are interesting -- the first objective, a view from outside. The second stanza is more deeply personal -- we are inside the veil, peering "beyond the mesh". In this stanza, I think the poem is tied to ED's theme of what can be spoken and what must be approached from an angle ("tell it slant"; "can blaze be shown in cochineal or noon in mazurin?"). <br /><br /> Interview is such a strong word in what is the strongest line of the poem. And I agree -- annul is so beautiful and ties so much in -- the harsh verdict of law and the intimacy of marriage lost.<br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com