tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post7415758787555696304..comments2024-03-28T11:04:36.401-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: I would not paint—a picture—Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-65365056990305150972023-06-10T18:32:13.136-07:002023-06-10T18:32:13.136-07:00Long after the deaths of all ED’s friends, family,...Long after the deaths of all ED’s friends, family, and early editors, Mabel Todd’s daughter, Millicent Todd Bingham, gathered 600 unpublished ED poems into ‘Bolts of Melody’ (1945). It was a labor of love for her mother, who was listed as a posthumous co-author, and a worthy use of ED’s last line of 'I would not paint—a picture—'.<br /><br />Millicent Todd Bingham earned the first PhD in Geography awarded to a woman by Harvard University, so was no stranger to academic standards of scholarship. She proved herself by transcribing and publishing the most difficult ED manuscripts, those scratched on scraps of paper, backs of envelopes, and even blank spaces on instructions for lighting and maintaining a kerosene lamp.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-87167220448753104932023-06-10T14:27:53.978-07:002023-06-10T14:27:53.978-07:00‘I would not paint—a picture—’, a celebration of h...‘I would not paint—a picture—’, a celebration of her poetry and her ability to stun herself with products of her pen. Her closing wish is true, she knows it, and she thanks whatever gods may be for her incomparable way with words, evidenced by this incomparable poem.<br /><br />My favorite lines end Stanza 2:<br /><br />“Raised softly to the Ceilings—<br />And out, and easy on—<br />Through Villages of Ether—<br />Myself endued [endowed like a] Balloon <br />By but a lip of Metal [the nib of my pen]—<br />The pier to my Pontoon—[to my floating bridge to heaven]”<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-41274632821374043002023-03-01T21:28:40.120-08:002023-03-01T21:28:40.120-08:00I'm very taken with the bolts. They suggest a ...I'm very taken with the bolts. They suggest a bolting horse, lightning bolts, locks, jolts, and rolls of cloth. The poem's 'melody' is like all of that -- and as Pp points out, it privileges the ear. Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-22723499577468422992023-02-28T13:10:23.887-08:002023-02-28T13:10:23.887-08:00This one gets more and more interesting the more y...This one gets more and more interesting the more you read it, and the music becomes more and more intoxicating too. A poet who would not be a poet, but would rather, if she could, just Own the Ear. A poem revering the license of its reader. The bolts of melody strike me as a confluence of painting (bolt) and music (melody) as poem, invoking all three. d scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08242682202760522439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-65487247257021522222021-11-22T15:06:00.402-08:002021-11-22T15:06:00.402-08:00I enjoyed this very much. Thank you. I am writing ...I enjoyed this very much. Thank you. I am writing an explication on the mystical ravishment through art. Paradox is the art. Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11727901228111505470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-74027386437332512322020-07-27T06:45:16.315-07:002020-07-27T06:45:16.315-07:00I agree - I sit with an array of print texts befor...I agree - I sit with an array of print texts before me and unlimited access to the feast of google, and I always come back here!<br />I see shades of Emerson’s eyeball in her desire to become an ear. Pphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01023162636086533197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-41664379199305444372013-11-20T08:05:29.497-08:002013-11-20T08:05:29.497-08:00Thank you! I have learned a lot -- and deepened my...Thank you! I have learned a lot -- and deepened my already great appreciation of Dickinson.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-61921799292869110562013-11-20T02:42:30.941-08:002013-11-20T02:42:30.941-08:00WOW .. what a pleasure to have discovered this blo...WOW .. what a pleasure to have discovered this blog site .. Kudos :-)<br />LOVE Dickinson and I shall be back here regularly .. what a great way to 'worship' the work of an author you admire :-)<br />Cheers,<br />SujAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com