On
this long storm the Rainbow rose –
On
this late morn – the sun –
The
Clouds – like listless Elephants –
Horizons
– straggled down –
The
Birds rose smiling, in their nests –
The
gales – indeed – were done –
Alas,
how heedless were the eyes –
On
whom the summer shone!
The
quiet nonchalance of death –
No
Daybreak – can bestir –
The
slow – Archangel's syllables
Must
awaken her!
F216 (1861) 194
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Archangel Michael Colin de Coter, 1393 |
The
parting gesture of the storm, a lovely rainbow, welcomes the morning sun. The
day promises to be peaceful, unlike the storm the night before. The world is
bathed in sun, bird song from the newly-wakened birds, and big puffy clouds slowly
disappearing down the horizon as the sky clears. But there is one woman who has
died, perhaps during the storm, who is “heedless” now to the beauties of a clear summer day. No “Daybreak”
can rouse her from her grave. It will take the Archangel Michael, thought to be
the Archangel of Resurrection and of weighing souls, to finally wake her up.
Death
is not portrayed as a tragedy here, though. Yes, it’s sad that the woman can’t
see the new day and its beauties. But she is in a state of “quiet nonchalance”
– which doesn’t seem so bad. It’s a good thing, too, as in other of Dickinson’s
poems people wait in their graves for eons until resurrection day. In “Safe in
Their Alabaster Chambers” the dead saints wait while “Worlds scoop their
Arcs –
And
firmaments – row.”
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Clearing of a storm Maurice de Vlaminck, 1912 |
The
poem is written in standard ballad form. It begins as a traditional ballad: a
story is being told and there are elements of drama. It’s very visual in the
story telling. But the mood changes in the third stanza when the poet “tells”
us that someone has died. The momentum of the poem comes to an abrupt end and
we get a bit of a lesson. I’m not sure it adds much to the poem.
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