Elate — a Bee —
Thou'rt neither —
Neither — thy capacity —
But, Blossom, were I,
I would rather be
Thy moment
Than a Bee's Eternity —
Content of fading
Is enough for me —
Fade I unto Divinity —
And Dying — Lifetime —
Ample as the Eye —
Her least attention raise on me —
-Fr888, J682, fascicle 39, 1864
This is a very slippery poem. Who is the flower in this equation and who the bee and butterfly? What "capacity" does the bee and butterfly have, in representational human terms, that the blossom doesn't? Who is Her at the end of the poem? Is it the Ample eye that of the bee and butterfly or of the flower? Does that ample eye belong to the adorer or adored? There is a lot to work out. How you work it out will color your reading of the poem, which will in turn reflect you.
Here’s my reading, this time.
In the first stanza we have the idea that a flower eases and elates the bee and the butterfly, but does not have their capacity, which I take to mean, cannot fly away.
I think of Emily at home, able to ease and elate (relating to the two ends of poetry, Truth and Beauty) through her poetry, but self-restricted to her home.
In the second stanza she says she would rather be “Thy” singular moment, meaning the blossom's, than that of the eternal prowler, the bee. There are some sexual politics here perhaps; the feminine is often depicted as rooted, while the bees, and the butterflies, root around. Who does "Thy" refer to? David Preest thinks Emily is talking to herself here, and that makes the most sense to me too. But there are other possibilities.
By the third stanza the poet has become the blossom, accepting that she is fading and that her glory is behind her.
Content of fading
Is enough for me —
The next line is a beauty:
Fade I unto Divinity
There is an acceptance of death here in the satisfaction of knowing that you were, for a moment, that full blossom visited by the nectar-seeking bee, and, for a time, could be the easeful place to rest for the butterfly. Being content with this, one can fade into the divine, which means, I suppose, resting in peace.
And Dying — Lifetime —
Ample as the Eye —
Her least attention raise on me —
In dying, though, there’s the memory of a Lifetime, ample as the eye that saw it all. And in that ample eye, what is most precious is just the least moment of attention from “Her” ample eye.
It’s a poem that accepts that the one glance is not only "enough," it's more than enough, it's "ample." The flower as it is fading is all gratitude.
-/)dam Wade l)eGraff
P.S. This Tanya Tucker song comes to mind:
Delta Dawn, what's that flower you have on?
Could it be a faded rose from days gone by?
And did I hear you say he was a-meetin' you here today
To take you to his mansion in the sky?
Hey, Adam!
ReplyDeleteI love this one. Like you say, it's slippery. Here's my read (this time):
'Twould ease — a Butterfly —
Elate — a Bee —
Thou'rt neither —
Neither — thy capacity —
She’s addressing someone. Some thou. And it seems like she’s saying this person just doesn’t have it in them to please a pollinator. Like, pollinator-pleasing is just not who they are, and there’s nothing they can do to change that. (Pollination is gaudy, participatory, and celebratory living. If you don’t have that in you, that your loss.)
But, Blossom, were I,
I would rather be
Thy moment
Than a Bee's Eternity —
Was she addressing herself before? ‘Cause now she is. And what she’s saying is, that’s fine, I’d rather be the blossom. Passive, alluring, ephemeral, automatic, out-of-her-head, collapsing into a seed, begetting new life. The Bee’s Eternity here, I think, hearkens back to one of my favorite ED poems (Fr205; Come slowly – Eden). At least that’s what comes to mind. It’s about the mystical ecstasy of a Bee finally finding it, counting his nectars, and losing himself in Balms. (But I guess that was a different time.)
Content of fading
Is enough for me —
Fade I unto Divinity —
Now full-on heart-breaker mode. She’s past striving. She’s free falling to heaven.
And Dying — Lifetime —
Ample as the Eye —
Her least attention raise on me —
Past heart-breaker mode. A foot in the old garden. The transmission is breaking up; we’re just getting fragments. Who is she? A world of flowers? A blossom self? Sue? Is a glance from her as ample as a lifetime, and hence deadly? Is a memory of fleeting recognition what she takes with her to heaven? Is it what takes her there? (I'm reminded of the Yeats poem Three Things, where among the things recalled by a talking bone is after being face to face with her rightful man, just stretching and yawning.)
This poem rips! It’s just so awesome.
Loving your glosses, Nate. Our readings are pretty much aligned, though you give the ball some good top-spin.
ReplyDeleteThis poem gave me a buzz too. I felt elated after I read it, and eased too after the last couple of daunting poems. Emily's still the blossom, still hasn't faded, at least her poems haven't.
I don't know that Yeats poem. I'll look for it.
Yeah, I've been putting down my thoughts before I read your post, as a way of having more independent sense-making runs. But, yeah, it seems like we tend to converge. Maybe that's because you and Susan basically taught me how to read ED poems, and so the runs are not all that independent (like, we're using the same parsing routines, and so we're biased in the same way). Or maybe that's because as slant as they are, ED poems are actually quite pointy and reliably interpretable.
ReplyDeleteI read this poem as issuing a powerful erotic challenge in its opening stanza. (Like Nate, I immediately associated these first lines with "Come slowly -- Eden" F205).
ReplyDelete'Twould ease — a Butterfly —
Elate — a Bee —
What would ease and elate these insistent seekers of nectar? The question all but forces the reader to answer it with a blush.
But then, as the poem goes on, there is a refusal, some kind of rupture.
Thou'rt neither —
Neither — thy capacity —
So abrupt. So definitive. Neither thy capacity. Neither a butterfly nor a bee are you, the person being addressed. It's like a scratch in the record just as a love song begins. Errrrrrrchhhhh.
"Thou" here, I think, is the yearned-for but ever-withdrawing lover. (Perhaps Emily is referring to Sue, if we speculate biographically? But who knows.)
Yet despite this reversal, despite the harsh tone of rejection and disappointment, the poet revives her overtures in the next stanza. It's an incredibly brave re-opening of the poem, but this time with no illusions. This time she says, ok, let's just imagine anyway, can we? "Were I" a "Blossom," were I YOUR blossom, what then?
But, Blossom, were I,
I would rather be
Thy moment
Than a Bee's Eternity —
God I love these simple six words, and their confession: "I would rather be / Thy moment."
The cadence is Shakespearean, to my ear, the way he often ends a sonnet not with a flourish but with plain language. Forget the butterflies and bees! Forget my disappointment that you don't have that capacity and you don't even want to play along with my metaphors anymore. Do you hear me? I would rather be your single moment, in this life, speaking plainly now, than any bee's eternity. OK?
This stanza guts me. Her love is so limitless. She would take one moment with the beloved... over an eternity of imagined bees. Is this Emily breaking and favoring, this one time, prose over poetry? Is that the depth of her love?
It is so heartbreaking, isn't it, to think of this poem as a sequel to F205, when the lovers did lose themselves in balms, when they did achieve union. Now the beloved does not have that capacity. Is no longer the poet's bee. And so the poet seems to be saying, forget the poems, can I just be your blossom anyway?
The rest of the poem is -- the way I hear it -- an explanation of how the poet is managing her defeat and resignation. By fading, eventually dying, she hopes to see her life again, someday, as a whole. And when that happens, the "least attention," of yesteryear, those days of Eden and losing herself in balms so long ago, will finally come into focus again. In the scenario that she may be addressing Sue in this poem, it is moving to remember that Sue was the one to wash and dress and adorn her body when she died. They were together again, and she did devote her attention to Emily once again, no doubt remembering everything.
Content of fading
Is enough for me —
Fade I unto Divinity —
And Dying — Lifetime —
Ample as the Eye —
Her least attention raise on me —
Right on, Tom. I love that make-a-move / move-refused / make-a-move sequence you picked up on. That adds a ton. Same goes for the prose-as-hair-shirt moment. Thanks, man!
DeleteI love getting your perspective here, Tom. You've tuned me into the words, "I would rather be/ thy moment." The way it tunes into the single moment of love over any eternity. It reminds me of a favorite Dickinson poem, which ends:
ReplyDeleteBut when all Space has been beheld
And all Dominion shown
The smallest Human Heart’s extent
Reduces it to none.