tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post2283355964122670906..comments2024-03-28T18:48:28.471-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: The Province of the SavedSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-17490662108240540312024-02-08T14:16:08.380-08:002024-02-08T14:16:08.380-08:00Death and depression, ED's poetic “Grave” and ...Death and depression, ED's poetic “Grave” and “Despair”, occupied her mind more than most folks would consider mentally healthy. By 1863, at age 32, ED implies she has figured out for herself how to handle the onset of depression, “The Science of the Grave”.<br /><br />No one who has not personally endured severe depression cycles is qualified to discuss “Despair” with “Those who failing new— / Mistake Defeat for Death—Each time—” it happens. Only those who have cycled in and out of depression and “obtained in Themselves – / The Science of the Grave” are qualified.<br /><br />It takes repeated cycles “Till [the victim of depression is] acclimated – to – ” the mental and emotional episodes.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-19081431941228818222024-02-02T07:19:22.378-08:002024-02-02T07:19:22.378-08:00This poem anticipates the idea of the “wounded hea...This poem anticipates the idea of the “wounded healer”—see Henri Nouwen’s book of that title. You are saved? Bully for you. Now, knowing how to be saved from despair (and knowing the difference between that and death, as so many do not—witness our epidemic of suicide—) what are you doing to help, to “heal” others? Take that, you snooty folks down the road at the Congregational church in Amherst and at Mount Holyoke. <br /> Calvinist predestination is a tricky doctrine. From what I can gather about 19th century notions, if you “accepted Christ into your life” by signing such pledges as Dickinson refused to sign, you considered yourself “saved.” Hence the smugness of so many of Dickinson’s acquaintances. Did you worry if you might be mistaken? Probably many did. But the steadiest of the churchgoers were reassured on most Sundays that all was well with their souls.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-86726206965269190162020-12-24T06:00:31.277-08:002020-12-24T06:00:31.277-08:00Your loss. Your loss. Pphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01023162636086533197noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-27365808966818388602020-03-12T06:03:42.425-07:002020-03-12T06:03:42.425-07:00yo this blog is sick, I had a Emily Dickinson Proj...yo this blog is sick, I had a Emily Dickinson Project to do for my honors english class and this blog saved me from having to actually analyze these poems. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-3276925034397775992020-01-29T08:08:25.965-08:002020-01-29T08:08:25.965-08:00Thanks for this. There were some Buddhist ideas t...Thanks for this. There were some Buddhist ideas that influenced Transcendalism. Melville has a poem "Buddha" with the lines: "Swooning swim to less and less; Aspirants to nothingness." Not a particularly good poem or particularly accurate concerning Buddhism -- but I like the word "aspirants" as it evokes mediation on the breath. <br /><br />While i doubt that Dickinson had much direct knowledge of Buddhism, some of these ideas may have resonated. I do love this poem, though. "Science of the Grave" and "qualified to qualify" are beautiful lines. JWiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756156459620185187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-44513473444444411752020-01-27T15:51:41.965-08:002020-01-27T15:51:41.965-08:00Ah, you'd already addressed my question above....Ah, you'd already addressed my question above. <br /><br />I like the reference to the paste-to-pearl poem.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-51290811982309847972020-01-27T15:48:26.664-08:002020-01-27T15:48:26.664-08:00Thank you for the well-chosen Thoreau quotes! I ag...Thank you for the well-chosen Thoreau quotes! I agree that 'the science of the grave' is a key line. I hadn't thought of it before, but she makes the explicit point that death can, probably should be thought of rationally, scientifically. The dissolution reckoned with. Religion doesn't factor here. I'm not sure I understand the line, but it is certainly evocative.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-33842084596721793032020-01-27T09:59:29.366-08:002020-01-27T09:59:29.366-08:00To me the dissolution speaks not so much to a &quo...To me the dissolution speaks not so much to a "secret knowledge" granted to the initiated into ecstasies of spirituality. It speaks to the opposite - to the grit that comes for those who have endured suffering and come through it to the other side. It is not a secret knowledge as much as a public humiliation of sorts. <br /><br />I wonder if she's on some level referring to an "earned authority" that comes from suffering; that is, things we have learned through blood, sweat, and tears in the gymnasium of life we have often unintentionally, unwittingly, with no desire or design, been in, that have (most often to our surprise) prepared us with strength to give to others. <br /><br />When we experience the dissolution in all of its horror/distress (perhaps for Dickinson it was the absurd loneliness she experienced being odd person she was) then we are perhaps then to move (to reference another poem of hers) from paste, having been "qualified for pearl" - the pearl here perhaps a beautiful picture of the nature of suffering that can produce beauty/strength, a gift from our lives to adorn the lives of others.Nathan Noblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10486764091038404058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-42234502293032301862020-01-27T09:39:06.986-08:002020-01-27T09:39:06.986-08:00This poem was a good/inspiring one.
So often reli...<br />This poem was a good/inspiring one.<br /><br />So often religious people tout pious platitudes that reflect a mental understanding of a concept but the mental understanding does not have fidelity - it does not land and deeply imprint the heart - the spirit, soul, and body in holistic fashion. As Thoreau said "I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear". For truth to truly be true truth, for that which is not life to be removed and what is left be only that which results after we "cut a broad swath and shave close" and "drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms." I think, more than just eschewing human connection by going into nature in monastic fashion as Thoreau did, what Dickinson references is something that includes Thoreau and the transcendentalist naturalist concept and yet more. To learn "the science of the grave" - we must understand death in some measure. I wonder if this is perhaps that which the mystics have referred to as "the dark night of the soul." But this dark not is not something we choose. It chooses us, much like Dickinson (I believe) felt that her vocation as a poet chose her rather than the other way around. There was a sacredness to it that was more than personal preference. It was a holy thing. Thus her white dress.Nathan Noblehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10486764091038404058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-41686147746541033882020-01-26T12:52:41.663-08:002020-01-26T12:52:41.663-08:00hmmm... if one were confident of being saved -- wh...hmmm... if one were confident of being saved -- which in Dickinson's milieu one could not be -- one could find joy in salvation and the reprieve from the wages of sin. <br /><br />Now that I think more about the poem, I wonder if ED wasn't implying that the 'saved' of her day weren't doing their job, so to speak, either because they weren't interested in whatever contribution they might make towards the salvation of others or because they hadn't paid the price. Either interpretation, of course, would run against the predestined Elect doctrine. Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-65074962807090203732020-01-24T12:06:33.017-08:002020-01-24T12:06:33.017-08:00I can't write about Buddhism with any authorit...I can't write about Buddhism with any authority either, but I like your argument all the same. The idea that the "Saved" have to pass through the "Grave" seems to describe people like the bodhisattvas who pass through death but come back to this world to help the ones behind. I also like the way you rewrite the stanzas so we can follow the thoughts of the poem.<br /><br />Is there a hint about the Christian notion of the Fortunate Fall: that humans are "lucky" to have sinned and found death so that we can experience God's forgiveness and a reprieve from death? The saved are lucky to have experience death (metaphorically? literally?) because it gives them knowledge and appreciation for life. Weird thought, maybe. Hope it makes sense.Jacksonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00740428749859847217noreply@blogger.com