tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post4072481611075814371..comments2024-03-29T06:02:33.720-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: The feet of people walking homeSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-38202260637984326452023-03-19T18:57:36.359-07:002023-03-19T18:57:36.359-07:00Thank you for your kind words and for directing me...Thank you for your kind words and for directing me to this wonderful poem – which I find illuminating and awe-ful rather than bleak. I also find it a much more skillful poem than this current one, but then J974 was written around 950 poems later. <br /><br />The 'Sheets of Place' (a phrase I love almost as much as I love 'miles of Stare' [from 'I've known a Heaven, like a Tent –']) strike me as illuminations available to us only in moments of mortal danger. I see the heavens opening up to the vast and often cosmic landscapes Dickinson writes about in other poems. Although these can overpowering (as in 'I saw no Way — The Heavens were stitched —') they are often rich with music and life. <br /><br />Although Dickinson's poetry sometimes has folks moldering in their graves, I don't see any hint of that in the sudden illuminations of the soul's link to immortality in this poem. <br /><br />But I sense you've thought about this poem more than I have (having just read it for the first time -- what joy!), so I would be very interested in hearing more about your reading.<br />----------------------------------<br />For ease of other readers, here is J974:<br /><br />The Soul's distinct connection<br />With immortality<br />Is best disclosed by Danger<br />Or quick Calamity—<br /><br />As Lightning on a Landscape<br />Exhibits Sheets of Place—<br />Not yet suspected—but for Flash—<br />And Click—and Suddenness.<br />Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-72238705547411816842023-03-16T11:59:36.019-07:002023-03-16T11:59:36.019-07:00You HAVE lightened, I say!!!You HAVE lightened, I say!!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-92024018098080118312023-03-16T11:58:07.789-07:002023-03-16T11:58:07.789-07:00Hi Susan, I wonder how we might compare and contra...Hi Susan, I wonder how we might compare and contrast this poem to J974, The soul’s distinct connection? The latter poem seems so bleak in its metaphors that the only secondary meaning I can draw from it is that we should enjoy our days of natural delights on earth as they are the closest thing to heaven and immortality we may see. This poem, The feet…, definitely has a more hopeful tone. I haven’t thanked you in awhile so, I much appreciate how you have brought many of us closer to Emily’s poems and you haven’t definitely lightened my “interpretive despair”.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-25360122633059373682022-08-28T08:07:04.904-07:002022-08-28T08:07:04.904-07:00Resurrection of the structure of this poem is diff...Resurrection of the structure of this poem is difficult. There are two variants. The original structure (Variant 1) is a letter in ED’s handwriting that is missing its third page, including the poem’s final two lines and ED’s signature. In that letter all stanzas are quatrains. When ED copied the letter for Fascicle 1, she combined the last two quatrains into an octarine. I prefer the six-stanza structure of Variant 1 and suspect omission of the stanza break was unintentional.<br /><br />After ED’s 1886 death and before publishing her poems and letters, Austin Dickinson and Mabel Todd, his mistress, censored (mutilated or omitted) all evidence of intimate affection between ED and Susan D. Perhaps the salutation “Darling” was too affectionate so the letter’s third page with ED’s signature was “lost”.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-36125295246303542992022-08-10T15:32:13.150-07:002022-08-10T15:32:13.150-07:00‘The feet of people walking home’ (F16) professes ...‘The feet of people walking home’ (F16) professes unquestioning faith, which is unusual for ED, that Heaven in some Dark form awaits believers. No one, including ED, knows how far away Heaven lies but her faith adores that Darkness from whose “solemn abbeys” resurrection pours. In more prosaic form, death is a dark curtain that falls, and what’s behind it no one knows (cf. 26 March 2022 comment, below), except by faith. <br /><br />She is not saying she believes that Heaven’s streets are paved with gold or that our resurrected souls sit on the right hand of God.<br />Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-20064997171760832332022-06-07T18:56:00.293-07:002022-06-07T18:56:00.293-07:00Glad to hear you may continue!Glad to hear you may continue!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-44308390725176676372022-03-28T09:26:06.214-07:002022-03-28T09:26:06.214-07:00Worthy endeavor! I've had to be working long h...Worthy endeavor! I've had to be working long hours last couple of years... hope to pick up the explications again before this year is out. I miss the challenge of each poem. Thanks for all your comments here!<br />Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-33378688483319485462022-03-26T16:00:32.513-07:002022-03-26T16:00:32.513-07:00Susan,
The Prowling Bee, an oasis on the internet...Susan,<br /><br />The Prowling Bee, an oasis on the internet, found me after a temerous resolution to read ED in Franklin order until the curtain falls (80 and reading Fr 16). As of 2021 you're at Fr 680. I'll race you to the finish, winner take all, no rush!<br /><br />Larry B.<br /><br />PS. A Ukrainian friend told me that overuse of exclamation marks is a symptom of insanity! So be it!Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-53818209089359970482018-01-23T19:54:13.894-08:002018-01-23T19:54:13.894-08:00Thanks! I got seriously drawn to her works when te...Thanks! I got seriously drawn to her works when teaching a Lit. and Critical Thinking class. At some point I decided I should read all of her poems. Then it seemed natural to try to explicate them. It has been a real challenge!Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-44732479301061207152018-01-23T18:08:11.902-08:002018-01-23T18:08:11.902-08:00Yes! The agon (Greek for struggle or conflict) is ...Yes! The agon (Greek for struggle or conflict) is at the heart of her faith. Note how that Greek root works it’s way into our words: antagonist, protagonist, agony. Her faith and agony are such compelling parts of her poetry. By the way, I very much enjoy your blog and your focus on Emily Dickinson. Once upon a time, when I dared to teach Dickinson’s poems to intro to lit students, I wish I could have relied upon your blog postings to help me. RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-49810943598050761352018-01-23T18:00:14.212-08:002018-01-23T18:00:14.212-08:00I think so, too; but only at times. Other times Di...I think so, too; but only at times. Other times Dickinson seems to revel in an antagonistic approach to a distant, unapproachable, and silent Divinity.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-77572788028054171852018-01-23T17:47:42.905-08:002018-01-23T17:47:42.905-08:00I think the poet agonized over her lack of faith.I think the poet agonized over her lack of faith.RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-26407747758728846592018-01-23T17:41:50.729-08:002018-01-23T17:41:50.729-08:00Thanks for the reference. I see the 'bitter ir...Thanks for the reference. I see the 'bitter irony' Wolff sees. Yet despite that, the poet writes that she adores that Dark -- the absence of god/light -- because 'faith' would have it as the source of rebirth into paradise. The stanza is ironical, has, yes, a twinge of bitterness, but it is the essence of faith -- to trust in the unseen as dark and unlikely as it might seem.<br />Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-32413949469149510282018-01-23T17:27:15.332-08:002018-01-23T17:27:15.332-08:00I take no credit for the thesis. My source is p. 1...I take no credit for the thesis. My source is p. 148 of Cynthia Wolff’s -Emily Dickinson-. Note the physical v. metaphysical in the poem. The poet trusts one but cannot know the other. Hence, she is skeptical. So, my reading is derivative but not original.RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-32236563598539878332018-01-23T16:45:35.484-08:002018-01-23T16:45:35.484-08:00I'd be interested in hearing your argument on ...I'd be interested in hearing your argument on that. As I re-read the poem I find myself once again a bit puzzled by the last stanza. Do you think she is suggesting that she finds the idea of eternal Dark to be a more likely afterlife than, say, the crocus flowering at touch of spring?Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-36528131252089242942018-01-23T15:47:08.591-08:002018-01-23T15:47:08.591-08:00Doesn’t she seem to be skeptical of the Incarnatio...Doesn’t she seem to be skeptical of the Incarnation and Resurrection? RTDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17113953356514605424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-40601802014918859872016-02-27T08:01:34.540-08:002016-02-27T08:01:34.540-08:00Thanks!
Thanks!<br />Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-62363211243072270922016-02-27T05:51:09.591-08:002016-02-27T05:51:09.591-08:00I'm brazilian and you are helping me a lot to ...I'm brazilian and you are helping me a lot to understand the poetry of Emily. In this particular case, of this poem, i lvoe the idea of potencialities. I see potencialities in things, in persons, in everythingAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01112899998525214033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-74368349479249511742014-01-08T07:51:34.886-08:002014-01-08T07:51:34.886-08:00Thanks! I think gem mining in Dickinson poems is a...Thanks! I think gem mining in Dickinson poems is a delightful and absorbing pasttime. Best wishes for your progress, and thanks again for the compliment!Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-5994228569400817242014-01-02T13:25:35.933-08:002014-01-02T13:25:35.933-08:00Susan, I am delighted to have found your blog; I&#...Susan, I am delighted to have found your blog; I'm writing my first book, a memoir of change with bits of Emily interspersed throughout. I look forward to continuing to hear your thoughts!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com