tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post5443536689779123719..comments2024-03-27T11:02:20.107-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: As if I asked a common AlmsSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-87006724008754384092024-01-10T18:17:28.196-08:002024-01-10T18:17:28.196-08:00okay, thanks -- now I can't get Hernando's...okay, thanks -- now I can't get Hernando's Hideaway out of my head -- along with images of a woman in a long-white dress ...Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-71968798298232194072024-01-10T14:49:16.178-08:002024-01-10T14:49:16.178-08:00The poem just misses being in a common hymn meter....The poem just misses being in a common hymn meter. It is almost double common meter (8.6.8.6 8.6.8.6), reading "wondering" as it is frequently pronounced, "wond'ring", except line 3 is seven syllables, not eight. I know of no hymns of the pattern 8.6.7.6 8.6.8.6, although there is one hymn pattern that is 8.6.8.6 7.6.8.6; three hymns have the pattern 7.6.8.6 8.6.8.6. And if you don't like reading "wondering" as two syllables, it is also impossible, as far as I know, to find a hymn meter 8.7.7.6 8.6.8.6. Of course, the point of identifying these syllable patterns for hymns is to assist in choosing music to fit the texts, so perhaps the point here is to make the text appear to follow a hymn pattern while leaving it impossible to set to extant tunes. After all, it IS possible to sing the common doxology to the tune "Old 100th", but also to "Hernanado's Hideaway".JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319299863476508773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-19944251858912120352022-08-07T18:09:16.662-07:002022-08-07T18:09:16.662-07:00ED penned three variants of ‘As if I asked a commo...ED penned three variants of ‘As if I asked a common Alms’: 1858 for her fascicles, 1862 for Higginson, and 1884 for a thank-you letter to a “Dear Friend”. For the 1884 letter she converted the poem to prose and merged it between her gift description and the news of the day. She also altered the last line to “And flood me with the Dawn!” to spare her friend the shock of “And shatter me with Dawn!” Twenty-six years is a lot of mileage for one poem, but it held up well.Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-37110565591266712562021-08-30T20:34:56.342-07:002021-08-30T20:34:56.342-07:00It's a lovely phrase, 'wondering hand.'...It's a lovely phrase, 'wondering hand.' You've helped me see the poem in a new way. I think there is a strong self-referent there. Right now I'm reading a couple of books of ED poems interpreted through the lens of Zen -- and the assumption that unknowing, accidentally, Dickinson (can't remember the precise term) became enlightened or had an ego transcendence. <br /><br />It's an interesting way to reread poems and it certainly is relevant here. The speaker asks for common things but beholds magnificent things. Perhaps, along your line of thinking (I think), she is embarking on poetry or a poem and then the floodgates open and she is 'Shatter[ed] with dawn'.<br /><br />I'm really loving this poem. Thanks for commenting on it.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-6610102261882351942021-08-30T14:00:21.639-07:002021-08-30T14:00:21.639-07:00Thank you for your running commentary, Susan, whic...Thank you for your running commentary, Susan, which I've followed for several years, though I don't believe I've commented in turn (here) before. For now, I only want to call attention to the phrase "my wondering hand." Given that this poem was eventually, as you allude to, followed immediately by ED's query, "But, will you be my Preceptor, Mr Higginson?" we may well understand the "wondering hand" as the proferred, questioning poem and the "hand" with which/in which it is written. <br />Beyond or apart from that, I find a "wonderful" ambiguity in the way "my wondering hand" fluctuates between a <br />tentative asking and a being overcome.Josh Wilnerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05297763260845336995noreply@blogger.com