tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post6204260529852364379..comments2024-03-29T00:07:13.458-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: Ah, Necromancy Sweet!Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-74594687558992453012023-01-04T12:35:28.719-08:002023-01-04T12:35:28.719-08:00If there were a delete button, the comment of 11/2...If there were a delete button, the comment of 11/23/22 would vanish. My error was not trusting ED. When she says “instill the pain”, she means “inflict the pain”, not “still” the pain. Of course, the “pain Surgeons assuage in vain / nor Herb of all the plain can heal” is the pain of unrequited love. That is the pain she would like to inflict on her former lover. <br /><br />Apparently, Susan’s courtship and marriage to Austin (July 1, 1856) ended their intimate relationship, and ED’s budding venture as a poet screeched to a halt. And, also apparently, she discovered an efficacious anodyne was composing more poems, lots of them:<br /><br />Year Poems<br />1850 1<br />1852 1<br />1853 1<br />1854 1<br />1855 0<br />1856 0<br />1857 0<br />1858 43<br />1859 82<br />1860 54<br />1861 88<br />1862 227<br />1863 295<br />1864 98<br />1865 229<br />1866 10<br />1867 12<br />1868 11<br />1869 11<br />1870 28<br />1871 48<br />1872 35<br />1873 38<br />1874 38<br />1875 34<br />1876 31<br />1877 42<br />1878 23<br />1879 35<br />1880 26<br />1881 25<br />1882 27<br />1883 34<br />1884 42<br />1885 13<br />1886 2<br />???? 104<br /> <br />Total 1789<br />Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-1539282027890502332022-11-23T21:34:18.574-08:002022-11-23T21:34:18.574-08:00We know that ED suffered repeatedly from three kin...We know that ED suffered repeatedly from three kinds of pain, the first being the loss of her intimate relationship with Susan after she married ED’s brother. Many poems describe her lifelong attempts to re-establish some semblance of that lost love, usually without success.<br /><br />Second, ED experienced recurring migraine-like episodes, often accompanied by painful vision that was partially relieved by darkness, a common symptom of migraines. She spent two lengthy visits to Boston receiving treatments from a vision specialist. She took a prescribed medication based on glycerin, which is now considered ineffective. In several of her poems she implied that she had been to the gates of heaven, which I take to mean that the pain of a migraine is so intense she feels she has died.<br /><br />Third, she and her family suspected she had epilepsy, a syndrome not mentioned in public, especially when it concerned women of a marriageable age.<br />Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-25712183517722651852021-12-20T17:35:57.687-08:002021-12-20T17:35:57.687-08:00She has to turn to wizards and necromancy because ...She has to turn to wizards and necromancy because surgeons and medicinal herbs have failed to reduce her pain. That's my thinking, anyway. At the moment.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-53433457894871857452021-12-20T12:44:00.994-08:002021-12-20T12:44:00.994-08:00If that was ED'S reference to instil, which I ...If that was ED'S reference to instil, which I have to assume it was, then yes, she is trying to ease the pain. But then what is the use of Necromancy, and what was the pain. She is a riddle and conundrum. <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00725261030659667439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-22266794538995791162021-12-20T10:08:29.917-08:002021-12-20T10:08:29.917-08:00Thank you for the comment. BUT - I was inspired to...Thank you for the comment. BUT - I was inspired to use the ED Lexicon to see what they say about 'instill' in the dictionary of Dickinson's day. Here is the entry:<br />Infuse slowly; add gradually; receive in small quantities; [reflexive] sip; partake of.<br /><br />With this in mind, perhaps the poet is asking for the ability to take in pain in small, slow quantities. Moderate the intake. The purpose might be either to regularize the pain so that it is never overwhelming, or else to take pain in -- as the thorn is to the bird who presses her breast against it to sing.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-77381220379095572912021-12-19T11:14:25.165-08:002021-12-19T11:14:25.165-08:00For such a poem that is not highly thought of, we ...For such a poem that is not highly thought of, we have three very insightful readers who all have three different interpretations! Is that not one characteristic of great art?<br /><br />Here's a fourth. Necromancy is not only the ability to converse with the dead, but also the ability to see the future. I think she has hurt somebody and wants to see if there is some way in the future that the pain she has instilled can be relieved? Possibly pain she inflicted on her mother?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00725261030659667439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-89581612877035504162019-01-30T21:35:29.484-08:002019-01-30T21:35:29.484-08:00Oh thank you, Geoffrey! That makes great sense to ...Oh thank you, Geoffrey! That makes great sense to me. I wonder if the great pain, however, isn't the pain from great art -- the tragedies, the pain of the human condition the great masters bring to light.Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-12954183628760891042019-01-30T20:04:38.028-08:002019-01-30T20:04:38.028-08:00This gives pause but there is an inner text. Her n...This gives pause but there is an inner text. Her necromancy is to address some great deceased writer, a dead master who was a wizard erudite, possibly her great master Shakespeare. The pain she wishes to instil is of course the hunger for true identity and self-knowledge which great art alone can accomplish. Her message is folded lest she seem a boaster. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05466337433370292956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-84474595218114446402017-01-18T07:36:16.500-08:002017-01-18T07:36:16.500-08:00Me too. Maybe she does want to cause someone unrel...Me too. Maybe she does want to cause someone unrelievable pain.<br />Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-43768909288009398152017-01-17T22:00:38.213-08:002017-01-17T22:00:38.213-08:00I thought this might be about the pain of love and...I thought this might be about the pain of love and loss but the use of 'instil' confuses me in all of its definitions.mcjeepshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15354406129562154763noreply@blogger.com