tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post6205800335444309677..comments2024-03-28T14:04:54.557-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: We see — Comparatively —Susan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-61005578179099860762023-12-11T11:04:27.785-08:002023-12-11T11:04:27.785-08:00ED repeatedly rued a paradise lost, as she does he...ED repeatedly rued a paradise lost, as she does here in F580, ‘We see — Comparatively’:<br /><br />“Perhaps 'tis kindly — done us —<br />The Anguish — and the loss —<br />The wrenching — for His Firmament<br />The Thing belonged to us —”<br /><br />Usually, ED’s loss was Sue, as in F451, ‘The Malay—took the Pearl’, when Austin married her:<br /><br />“Praying that I might be<br />Worthy—the Destiny—<br />The Swarthy fellow swam—<br />And bore my Jewel—Home—”<br /><br />And in F418, ‘Your Riches — taught me — Poverty’:<br /><br />“Its far — far Treasure to surmise —<br />And estimate the Pearl —<br />That slipped my simple fingers through —<br />While just a Girl at School”<br /><br />And in F261, ‘I held a Jewel in my fingers –’:<br /><br />“I woke – and chid my honest fingers,<br />The Gem was gone –<br />And now, an Amethyst remembrance<br />Is all I own –”<br /><br />However, tempore fugit, life changed, and “Our Giants — further on —”. <br /><br />This time<br /><br />“The Thing so towering high<br />We could not grasp its segment”<br /><br />Is Charles Wadsworth, lost to San Francisco.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-21003847302022476962023-12-11T08:33:41.944-08:002023-12-11T08:33:41.944-08:00Thus far in Franklin order, ED has used “gnat” in ...Thus far in Franklin order, ED has used “gnat” in five poems:<br /><br />F415. More Life – went out – when He went<br />F419. A Toad, can die of Light –<br />F444. It would have starved a Gnat —<br />F574. I know lives, I could miss<br />F580 We see — Comparatively —<br /><br />Franklin dates her earliest use “about autumn 1862”, in F415. Perhaps “gnat”’s usefulness in comparative similes and metaphors appealed to ED as it did to Americans in general since at least 1840:<br /><br />“Various phrases of the type have been known in the US . . . to indicate something very small. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang from 1840: gnat’s heel, a very small amount. Others are gnat’s eyebrow, gnat’s ass (“Fine enough to split the hairs on a gnat’s ass”), and fit to a gnat’s heel, for something that fits or suits perfectly. There’s also the English gnat’s piss for any weak and unsatisfying drink. Others exist, some even more crude.”<br /><br />https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wit2.htm#:~:text=Others%20are%20gnat's%20eyebrow%2C%20gnat's,that%20fits%20or%20suits%20perfectly.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-24802818455717921392015-06-20T07:17:50.516-07:002015-06-20T07:17:50.516-07:00I love "The waking in a Gnat's- embrace-
...I love "The waking in a Gnat's- embrace-<br /><br />I think of the towering poetic brilliance of ED that she confined to her father's house and ultimately to her bedroom dresser drawer and at some level the bitterness she must have felt with such comparative obscurity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com