tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post7399682734972661171..comments2024-03-29T00:07:13.458-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: Summer for thee, grant I may beSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-31986489175292953632023-04-12T07:19:50.080-07:002023-04-12T07:19:50.080-07:00Thanks for including Austin’s excerpt, although it...Thanks for including Austin’s excerpt, although it makes me cringe! His reasoning reminds me of that dastardly Raskolnikov, and look how things turned out for him! If you start your own blog with these observations and arcana, I’m definitely a reader! Best, 🎩Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-82837501037635455612022-08-22T13:31:33.637-07:002022-08-22T13:31:33.637-07:00‘Summer for thee’ (1858) is the third time ED has ... ‘Summer for thee’ (1858) is the third time ED has ended a poem or paragraph with “forevermore”. The first was an 1852 letter to Susan, who was in Baltimore for a year teaching high school math:<br /><br />“Your precious letter, Susie, it sits here now, and smiles so kindly at me, and gives me such sweet thoughts of the dear writer. When you come home, darling, I shan’t have your letters, shall I, but I shall have yourself, which is more — Oh more, and better, than I can even think! I sit here with my little whip, cracking the time away, till not an hour is left of it — then you are here! And Joy is here — joy now and forevermore! (H L13, April 5, 1852).<br /><br />ED’s second known use of “forevermore”, which Franklin lists chronologically close to ‘Summer for thee’ (F7, 1858), was a poem sent to Sue, ‘Two sisters have I’ (F5, 1858), which ends”:<br /><br />“I spilt the dew --<br />But took the morn --<br />I chose this single star<br />From out the wide night's numbers --<br />Sue — forevermore!”<br /><br />ED used “forevermore” a third time to end ‘Summer for thee’ (F7), which she also sent to Susan:<br /><br />“For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tomb<br />And row my blossoms o'er!<br />Pray gather me—<br />Anemone—<br />Thy flower—forevermore!”<br /><br />Given these precedents, my guess is that ED’s third known use of “forevermore”, the final word in ‘Summer for thee’, also refers to Susan, not an unidentified male.<br /><br />ED got the last laugh from her grave. In 1890, her brother Austin channeled ED’s “forevermore” in a letter to his lover, Mabel Loomis Todd:<br /><br />“Conventionalism, is for those not strong enough to be laws for themselves, or to conform themselves to the higher law where harmonies meet . . . [we are] part of one existence forevermore.”<br />Larry Bnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-58186384557600426432022-07-31T08:54:35.221-07:002022-07-31T08:54:35.221-07:00Kornfeld, S, The Prowling Bee, 17 June 2012 http:/...Kornfeld, S, The Prowling Bee, 17 June 2012 http://bloggingdickinson.blogspot.com/2012/06/rearrange-wifes-affection.htmlLarry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-44262723585031859462022-03-21T16:03:08.568-07:002022-03-21T16:03:08.568-07:00I agree with Michael.
The writer is the one who “...I agree with Michael.<br /><br />The writer is the one who “skips the tomb” and rows “my blossoms o’er”, presumably over River Styx.<br /><br /> For thee to bloom, I'll skip the tomb<br /> And row my blossoms o'er!<br /> Pray gather me—<br /> Anemone—<br /> Thy flower—forevermore! <br /><br />Anemones grow in the physical world, not the underworld, and the living lover can gather them forevermore.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-48772804349670816012021-03-19T08:11:05.454-07:002021-03-19T08:11:05.454-07:00I like this interpretation, too. I like this interpretation, too. Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-80899315347232701362021-03-08T17:25:15.464-08:002021-03-08T17:25:15.464-08:00Great interpretation :) I also read it as Emily li...Great interpretation :) I also read it as Emily living on even after her body is no longer there.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05951507929977301108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-90843910279286844632019-04-13T16:08:39.204-07:002019-04-13T16:08:39.204-07:00The way I read it is that Emily hopes to deliver t...The way I read it is that Emily hopes to deliver the joys of summer, not only after summer has passed, but after she herself has passed. That her memory, and presumably her poetry, will continue to provide consolation even after her own death - she'll 'skip the tomb' and 'row my blossoms o'er!' to continue being the loved one's Anemone, forevermoreMichael Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08735009654411464011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-76157093746952587742018-01-28T05:15:58.193-08:002018-01-28T05:15:58.193-08:00Great reading and picture helps. Thanks!Great reading and picture helps. Thanks!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14339957833418131602noreply@blogger.com