tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post8591218279920690626..comments2024-03-29T00:07:13.458-07:00Comments on the prowling Bee: The Day that I was crownedSusan Kornfeldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-29308279111533729252024-01-08T06:20:42.224-08:002024-01-08T06:20:42.224-08:00Fr# Year Poem line containing "Diadem"
...Fr# Year Poem line containing "Diadem"<br /><br />124 1861 Diadems - drop - and Doges - surrender -<br />246 1861 The want of Diadems!<br />248 1861 Intact - in Diadem!<br />254 1861 On Subjects Diadem -<br />267 1861 Then - my Diadem put on.<br />353 1862 With one small Diadem.<br />385 1862 Make-a Diadem-and mend my old One<br />418 1862 And scarce of Diadems -<br />481 1863 A futile Diadem -<br />497 1863 A Diadem to fit a Dome -<br />553 1863 And Diadems -a Tale -<br />600 1863 Diadem -or Ducal Showing -<br />613 1863 Were dull for Diadem -<br />1121 1866 Without her Diadem.<br /><br />The 1866 “Diadem” poem, ‘The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean’ (F1121), separated by three years and 508 poems from the previous one (F613), says a sad sayonara to Charles Wadsworth:<br /><br />“The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean.<br />A Travelling Flake of Snow<br />Across a Barn or through a Rut<br />Debates if it will go —<br /><br />A Narrow Wind complains all Day<br />How some one treated him<br />Nature, like Us is sometimes caught<br />Without her Diadem”<br /><br />Note that “Diadem” is always capitalized, especially in her goodbye.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-15068115669998263252024-01-07T18:40:08.618-08:002024-01-07T18:40:08.618-08:00“Diadem” was one of Wadsworth's favorite words...“Diadem” was one of Wadsworth's favorite words. He used it 20 times in 20 sermons delivered in San Francisco, 1862-1868, and probably as frequently in many more sermons delivered in Philadelphia, 1850-1862, many of which ED read before she composed this 1863 poem, ‘The Day that I was crowned’.<br /><br />After Wadsworth returned to Philadelphia from San Francisco in 1869, he used the word “diadem” 15 times in 15 published sermons, 1869-1882. (Wadsworth, C., D.D. 1905. Sermons. Eagle Book and Job Printing, Philadelphia) <br /><br />Her first use of “diadem” was in her 1861 version of ‘Safe in their Alabaster Chambers’ (Variant C), which she sent to Sue, but she didn't use it in her 1859 version of that poem. In total, she used “diadem” 14 times, five in 1861, three in 1862, five in 1863, once in 1866, and never again in 688 poems.<br /><br />Circumstantial evidence of Wadsworth's influence? That seems unlikely to me.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-45189959793063242062024-01-06T16:57:51.840-08:002024-01-06T16:57:51.840-08:00You are the Bee's go-to guy for Wadsworth, for...You are the Bee's go-to guy for Wadsworth, for sure. Both the info about Bible-sanctioned slavery and the Diadem count and connection are interesting!Susan Kornfeldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05384011972647144453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-2168057112568647062024-01-06T15:22:10.950-08:002024-01-06T15:22:10.950-08:00My hypothesis above that Wadsworth “absconded to S...My hypothesis above that Wadsworth “absconded to San Francisco (to escape her incessant and engulfing passion??)” is wrong. From 1850-1862, Wadsworth, a conservative minister, filled Arch Street Presbyterian Church to overflowing with his charismatic sermons, but his views that the Bible sanctioned slavery became a wedge between him and 90% of his congregation. To his credit, after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumpter, he opposed southern secession from the Union. However, most of his congregation wanted religious condemnation of slavery, which he could not in good conscious provide. Fortunately, his political support for maintaining the Union was enough to get a job offer from Calvary Presbyterian in San Francisco, a congregation of predominantly southern immigrants.<br /><br />(Benjamin Lease. 1990. Emily Dickinson's Readings of Men and Books).<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-18054982582033305392024-01-05T14:27:04.023-08:002024-01-05T14:27:04.023-08:00“Great find with the Wadsworth sermon. So cool to ...“Great find with the Wadsworth sermon. So cool to see the source material for a poem. And it is doubly intriguing knowing that this poem could, possibly, be a love poem to Wadsworth himself. Does that check out with chronology?” (d scribe, November 17, 2023, above).<br /><br />Short answer, yes, perfectly. CW has absconded to San Francisco (to escape her incessant and engulfing passion??), ED has emerged from her pathological obsession with her unreal mental construct of Wadsworth, and she has settled into recognition that he was and is “A Fiction superseding Faith —/By so much — as 'twas real —”. Stay tuned for the next exciting (??) episode.<br /><br />Thanks to Susan’s prescient 02 November 2015 comment (above) about Wadsworth’s probable role in ‘The Day that I was crowned’, I’ve ordered Brantley’s book (not reader friendly according to reviewers and my perusal of Amazon’s “free sample”) and hope to better understand this watershed moment in ED’s poetry.<br />Larry Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02810899482852120751noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-79645778338307182492023-11-17T06:08:31.654-08:002023-11-17T06:08:31.654-08:00Great find with the Wadsworth sermon. So cool to s...Great find with the Wadsworth sermon. So cool to see the source material for a poem. And it is doubly intriguing knowing that this poem could, possibly, be a love poem to Wadsworth himself. Does that check out with chronology? <br /><br />The reason I'm led to think of this as a love poem of sorts is because of that "chose". It is generally a person who chooses another. The idea of God choosing someone to receive grace, while not choosing others, doesn't seem like something ED would subscribe to. If she believed that, why put it in a poem? What good would that do the reader?<br /><br />It seems to me that there is always something ED is imparting to a reader, always a reason for the poem. It's not just a journal entry. It is framed the way it is to be read by a reader, to encapsulate and pass along some kind of knowledge or wisdom, or perhaps just to make something beautiful to lift the spirit. <br /><br />So I often ask myself what the poem is trying to get across. Love poems are weird, because they leave out the reader, especially if the reader is lonely.<br /><br />But in this case, as in the case of most of ED's love poems, she leaves the personal aspect indeterminate so that there's an alternative open sense we can share in of being in a relationship with the universe itself. You can be alone and still be "chose". In this sense we are all "chose", if we could only realize it. The poem helps us to realize it. The sunset helps us to realize it. <br /><br />Why then, in this poem, is this day different from days past? Perhaps because grace, due to the beauty of the sunset, was "realized". Once you realize grace the sunset itself is yours because you have become part of the whole, you are in "grace, you have become part of the sunset and it has become part of you. The coronation is this realization. You have already been chosen, but have only to take on the crown for yourself. <br /><br />This is a similar idea to what ED imparts in the poem "Tis little I could care for pearls/ who own the ample sea." <br /><br />Instead of being exclusive, it invites you to take on the crown of sunset too. Transcendentalism writ larged scribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08242682202760522439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-63793033857353540682015-11-11T17:11:26.621-08:002015-11-11T17:11:26.621-08:00Yay! You are back! And with a beautiful interpreta...Yay! You are back! And with a beautiful interpretation of this poem! I think that you are totally spot on, but I also wonder if there is a personal experience for Emily within this poem that we will never know about. Just one of those gut feelings...Ellennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4029797379711350813.post-86361141849592523042015-11-09T14:54:49.871-08:002015-11-09T14:54:49.871-08:00 Wonderful link to the Wadsworth sermon. Welc... Wonderful link to the Wadsworth sermon. Welcome back! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com