PoemoftheWeek

:lol: Wow, I guess I got something right. Not even 18? Wow you seemed much older. I thought you were a grad student.

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Wow, I guess I got something right. Not even 18? Wow you seemed much older. I thought you were a grad student.

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Gee, sorry again for not knowing you were a girl, ktd. Mea Culpa. I thought you were about 19 or 20, first or second year undergrad. I'm not sure I would have guessed highschool. You must just be wise beyond your seventeen years. ;) Wellesley sounds like a great school...but where's your supply of young men to date? :brow:

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Originally Posted by Xamonas Chegwe

I may be completely wrong - it has been known - but I think she's describing a sunset in the first couple of verses and how such sights affect her in the subsequent stanzas.

'The tint' is one of those exquisite, indescribable shades of colour that you sometimes see in a really great sunset; where the red and gold of the clouds meets the blue and turquoise of the sky. I see the 'Cleopatra's company' as being a reference to these colours as well - think of Tutankhamen's deathmask.

Following this physical description, Dickinson goes on to express the transcendental feelings associated with such visions of nature at Her most powerful and moving; how they leave us feeling inadequate and very small. She cites summer landscapes and winter snowscapes as further examples; but the prominence given to the sunset suggests that this was the moment that inspired the poem. She is saying finally that such things give us only hints of a greater glory that we won't witness till after death.

I am not at all familiar with Emily Dickinson's work, so it took several readings to get anything from this. I'd be grateful if anyone could shed any light on the unusual punctuation - breaking lines with dashes in mid phrase - and the capitalisation of certain words (which I assume is for emphasis). Are these common in her poetry?

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Being a great fan and having read as much on her life as is possible I think probably she did the unusual punctuation simply because she felt like it and didn't give a fig newton about what anyone else thought of it. Yay, I like that. All these rules and regulations about how to say what comes from your very own unique mind and heart-I hate that , it is just as wierd to me as having to wear fashions that some guy who lives in his own little fantasy world decides everyone else should wear.
but that is just my thought :D

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Wellesley sounds like a great school...but where's your supply of young men to date?

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Now do you see whats happening. I take everything that was said back; I'm a life-form from the planet Xenon come to Online-Literature to do research on galactical literature. Yes, we have schools where I come from-but what you call schools we call oohh-pock. If you want to procreate, you must get permission from The Mother Brain; otherwise kneck roek bop, kneck roek bop.

you are too adorable. How do you just say hullo and shake hands I wonder?,do you have hands then?

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Now do you see whats happening. I take everything that was said back; I'm a life-form from the planet Xenon come to Online-Literature to do research on galactical literature. Yes, we have schools where I come from-but what you call schools we call oohh-pock. If you want to procreate, you must get permission from The Mother Brain; otherwise kneck roek bop, kneck roek bop.

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:lol: :lol: Nanoo Nanoo! Oh wait, wrong planet. I'm from a planet called academia :alien: where the inhabitants speak a language called "theory" (far less intelligible than your native Xenon language--seriously). They do this a lot: :brickwall and call it "thinking."

Well enough frivolous interrogation of one another and back to a serious discussion of poetry. :banana:

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Being a great fan and having read as much on her life as is possible I think probably she did the unusual punctuation simply because she felt like it and didn't give a fig newton about what anyone else thought of it.

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I think that's a very good point Rachel. I've often thought that Dickinson isn't really what one might call a "critic's poet" in that she very much does her own thing in her own way. I sense that the way to understanding her poetry is often less a matter of thinking it out than of feeling it out.

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I think that's a very good point Rachel. I've often thought that Dickinson isn't really what one might call a "critic's poet" in that she very much does her own thing in her own way. I sense that the way to understanding her poetry is often less a matter of thinking it out than of feeling it out.

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I've always believed understanding her poetry requires utmost attentiveness by my critical eyes-being that most of her poetry is so short. The dependency of word choice, meter, syntax, etc, requires 'that extra level of importance' for the poem to succeed-and a lot of her poetry does succeed in achieving its art without overkill.

ktd,

I spent a little time on Xenon on business. The people things were delightful but I found the magenta sky a little strident. I love those little pastries that whistle when you chew them though - are they called Knirple, Knopple? Something like that.:D

Thanks (and thanks to Rachel too) for clearing up the capital letter/punctuation thing. It sort of agrees with my guesses.

you....GUESSED? Oh I am shattered. I thought, no I was certain beyond anything that you KNOW EVERYTHING.
hmm, I think you are joking. No I know you are, for the wind has brought word to me from far away places that even the trees talk about you on breezy evenings and marvel that you know everything. :lol:

It was interesting to read how others here take to the style. Its like song lyrics I have read while listening to the particular singer. If I " listen " to it, I arrive. What I mean by this is, when someone is reciting a story or tale, or singing a song, its different to reading with 'our own' mental voice. I think this is Dickinson talking in her style.

A woman, elating the beauty revealed since the arrival of Summer. She has moments, flushes of high inspiration, fleeting and about to stay, but don't, can't quite. The Squirrels take these things, as is their nature, until the scowl of Winter and snow arrives again to protect what belongs to nature. Then, she knows, for only in her grave, no more Winters needed and she will enjoy without interruption.

The very last words seem like throw aways. Not sure I described it so well.

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Originally Posted by jackyyyy

A woman, elating the beauty revealed since the arrival of Summer. She has moments, flushes of high inspiration, fleeting and about to stay, but don't, can't quite. The Squirrels take these things, as is their nature, until the scowl of Winter and snow arrives again to protect what belongs to nature. Then, she knows, for only in her grave, no more Winters needed and she will enjoy without interruption.

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I'm not sure I agree with that, Jack. I don't think it's simple beauty she's talking about, the kind you just enjoy. The third stanza transports the experience beyond that: "The Moments of Dominion / That happen on the Soul / And leave it with a Discontent / Too exquisite - to tell-" This is a deep phenomena she's talking about, obviously because of the allusions, spiritual, trascendental. That's anting the pot up a notch, and then (if you'll excuse the poker metaphor) she further antes it up at the end, perhaps throwing all her chips in: "Their Graspless manners - mock us / Until the Cheated Eye / Shuts arrogantly - in the grave - / Another way - to see -" So the experience with nature or beauty does something to her soul, which is to say it is quite an engraved ordeal. But that in the end is not the totality of experience. Transcendentalism is not the complete picture. There will be still another level to the experience that the living eye cannot know or see, but only from the grave can one know or see it.

Aye, Virgil, I am not sure I agree with me either, but after reading it over two score times, I do want to post something to egg the ideas. You know who comes to my mind when I read it, Katherine Hepburn (nope, I don't know why). I was aware that her choice of words imply greater things, but I wonder if her intention was, and in her style, simply an account of her feelings, rather than a profound statement.

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The third stanza transports the experience beyond that: "The Moments of Dominion / That happen on the Soul / And leave it with a Discontent / Too exquisite - to tell-"

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"Dominion" or mastery is another positive emotion, and "Too exquisite" sounds like her style again.

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"Their Graspless manners - mock us / Until the Cheated Eye / Shuts arrogantly - in the grave - / Another way - to see -"

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When she writes "Another way - to see", does not infer to me that what she could see would be 'superior', only that its 'another way to see'.

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Originally Posted by jackyyyy

You know who comes to my mind when I read it, Katherine Hepburn (nope, I don't know why).

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Well, they were both from the same part of the U.S. Did Hepburn ever marry? She seems like a spinster type, but as an actress I'm sure she was more extraverted than Emily.

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When she writes "Another way - to see", does not infer to me that what she could see would be 'superior', only that its 'another way to see'

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Hmm. I would agree with that. It hadn't crossed my mind.

I think she married Humpthrey 5 or 6 times, if that counts, and Spencer Tracey. I was crazy about her too.

Nope, just checked, Tracy was a companion, nearly the same thing.

I can't help seeing the last line as havnig the stress on the word 'way' - implying that she means seeing another way, as opposed to seeing in another way. I think it's the pause thingy. Anybody else get that?