Welcome to Cross-Cultural Collaboration-Spring 2008: A Conversation about Emily Dickinson, an online conversation among students at Clemson University, South Carolina, United States, and Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.
My name is Olof Bäcke, I study engineering physics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and I am on my third year. I liked the poems but I have no experience of poetry so I can not immediately put my finger on why I liked them. The third poem, Because I could not stop for death, is the poem I have thought about the most and I get a feeling of acceptance and sadness or perhaps melancholy when I read it.
In the beginning of the poem I feel she greets death with respect and, well acceptance. But perhaps there is also sadness to the acceptance. She did not look for death and for all the civility from its side the meeting is not a meeting between equals. There is no choice and in the end there is only one outcome. I can not decide if I think the encounter is in the beginning or the end of the journey. If it is the beginning it would be quite a lot sadder, saying that through life humans have to face death alone.
We passed the school, where children strove At Recess – in the Ring - We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain - We passed the Setting Sun
I think this part of the poem describes life, youth, middle and old age. I could be her life, making it possible to place the encounter in the beginning of the journey or other people’s life which she sees after she has meet up with death at the end of her journey.
Or rather - He passed Us - The Dews drew quivering For only Gossamer, my Gown My Tippet - only Tulle -
I had some problems understanding this part of the poem, the words then. At the moment I think it is the part where she dies, death leaving her behind. I find the usage of us interesting. It could just be her, at least I think you can use us that way in English but in the beginning of the poem she said.
The Carriage held but just Ourselves - And Immortality.
If she thinks about immortality as a person, like death, I guess it could mean that immortality was also left behind indicating a belief in something after death.
I’m study second year, civil engineering, Chalmers Uni. Most of the time I read novels so this will be my first experience of poetry. In this fisrt letter I made the chocie to write only about “Because I could not stop for death”
It seemed to me that Emily is fascinated by death. Throw the poem she referse to death as a person.. //We slowly drove – He knew no haste// She writes about death as him and he (death) is teasing her. In the second verse she talks about how she is being ready to take the plunge and give up life for him and his civility. She also speaks about a house they passed by, is the house a metaphor for the life after death? The question is if she found it beautiful and welcoming or if she was scared of it? In the last vers she summary who she feels about being leaft without a chocie. She says that a day can be longer than centuries. Maybe if you are waiting for something inescapable, times slow down, and a single day can be so much longer than the year before, which you can barley remember anymore. It just passed you by.
Hi! My name is Jessica Martin, and I am taking Victorian Poetry at Clemson University. My main literary interest is ethnic women’s literature, but I seemed to miss out on Victorian literature as an undergraduate, so here I am! “Because I could not stop for Death” intrigued me the most out of the poems we read. I found the first stanza to be humorous, and when dealing with a topic like Death, that’s difficult to do. Because this was the first poem I read, I didn’t realize that Dickinson used dashes in all of the poems; however, her dash at the end of the poem, after the word “eternity” gives the poem itself a sense of eternity. It’s as if all of the poems are unfinished – waiting for that dash to be connected to another word – and since the poet is dead, these poems will forever maintain that sense of not having closure.
I looked up the word “tippet” and found that it could both be a woman’s cape or shawl or it could be a ceremonial garment worn by the clergy. Gender is brought up as an issue here because the word juxtaposes a woman’s garment with a clergyman’s (probably a man) garment. In this poem, there is no clergyman to bury the speaker, so the speaker could be taking on the role of the clergyman in order to preside over her own death. By wearing the tippet, the speaker plays both a man and a woman and is both the deceased and the person administering the burial ceremony.
I also looked up the word “strove” because I thought it interesting that she would choose this term when referring to children’s recess. With her use of this word, it is as if the children are trying really hard to play and have fun, but death’s presence passing them is hindering their ability to simply be care-free children. Again, Dickinson juxtaposes opposites – youth and death.
I look forward to reading what all of you have to say about these poems!
My name is Russell Hehn and I’m trying to get my Master’s Degree in English literature here at Clemson University. I’m very excited to be writing back and forth with you students from across the Atlantic. It seems that Emily Dickinson, at least to me, has gotten stale over the years since she’s hardly ever taken out of American historical context, so it will be a pleasure to see what you non-American/non-English students think of it. I look forward to it immensely. I noticed that everyone else has been writing about the third poem so I won’t be the one to break the trend, plus it’s a good long poem which means we’ll be able to talk about a lot of good stuff. For starters, the first stanza of the poem makes me think of S.T. Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Actually, Olof’s comment about “sadness to the acceptance” made me think of it. There is a section in which Coleridge’s mariner meets Death (a man) and his partner, Life-in-Death who is a beautiful woman with golden hair and light skin. This is the same feeling that I get from the scene in the carriage. Death and Immortality exist in the same vessel and so I see Immortality not only as immortality but as Immortality-in-Death. However, Death is literally driving immortality. To me, this suggests that immortality would not be possible without death, and therefore Dickinson is acknowledging a possibility of an afterlife. Immortality and Death are inseparable. Nina’s question about the house as a metaphor for death also made me think, and I get almost the same feeling from the image. A house is a place where one lives and, being that this house is “in the Ground,” it is in the place where the dead go, yet the house is still whole. It seems that the house, a place of living, is now permanently situated in a place of death, but the permanence makes it immortal. But I think Dickinson herself says better than I can what I’m trying to say. At the end of the poem she uses the word “Eternity.” “Eternal” is terms of metaphysics means: existing outside all relations of time; not subject to change. This is not necessarily immortality and it is certainly not death, but I feel that immortality-in (or through)-death leads to the eternal. Immortal, eternal, what’s the difference? I hope some of that made sense!
My name is Jana. I’m also an English Graduate student at Clemson University. I’m really excited to collaborate with everyone on this project and hope to gain some new insight into the poetry of Dickinson. The last time I read or studied Dickinson’s poetry, I was a sophomore in college. That wasn’t too awful long ago, but it has been a few years. One of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson is “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” so I was glad to see that it is one of the poems up for discussion. It’s one of her shorter poems. However as with most great poets, Dickinson manages to pack a lot of meaning into only a few short lines. Dickinson deals with truth in this poem, I feel, in a less conventional way than other poets. While most poets and writers in general seek to convey the truth or “universal truths” in their writing, Dickinson seems to argue that man (human race) cannot handle the truth without it being told a bit off, “slant” as she calls it.
Throughout the poem, Dickinson compares the truth to light. This in itself is a common comparison in literature. Where Dickinson differs is in the affect of this light or truth on mankind and in the way that she feels truth must be presented. In lines three and four, Dickinson writes, “Too bright for our infirm Delight/The Truth’s superb surprise.” Here, she makes the first comparison of truth to light, which she continues to build upon as the poem progresses. She also uses the word “infirm,” meaning weak or wavering in association with human delight. Dickinson contrasts this human fault with “Truth’s superb surprise.” It is clear from these lines alone that Dickinson believes in the importance of truth and of telling the truth. She is even more concerned, however, with the way that truth is revealed.
Line two states, “Success in Circuit lies.” This line follows the speaker’s argument to tell the truth, “but tell it slant.” At first, I wasn’t sure how to read the second line. The word, “circuit,” has a couple of different meanings. For one, it could be simply the act of moving around from one place to another. A circuit is also defined as a roundabout journey or course. Either of these definitions fit the idea of telling the truth “slant.” After reading the entire poem, I wonder if “Circuit” also implies an electrical circuit. Dickinson makes the connection of a slant truth to Lightning. While a circuit is a man- made electrical current, lightning occurs naturally and is beyond human control. Lightning, to a child, can be a frightening thing, much like truths told out right without some bending prove too much for man to handle. Lightning must be explained in a way that will appease the child and ease his/her fears. Man, too, will be blinded by truth, without the bending and gradual dazzling.
Blog discussions continue today (Wednesday) and again on Friday. Our groups have become unbalanced. Groups 2 and 3 will become one combined group, but we won’t change the structure on the blog. Everyone in Groups 2 and 3 should remain in his or her assigned group, but read the messages from both groups, and then write response letters as if you are in one conversational group, mentioning students and ideas from both groups as appropriate. However, only post your letters in your original group to avoid duplication.
Thank you for your understanding. Art Young, Magnus Gustafsson, and Donna Reiss
Lots of interesting comments, I will need some more time to process them all.
Brent I agree with you, we humans do not have to face death alone. As I see it art, and it may be literature, poetry, music or some other form, makes it possible to connect with humanity and through this connection gain insight and acceptance. Through art, and that includes this poem, I have learned to accept, well more or less, that my existence on this earth one day will end and the beauty that exists on this far from perfect world. I like how you say that we become the “Grazing grain” by reading the poem, it is a certain beauty in it.
Just like Jana I feel when I read “Tell the truth but tell it slant” that Emily Dickinson “believes in the importance of truth and of telling the truth” and that her concerns are the fragility of man. What I can not decide is what kind of truth the poem is talking about. Is it truth connected to social interaction? That if you choose to live by the idea that you will always says what you feel, what you see as the truth with no care of how it affects those around you, you will hurt and perhaps even crush people. Not to mention how hard it is to really find the truth in a given situation. In a way the poem then is a warning of how easy it is to believe you have the all truth and the pain that can arise from this. Or is this about the big truth, about the meaning of life etc? The poem then, atleast indirectly, claims that it has the answers to these questions and that the truth will hurt, a totally different message.
For the multimodal complement I recommend the movie of future nerve cells migrating to there place in the brain.
I do not only believe that you can connect with the world around you through arts but also through science. When I read the first poem I feel happiness in just existing, a happiness I find I can experience through science. The complexity, the beauty in what happens above is simply mind-blowing.
Last Monday most of us including me wrote about “Because I could not stop for death”. Now two days later when I have had the time to read through all three poems more carefully, I must say that the one I like the most is, Tell the truth but tell it slant. Jana, I was reading about your reactions to the poem and that help me to understand it better. The truth is important, but sometimes you forgot about it and only tell half the truth, a weakness of the human race. I bet all of us sometimes have told the truth but slant.
It is great to discuss like this otherwise I would have missed out on some significance in the poems. Jessica I read that you found the first stanza in the poem “Because I could not stop for death”, humorous and that made me read it again. I missed it the first time because I was thinking of death and as you wrote it is difficult to have a sense of hilarity when you dealing with death. But the poem’s first verse is humorous but almost in a sad way as Olof said, it contain a feeling of acceptance. Russell you speak about immortality not only as immortality but as immortality-in-death. I can agree that one thing can’t exist without the other, but is it right to speak about immortality-in-death? When you are dead, you are gone and there is no way you coming back. Maybe you did great things and you will go down in history, in that way I guess you can say that you have an immortality-in-death, as Dickinson. But most of the people in the world is forgotten by time, your love ones dies and there are no one left to remember you. Does immortality or eternity even exist, it feels like sooner or later everything have an ending?
Until next time what do you guys think about I taste liquor never brewed? I had a hard time understanding it, specially the last stanza. Do you know what she mean by the little Tippler?
I haven’t yet found a picture or music how I could refer to one of the poems, but I will keep looking and as soon I found one I will post a link to it here.
Until I hear from you again, have a nice time! / Nina
I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts so far and they have definitely opened up my interpretations of these poems.
Nina, in answer to your question, a “tippler,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary is “a habitual drinker of intoxicating liquor.” I think this word is important because it implies that the experience Dickinson describes is not simply a one time thing – she has a habit of doing this. Furthermore, we often tend to think of one who habitually drinks to the point of noticeable inebriation as a bad thing; however, for Dickinson, this type of drunkenness is good and even hoped for. Sometimes people are cited for “public drunkenness,” but in this poem, Dickinson isn’t in public – she’s in nature, creating a dialectic between the restrictions of the public sphere with the freedom of nature. In nature, she is free to drink as much as she likes, and she cannot be thrown out by the same “landlords” who throw out the “drunken Bee,” which I’m interpreting to represent drunken people in pubs in this instance (I’m aware that there are other readings of the bee and the butterflies) (9).
After rereading these poems and reading your posts, I’ve come to enjoy “Tell the Truth but tell it slant” the best. Jana’s post and Olof’s comment referring to it really struck me; Olof said, “Just like Jana I feel when I read “Tell the truth but tell it slant” that Emily Dickinson ‘believes in the importance of truth and of telling the truth’ and that her concerns are the fragility of man.” Olof’s comment and his quotation of Jana highlighted two important themes in this poem: the importance of truth and the fragility of man. As Jana points out, Dickinson compares truth to light, showing truth’s necessity in revealing things that might otherwise be hidden and in helping to show us how to proceed by “lighting” our way. But despite truth’s importance, as Olof points out, man is still fragile when it comes to learning the truth. I think Dickinson is saying that when it comes to truth, we are all basically like children who need to be led gently by the hand, or “eased/ With explanation,” into the truth (5-6). Truth, no matter what age one is, will always come as a “superb surprise” (4). Whether or not this is meant to be a critique of a society that shies away from the truth or a reflection on human nature in general is most definitely up for interpretation, but either way, Dickinson is astute at recognizing truth’s similar impact on every stage of life.
Thinking about “Tell the truth but tell it slant,” brought to mind William Hogarth’s moral paintings like A Rake’s Progress. In this painting, as well as his other works with a moral subject, Hogarth is in direct contrast with Dickinson’s poem – he depicts a straightforward “truth” about what will happen to those who do not stick to the straight and narrow path. In his paintings, the truth does not “dazzle gradually” but unfolds rather quickly and explicitly so that the viewer understands his meaning exactly at first glance. Hogarth was obviously concerned with the morality of his society and felt that he needed to expose certain truths outright. His paintings make me wonder if Dickinson ever felt that some truths are better told all at once instead of gradually.
You can check out A Rake’s Progress at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake's_Progress I hope you all have a wonderful day!
It's Jana. I’d like to begin by addressing some of the comments made by Maria from Group 2 concerning “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” She mentioned a few things in her post that I also felt when reading the poem, and that I touched on briefly in my post from Monday. Maria writes, “In very few words, it pinpoints that well known but forgotten truth: sometimes you have to reveal things to someone slowly, sometimes ‘the truth must dazzle gradually.’” I think Maria makes an interesting point here, acknowledging Dickinson’s attempt to shed light on the “forgotten” truth of human nature. Ironically, the truth, which Dickinson attempts to shed light on (no pun intended), is that humans cannot, in fact, handle the truth. I touched on the revelation of universal truths in literature, and at first, I didn’t think of this particular poem as attempting to do that. After reading Maria’s post, however, I see that Dickinson is in fact revealing a universal truth, wrapped up in a poem about not telling the complete truth at all times. Confusing, I know, but bear with me. I also agree with Maria when she writes about shaping the truth in your favor, for the benefit of the hearer. Though most of the poem seems concerned with the hearer’s reaction to the truth, we cannot forget that the poem is addressed to the teller. The speaker is explaining the best way to tell the truth. It would be safe to assert, then, that line two stating, “Success in Circuit lies,” implies success, not only for the hearer, but also for the teller of the slanted truth.
Next, I’d like to address the comments posted by Jessica on “Because I could not stop for Death.” One thing that Jessica noted (that I clearly did not) was the repetitive use of dashes at the ends of the lines. Honestly, I didn’t pay that much attention to them when reading the poem. I was intrigued by Jessica’s analysis that the final dash at the end of the poem, “gives the poem itself a sense of eternity.” She goes on to connect the idea of unfinished poems with the death of their author, the poet. In this analysis, and I think rightly so, the poet and speaker are one. The death of the speaker is the death of the poet. This is not to say that the poet is specifically Dickinson, but a poet nonetheless. I also found Jessica’s breakdown of the word “tippet” enlightening. Jessica writes that by wearing the tippet, “the speaker plays both a man and a woman and is both the deceased and the person administering the burial ceremony.” Perhaps Dickinson employs a word like “tippet” to convey a sense that, though the speaker is clearly a woman, death is no respecter of persons. The absence of a clergyman to bury the speaker further conveys the sense that death is a very intimate, personal experience, and perhaps not to be feared. But death is a solitary experience, and I think the poem conveys that sense.
For the multimodal part of this post, I thought I would offer a song by Willie Nelson and Gillian Welch called “I’m not Afraid to Die.” Though not exactly the same sentiment of Dickinson’s poem, the song also deals with death and immortality. In the song, the speakers sing about being ready for death, to “bid this lonesome world goodbye.” Like Dickinson’s poem, however, there is a strong sense of melancholy and sadness in the face of death’s reality. And the voices of both Willie Nelson and Gillian Welch are hauntingly beautiful. Amazing!
In order to play the song, you’ll actually have to download Rhapsody once you click on the link. It’s basically just an online radio, and it doesn’t cost anything. Enjoy!
Sorry, the link didn't work the first time, so here it is again. Hopefully it will work this time. You may have to copy and past it into word, line by line. Blogger is not being cooperative!
Hello again, group! I had to create a new name because either I forgot my password, or the website did. Sorry for the confusion. You can still call me Russell. This is my second attempt at trying to make something out of Emily without bumbling all over my own words. I hope I’m confusing you less than I’m confusing myself. I have to agree with Brent in regard to Maria’s comment about “sleeping with your girlfriend.” That’s very clever and very true! And Maria’s analysis of the word “slant” is very enlightening, the key word being “angle,” at least to me. I feel that Dickinson is very accurate in her assertion. People are unable to accept the truth as truth. We as individuals have varying reactions to experiences and to the same degree we have different capacities for amounts of experience. It is important to note that Dickinson says “The Truth must dazzle gradually,” implying that the Truth will inevitably be revealed in some form or another. I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a movie reference which I will hopefully not so feebly endeavor to bring back around to the point at hand. There is a movie starring William Hurt entitled “Altered States,” and I believe it came out in the mid- to late-80s. He is some sort of psycho-biologist who begins experimenting with these crazy hallucinogens he finds in Mexico. According to these tribal people who have been using the drug for millennia apparently, it has the power to take a person back in time mentally. William Hurt’s character steps it up a notch and performs outlandish experiments with the drug until it has a physiological reaction on his body (he temporarily becomes an Cro-Magnon man) . His friends keep telling him that he’s taking it too far, but he (of course) continues. To make this short, he almost dies in the end when he goes so far back in time that he becomes a primordial blob. He discovers the truth of humanity’s roots, but at a terrible cost. William Hurt gets dazzled and blinded, figuratively speaking. But to get back to Dickinson briefly, her assertions about truth and the revelation of such are true in themselves. Truth must be catered to and shaped for whoever is receiving that truth. Otherwise they will not listen at all and continue living a lie. This makes me wonder what prompted Dickinson to write this in the first place. Was it a personal “Truth” that she was dealing with?
I hope you all are doing well and are looking forward to the weekend!! But before the weekend can commence, I’d like to comment on some of the previous letters we wrote. In her second letter, Jana said concerning Dickinson’s poem “Tell the truth but tell it slant,” “After reading Marie’s post, however, I see that Dickinson is in fact revealing a universal truth, wrapped up in a poem about not telling the complete truth at all times.” This comment helped to bring the poem into clearer focus for me. I hadn’t really thought about Dickinson revealing a universal truth, but I think that is what she’s doing. And the fact that she is able to do this in only 8 lines is pretty amazing. In a way, Dickinson is treating us like the children in her poem who must have explanations for everything. She starts out with the universal truth – “tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” but as this universal truth or “superb surprise” is as “lightning,” sharp and to the point, she tempers it with explanation, just as the children in the poem receive. Dickinson then explains that we must operate under this guideline or else we’ll all go blind. So, I kind of think Dickinson is making fun of us “adults” a little. We’re really nothing more than children when it comes to hearing the Truth (with a capital T). I also really appreciated David’s comment on a possible connection between Christ and the “Truth” in this poem. He said, “Even Christ, who Dickinson offers as a representation (and I wish to make clear, only as a representation) of ‘Truth,’ must be unleashed upon on unsuspecting would ever-so-slowly.” I agree with David that this could be one of many representations of Truth, and I found his choice of Caravaggio’s depiction of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus to further support this idea. Some of the comments on this painting refer to the dazzling light of God and to Paul’s temporary blindness by it, and the commonality between the language of these comments and Dickinson’s language might be more than just a coincidence. I checked out the link that Olof provided, and I must admit that even though I don’t consider myself a “science person,” that video was pretty awesome. On the website he provided, I also looked at the muscle cell video that showed the cells migrating from their birth places to a limb. The cells in both of these instances will aid in the creation of something bigger than themselves, which is similar, I think, to the aim of poetry. These short poems we read have already generated much more text than the poems themselves actually contain, and they have been the catalyst for communication across the ocean.
On that note, I conclude and hope you have a wonderful day!
Dear group members, this will be our last letter in this cross-cultural exchange and I learned from all of you. As I told you in my first letter this was my first time exploring poetry. I found it hard but at the same time meaningful. My favourite poem is without doubt “Tell the truth but tell it slant”. I Was reading all you comments on the poem and it leads down to one main thing, like you all said before, the importance of truth.
I was looking of some of the multimodal complements, and Jessica I liked your connection to A Rake’s Progress, he depict the truth frank and without conception. I defiantly think that Emily sometimes felt that the truth needed to be told straightforward. But at the same time you should be carful with it and not use it to hurt people. Although you need to remember the importance of truth, it should not be forgotten. But Emily is a poet and doesn’t all poet hid the truth and the significant message behind words. Isn’t that what poetry is all about, telling something without really telling it.
I sincerely hate to see this come to an end. I wish we could keep it going. It’s been a wonderful experience discussing and bringing new life to some poetry that I’ve tended to overlook in my academic career. This is addressed to our friends from Sweden, and I’m certain that my classmates feel the same way. I have to agree with Jessica and others who mentioned Olof’s cell videos. Not only were they interesting visually (I want to know how they filmed all of that!), but put in conjunction with “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” it puts an amazing twist on the way that I read the poem. I find it interesting that the cells, although they have an ultimate and predetermined position in the brain or in the thumb, appear to stop, start, change direction, even moving backwards sometimes. I realize that Emily Dickinson didn’t have access to these videos, and she had no idea that she was making such a connection, but it suggests to me that there is a certain truth in her words. As people we make the same motions as the cells (literally and figuratively) in attempting to find or convey what we feel to be truth. We may not ultimately reach our predetermined positions, but we at least give it a hell of a try. And in a brief response to Olof’s question about immortality-in-death, yes I was talking about immortality as a person’s being remembered once they’ve passed on. Emily Dickinson, for example, is “immortal” because we’re still discussing her poem. I do agree that people die every day and that they are forgotten completely, as if they never existed. It’s a terrible thought, but it is a real thing that happens. However, that immortality could never be achieved without death. I guess all I’m saying is death is inevitable…I’ve just managed to go in a huge circle to get back to that. I do that quite often. I should study more of the hard sciences.
Well the last letter then. I have to say this has for many reasons been an interesting experience. Some of them are to read the thoughts of people who have the same language as the poet and who have studied literature. It has been very stimulating and even if it was pretty brief I feel that I have learned something.
Donna when I think about what you wrote “I would suggest that the poem concerns the particular problems of telling the truth to a child, or even an adult, but without causing fear or hurt”, I reach the conclusions that I agree with you. I now see the poem, at least at the moment, as a tribute to the importance of truth in relation to other people but also a remainder to have empathy with others and think through the consequences when you tell it. And also after trying I find that Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto is a good combination with the film cell migration, a fine example two things bringing an experience to a new level. .
You raise an interesting point Nina when you write “ But Emily is a poet and doesn’t all poet hid the truth and the significant message behind words. Isn’t that what poetry is all about, telling something without really telling it”. Is poetry taking truths, simple or complex, and from these weave something which beautiful and perhaps hard to comprehend. Or is poetry a tool used to reach some kind of truth and the reason poetry is hard to understand sometimes is because this is how reality is. Or is it, as it generally is, a little more complicated than that?
Russel I think I understand what you mean. I sometimes play with the thought that immortality is seeing how you yourself are connected with people around you, how your actions affect the world around and that you are apart of a tapestry woven by your and the rest of humanity’s action, in a way connected to immortality through remembrance and in a way not. And on final note, straight lines are for amateurs, reality is messy, if you want results huge circles is generally the way to go in physics.
I, too, am sad to see this discussion end. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s (vastly varied) comments. To begin, I’d like to refer to Brent’s comments on “Because I could not stop for Death.” In my second letter, I commented that the speaker must experience death alone. In saying so, I meant only that the poem depicts death as a very intimate encounter. After reading Brent’s comments, however, I see that the poem does in fact convey the sense that death is not a completely solitary experience. Brent’s connection from the poem to the reader was enlightening and allowed me to view the relationship between death, the speaker, and immortality in a new way. He writes, “For instance, as we read the poem about meeting Death, we see what the speaker sees, the pattern of images which the poet shows us, and partake of that immortality which is the artist’s immortality, the Christian’s immortality, Dickinson’s immortality.” In reading poems like this, we share in the human experience of death. The readers, as Brent so nicely points out, also share in the immortality of the speaker, of the artist. I really like this connection. Thanks Brent!
Second, I’d like to comment on Olof’s second post. In the post, Olof refers to Russell’s comment on the issue of“Immortality-in-Death.” It seems, Olof, that you accept the idea that death and immortality cannot exist without the other, however, you seem to grapple with the idea of immortality/eternity existing after death (at least for the speaker of the poem). I think what Russell was saying in his first post is that Dickinson, in “Because I could not stop for Death,” is suggesting the possibility of an afterlife, of the existence of an eternity after death separate from the speaker’s world. The sad, but accepting tone of the poem, which several others have noted, supports this idea. In order to fully understand the poem, I think you have to accept that the speaker believes in some form of an afterlife. Olof also refers to the immortality achieved by artists, like Dickinson, who live on through their poetry. This connections fits in nicely with Brent’s comments on Christian and artistic immortality.
While I enjoyed everyone’s multimodal offerings, I liked Donna’s connection of Dickinson’s “I taste a liquor never brewed” to Monet’s “La Promenade.” When I looked up the painting, I wasn’t sure which Monet painting it would be. I’ve always loved Monet, so I was excited to see that Donna had chosen one of his paintings for this part of the post. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it, as it has always been one of my favorite Monet paintings. Though I wouldn’t have immediately connected the two, I find it interesting that Donna did. The speaker of Dickinson’s poem is so in love with the nature around her, that she compares it to being intoxicated. When I see Monet’s poem, I get a calm and serene sense of nature. The sentiments seem different to me, though both pieces of art give a sense of being alone and happy in nature. Both artists, in these particular works, seek to exalt nature.
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20 comments:
Hello everyone
My name is Olof Bäcke, I study engineering physics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden and I am on my third year. I liked the poems but I have no experience of poetry so I can not immediately put my finger on why I liked them. The third poem, Because I could not stop for death, is the poem I have thought about the most and I get a feeling of acceptance and sadness or perhaps melancholy when I read it.
In the beginning of the poem I feel she greets death with respect and, well acceptance. But perhaps there is also sadness to the acceptance. She did not look for death and for all the civility from its side the meeting is not a meeting between equals. There is no choice and in the end there is only one outcome. I can not decide if I think the encounter is in the beginning or the end of the journey. If it is the beginning it would be quite a lot sadder, saying that through life humans have to face death alone.
We passed the school, where children strove
At Recess – in the Ring -
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain -
We passed the Setting Sun
I think this part of the poem describes life, youth, middle and old age. I could be her life, making it possible to place the encounter in the beginning of the journey or other people’s life which she sees after she has meet up with death at the end of her journey.
Or rather - He passed Us -
The Dews drew quivering
For only Gossamer, my Gown
My Tippet - only Tulle -
I had some problems understanding this part of the poem, the words then. At the moment I think it is the part where she dies, death leaving her behind. I find the usage of us interesting. It could just be her, at least I think you can use us that way in English but in the beginning of the poem she said.
The Carriage held but just Ourselves -
And Immortality.
If she thinks about immortality as a person, like death, I guess it could mean that immortality was also left behind indicating a belief in something after death.
Well that was some random thoughts.
Best regards
Olof
Hello everyone!
I’m study second year, civil engineering, Chalmers Uni. Most of the time I read novels so this will be my first experience of poetry. In this fisrt letter I made the chocie to write only about “Because I could not stop for death”
It seemed to me that Emily is fascinated by death. Throw the poem she referse to death as a person.. //We slowly drove – He knew no haste// She writes about death as him and he (death) is teasing her. In the second verse she talks about how she is being ready to take the plunge and give up life for him and his civility. She also speaks about a house they passed by, is the house a metaphor for the life after death? The question is if she found it beautiful and welcoming or if she was scared of it?
In the last vers she summary who she feels about being leaft without a chocie. She says that a day can be longer than centuries. Maybe if you are waiting for something inescapable, times slow down, and a single day can be so much longer than the year before, which you can barley remember anymore. It just passed you by.
Take care / Nina
Dear Group,
Hi! My name is Jessica Martin, and I am taking Victorian Poetry at Clemson University. My main literary interest is ethnic women’s literature, but I seemed to miss out on Victorian literature as an undergraduate, so here I am!
“Because I could not stop for Death” intrigued me the most out of the poems we read. I found the first stanza to be humorous, and when dealing with a topic like Death, that’s difficult to do. Because this was the first poem I read, I didn’t realize that Dickinson used dashes in all of the poems; however, her dash at the end of the poem, after the word “eternity” gives the poem itself a sense of eternity. It’s as if all of the poems are unfinished – waiting for that dash to be connected to another word – and since the poet is dead, these poems will forever maintain that sense of not having closure.
I looked up the word “tippet” and found that it could both be a woman’s cape or shawl or it could be a ceremonial garment worn by the clergy. Gender is brought up as an issue here because the word juxtaposes a woman’s garment with a clergyman’s (probably a man) garment. In this poem, there is no clergyman to bury the speaker, so the speaker could be taking on the role of the clergyman in order to preside over her own death. By wearing the tippet, the speaker plays both a man and a woman and is both the deceased and the person administering the burial ceremony.
I also looked up the word “strove” because I thought it interesting that she would choose this term when referring to children’s recess. With her use of this word, it is as if the children are trying really hard to play and have fun, but death’s presence passing them is hindering their ability to simply be care-free children. Again, Dickinson juxtaposes opposites – youth and death.
I look forward to reading what all of you have to say about these poems!
Jessica M.
Hello everyone,
My name is Russell Hehn and I’m trying to get my Master’s Degree in English literature here at Clemson University. I’m very excited to be writing back and forth with you students from across the Atlantic. It seems that Emily Dickinson, at least to me, has gotten stale over the years since she’s hardly ever taken out of American historical context, so it will be a pleasure to see what you non-American/non-English students think of it. I look forward to it immensely.
I noticed that everyone else has been writing about the third poem so I won’t be the one to break the trend, plus it’s a good long poem which means we’ll be able to talk about a lot of good stuff. For starters, the first stanza of the poem makes me think of S.T. Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Actually, Olof’s comment about “sadness to the acceptance” made me think of it. There is a section in which Coleridge’s mariner meets Death (a man) and his partner, Life-in-Death who is a beautiful woman with golden hair and light skin. This is the same feeling that I get from the scene in the carriage. Death and Immortality exist in the same vessel and so I see Immortality not only as immortality but as Immortality-in-Death. However, Death is literally driving immortality. To me, this suggests that immortality would not be possible without death, and therefore Dickinson is acknowledging a possibility of an afterlife. Immortality and Death are inseparable.
Nina’s question about the house as a metaphor for death also made me think, and I get almost the same feeling from the image. A house is a place where one lives and, being that this house is “in the Ground,” it is in the place where the dead go, yet the house is still whole. It seems that the house, a place of living, is now permanently situated in a place of death, but the permanence makes it immortal. But I think Dickinson herself says better than I can what I’m trying to say. At the end of the poem she uses the word “Eternity.” “Eternal” is terms of metaphysics means: existing outside all relations of time; not subject to change. This is not necessarily immortality and it is certainly not death, but I feel that immortality-in (or through)-death leads to the eternal. Immortal, eternal, what’s the difference? I hope some of that made sense!
Much love,
Russell H.
Hi folks,
My name is Jana. I’m also an English Graduate student at Clemson University. I’m really excited to collaborate with everyone on this project and hope to gain some new insight into the poetry of Dickinson. The last time I read or studied Dickinson’s poetry, I was a sophomore in college. That wasn’t too awful long ago, but it has been a few years. One of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson is “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” so I was glad to see that it is one of the poems up for discussion. It’s one of her shorter poems. However as with most great poets, Dickinson manages to pack a lot of meaning into only a few short lines. Dickinson deals with truth in this poem, I feel, in a less conventional way than other poets. While most poets and writers in general seek to convey the truth or “universal truths” in their writing, Dickinson seems to argue that man (human race) cannot handle the truth without it being told a bit off, “slant” as she calls it.
Throughout the poem, Dickinson compares the truth to light. This in itself is a common comparison in literature. Where Dickinson differs is in the affect of this light or truth on mankind and in the way that she feels truth must be presented. In lines three and four, Dickinson writes, “Too bright for our infirm Delight/The Truth’s superb surprise.” Here, she makes the first comparison of truth to light, which she continues to build upon as the poem progresses. She also uses the word “infirm,” meaning weak or wavering in association with human delight. Dickinson contrasts this human fault with “Truth’s superb surprise.” It is clear from these lines alone that Dickinson believes in the importance of truth and of telling the truth. She is even more concerned, however, with the way that truth is revealed.
Line two states, “Success in Circuit lies.” This line follows the speaker’s argument to tell the truth, “but tell it slant.” At first, I wasn’t sure how to read the second line. The word, “circuit,” has a couple of different meanings. For one, it could be simply the act of moving around from one place to another. A circuit is also defined as a roundabout journey or course. Either of these definitions fit the idea of telling the truth “slant.” After reading the entire poem, I wonder if “Circuit” also implies an electrical circuit. Dickinson makes the connection of a slant truth to Lightning. While a circuit is a man- made electrical current, lightning occurs naturally and is beyond human control. Lightning, to a child, can be a frightening thing, much like truths told out right without some bending prove too much for man to handle. Lightning must be explained in a way that will appease the child and ease his/her fears. Man, too, will be blinded by truth, without the bending and gradual dazzling.
Anxiously awaiting your comments,
Jana
Dear Folks in Group 2 and Group 3,
Blog discussions continue today (Wednesday) and again on Friday. Our groups have become unbalanced. Groups 2 and 3 will become one combined group, but we won’t change the structure on the blog. Everyone in Groups 2 and 3 should remain in his or her assigned group, but read the messages from both groups, and then write response letters as if you are in one conversational group, mentioning students and ideas from both groups as appropriate. However, only post your letters in your original group to avoid duplication.
Thank you for your understanding. Art Young, Magnus Gustafsson, and Donna Reiss
Hello again everyone
Lots of interesting comments, I will need some more time to process them all.
Brent I agree with you, we humans do not have to face death alone. As I see it art, and it may be literature, poetry, music or some other form, makes it possible to connect with humanity and through this connection gain insight and acceptance. Through art, and that includes this poem, I have learned to accept, well more or less, that my existence on this earth one day will end and the beauty that exists on this far from perfect world. I like how you say that we become the “Grazing grain” by reading the poem, it is a certain beauty in it.
Just like Jana I feel when I read “Tell the truth but tell it slant” that Emily Dickinson “believes in the importance of truth and of telling the truth” and that her concerns are the fragility of man. What I can not decide is what kind of truth the poem is talking about. Is it truth connected to social interaction? That if you choose to live by the idea that you will always says what you feel, what you see as the truth with no care of how it affects those around you, you will hurt and perhaps even crush people. Not to mention how hard it is to really find the truth in a given situation. In a way the poem then is a warning of how easy it is to believe you have the all truth and the pain that can arise from this. Or is this about the big truth, about the meaning of life etc? The poem then, atleast indirectly, claims that it has the answers to these questions and that the truth will hurt, a totally different message.
For the multimodal complement I recommend the movie of future nerve cells migrating to there place in the brain.
http://www.cellmigration.org/science/sci_movies.shtml
I do not only believe that you can connect with the world around you through arts but also through science. When I read the first poem I feel happiness in just existing, a happiness I find I can experience through science. The complexity, the beauty in what happens above is simply mind-blowing.
Best regards
Olof
Hello again!
Last Monday most of us including me wrote about “Because I could not stop for death”. Now two days later when I have had the time to read through all three poems more carefully, I must say that the one I like the most is, Tell the truth but tell it slant. Jana, I was reading about your reactions to the poem and that help me to understand it better. The truth is important, but sometimes you forgot about it and only tell half the truth, a weakness of the human race. I bet all of us sometimes have told the truth but slant.
It is great to discuss like this otherwise I would have missed out on some significance in the poems. Jessica I read that you found the first stanza in the poem “Because I could not stop for death”, humorous and that made me read it again. I missed it the first time because I was thinking of death and as you wrote it is difficult to have a sense of hilarity when you dealing with death. But the poem’s first verse is humorous but almost in a sad way as Olof said, it contain a feeling of acceptance. Russell you speak about immortality not only as immortality but as immortality-in-death. I can agree that one thing can’t exist without the other, but is it right to speak about immortality-in-death? When you are dead, you are gone and there is no way you coming back. Maybe you did great things and you will go down in history, in that way I guess you can say that you have an immortality-in-death, as Dickinson. But most of the people in the world is forgotten by time, your love ones dies and there are no one left to remember you. Does immortality or eternity even exist, it feels like sooner or later everything have an ending?
Until next time what do you guys think about I taste liquor never brewed? I had a hard time understanding it, specially the last stanza. Do you know what she mean by the little Tippler?
I haven’t yet found a picture or music how I could refer to one of the poems, but I will keep looking and as soon I found one I will post a link to it here.
Until I hear from you again, have a nice time! / Nina
Hi group members!
I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts so far and they have definitely opened up my interpretations of these poems.
Nina, in answer to your question, a “tippler,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary is “a habitual drinker of intoxicating liquor.” I think this word is important because it implies that the experience Dickinson describes is not simply a one time thing – she has a habit of doing this. Furthermore, we often tend to think of one who habitually drinks to the point of noticeable inebriation as a bad thing; however, for Dickinson, this type of drunkenness is good and even hoped for. Sometimes people are cited for “public drunkenness,” but in this poem, Dickinson isn’t in public – she’s in nature, creating a dialectic between the restrictions of the public sphere with the freedom of nature. In nature, she is free to drink as much as she likes, and she cannot be thrown out by the same “landlords” who throw out the “drunken Bee,” which I’m interpreting to represent drunken people in pubs in this instance (I’m aware that there are other readings of the bee and the butterflies) (9).
After rereading these poems and reading your posts, I’ve come to enjoy “Tell the Truth but tell it slant” the best. Jana’s post and Olof’s comment referring to it really struck me; Olof said, “Just like Jana I feel when I read “Tell the truth but tell it slant” that Emily Dickinson ‘believes in the importance of truth and of telling the truth’ and that her concerns are the fragility of man.” Olof’s comment and his quotation of Jana highlighted two important themes in this poem: the importance of truth and the fragility of man. As Jana points out, Dickinson compares truth to light, showing truth’s necessity in revealing things that might otherwise be hidden and in helping to show us how to proceed by “lighting” our way. But despite truth’s importance, as Olof points out, man is still fragile when it comes to learning the truth. I think Dickinson is saying that when it comes to truth, we are all basically like children who need to be led gently by the hand, or “eased/ With explanation,” into the truth (5-6). Truth, no matter what age one is, will always come as a “superb surprise” (4). Whether or not this is meant to be a critique of a society that shies away from the truth or a reflection on human nature in general is most definitely up for interpretation, but either way, Dickinson is astute at recognizing truth’s similar impact on every stage of life.
Thinking about “Tell the truth but tell it slant,” brought to mind William Hogarth’s moral paintings like A Rake’s Progress. In this painting, as well as his other works with a moral subject, Hogarth is in direct contrast with Dickinson’s poem – he depicts a straightforward “truth” about what will happen to those who do not stick to the straight and narrow path. In his paintings, the truth does not “dazzle gradually” but unfolds rather quickly and explicitly so that the viewer understands his meaning exactly at first glance. Hogarth was obviously concerned with the morality of his society and felt that he needed to expose certain truths outright. His paintings make me wonder if Dickinson ever felt that some truths are better told all at once instead of gradually.
You can check out A Rake’s Progress at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake's_Progress
I hope you all have a wonderful day!
Jessica
Hello again,
It's Jana. I’d like to begin by addressing some of the comments made by Maria from Group 2 concerning “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” She mentioned a few things in her post that I also felt when reading the poem, and that I touched on briefly in my post from Monday. Maria writes, “In very few words, it pinpoints that well known but forgotten truth: sometimes you have to reveal things to someone slowly, sometimes ‘the truth must dazzle gradually.’” I think Maria makes an interesting point here, acknowledging Dickinson’s attempt to shed light on the “forgotten” truth of human nature. Ironically, the truth, which Dickinson attempts to shed light on (no pun intended), is that humans cannot, in fact, handle the truth. I touched on the revelation of universal truths in literature, and at first, I didn’t think of this particular poem as attempting to do that. After reading Maria’s post, however, I see that Dickinson is in fact revealing a universal truth, wrapped up in a poem about not telling the complete truth at all times. Confusing, I know, but bear with me. I also agree with Maria when she writes about shaping the truth in your favor, for the benefit of the hearer. Though most of the poem seems concerned with the hearer’s reaction to the truth, we cannot forget that the poem is addressed to the teller. The speaker is explaining the best way to tell the truth. It would be safe to assert, then, that line two stating, “Success in Circuit lies,” implies success, not only for the hearer, but also for the teller of the slanted truth.
Next, I’d like to address the comments posted by Jessica on “Because I could not stop for Death.” One thing that Jessica noted (that I clearly did not) was the repetitive use of dashes at the ends of the lines. Honestly, I didn’t pay that much attention to them when reading the poem. I was intrigued by Jessica’s analysis that the final dash at the end of the poem, “gives the poem itself a sense of eternity.” She goes on to connect the idea of unfinished poems with the death of their author, the poet. In this analysis, and I think rightly so, the poet and speaker are one. The death of the speaker is the death of the poet. This is not to say that the poet is specifically Dickinson, but a poet nonetheless. I also found Jessica’s breakdown of the word “tippet” enlightening. Jessica writes that by wearing the tippet, “the speaker plays both a man and a woman and is both the deceased and the person administering the burial ceremony.” Perhaps Dickinson employs a word like “tippet” to convey a sense that, though the speaker is clearly a woman, death is no respecter of persons. The absence of a clergyman to bury the speaker further conveys the sense that death is a very intimate, personal experience, and perhaps not to be feared. But death is a solitary experience, and I think the poem conveys that sense.
For the multimodal part of this post, I thought I would offer a song by Willie Nelson and Gillian Welch called “I’m not Afraid to Die.” Though not exactly the same sentiment of Dickinson’s poem, the song also deals with death and immortality. In the song, the speakers sing about being ready for death, to “bid this lonesome world goodbye.” Like Dickinson’s poem, however, there is a strong sense of melancholy and sadness in the face of death’s reality. And the voices of both Willie Nelson and Gillian Welch are hauntingly beautiful. Amazing!
In order to play the song, you’ll actually have to download Rhapsody once you click on the link. It’s basically just an online radio, and it doesn’t cost anything. Enjoy!
http://play.rhapsody.com/gillianwelch/hellamongtheyearlings/imnotafraidtodie?didAutoplayBounce=true
Until next time,
Jana
Sorry, the link didn't work the first time, so here it is again. Hopefully it will work this time. You may have to copy and past it into word, line by line. Blogger is not being cooperative!
http://play.rhapsody.com/gillianwelch
/hellamongtheyearlings/imnotafraidtodie?
didAutoplayBounce=true
Jana
Hello again, group!
I had to create a new name because either I forgot my password, or the website did. Sorry for the confusion. You can still call me Russell.
This is my second attempt at trying to make something out of Emily without bumbling all over my own words. I hope I’m confusing you less than I’m confusing myself. I have to agree with Brent in regard to Maria’s comment about “sleeping with your girlfriend.” That’s very clever and very true! And Maria’s analysis of the word “slant” is very enlightening, the key word being “angle,” at least to me. I feel that Dickinson is very accurate in her assertion. People are unable to accept the truth as truth. We as individuals have varying reactions to experiences and to the same degree we have different capacities for amounts of experience. It is important to note that Dickinson says “The Truth must dazzle gradually,” implying that the Truth will inevitably be revealed in some form or another. I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a movie reference which I will hopefully not so feebly endeavor to bring back around to the point at hand.
There is a movie starring William Hurt entitled “Altered States,” and I believe it came out in the mid- to late-80s. He is some sort of psycho-biologist who begins experimenting with these crazy hallucinogens he finds in Mexico. According to these tribal people who have been using the drug for millennia apparently, it has the power to take a person back in time mentally. William Hurt’s character steps it up a notch and performs outlandish experiments with the drug until it has a physiological reaction on his body (he temporarily becomes an Cro-Magnon man) . His friends keep telling him that he’s taking it too far, but he (of course) continues. To make this short, he almost dies in the end when he goes so far back in time that he becomes a primordial blob. He discovers the truth of humanity’s roots, but at a terrible cost. William Hurt gets dazzled and blinded, figuratively speaking.
But to get back to Dickinson briefly, her assertions about truth and the revelation of such are true in themselves. Truth must be catered to and shaped for whoever is receiving that truth. Otherwise they will not listen at all and continue living a lie. This makes me wonder what prompted Dickinson to write this in the first place. Was it a personal “Truth” that she was dealing with?
Best,
Russell H.
Dear super-group (as David so aptly named us),
I hope you all are doing well and are looking forward to the weekend!! But before the weekend can commence, I’d like to comment on some of the previous letters we wrote. In her second letter, Jana said concerning Dickinson’s poem “Tell the truth but tell it slant,” “After reading Marie’s post, however, I see that Dickinson is in fact revealing a universal truth, wrapped up in a poem about not telling the complete truth at all times.” This comment helped to bring the poem into clearer focus for me. I hadn’t really thought about Dickinson revealing a universal truth, but I think that is what she’s doing. And the fact that she is able to do this in only 8 lines is pretty amazing. In a way, Dickinson is treating us like the children in her poem who must have explanations for everything. She starts out with the universal truth – “tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” but as this universal truth or “superb surprise” is as “lightning,” sharp and to the point, she tempers it with explanation, just as the children in the poem receive. Dickinson then explains that we must operate under this guideline or else we’ll all go blind. So, I kind of think Dickinson is making fun of us “adults” a little. We’re really nothing more than children when it comes to hearing the Truth (with a capital T).
I also really appreciated David’s comment on a possible connection between Christ and the “Truth” in this poem. He said, “Even Christ, who Dickinson offers as a representation (and I wish to make clear, only as a representation) of ‘Truth,’ must be unleashed upon on unsuspecting would ever-so-slowly.” I agree with David that this could be one of many representations of Truth, and I found his choice of Caravaggio’s depiction of Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus to further support this idea. Some of the comments on this painting refer to the dazzling light of God and to Paul’s temporary blindness by it, and the commonality between the language of these comments and Dickinson’s language might be more than just a coincidence.
I checked out the link that Olof provided, and I must admit that even though I don’t consider myself a “science person,” that video was pretty awesome. On the website he provided, I also looked at the muscle cell video that showed the cells migrating from their birth places to a limb. The cells in both of these instances will aid in the creation of something bigger than themselves, which is similar, I think, to the aim of poetry. These short poems we read have already generated much more text than the poems themselves actually contain, and they have been the catalyst for communication across the ocean.
On that note, I conclude and hope you have a wonderful day!
Jessica
Dear group members, this will be our last letter in this cross-cultural exchange and I learned from all of you. As I told you in my first letter this was my first time exploring poetry. I found it hard but at the same time meaningful. My favourite poem is without doubt “Tell the truth but tell it slant”. I Was reading all you comments on the poem and it leads down to one main thing, like you all said before, the importance of truth.
I was looking of some of the multimodal complements, and Jessica I liked your connection to A Rake’s Progress, he depict the truth frank and without conception. I defiantly think that Emily sometimes felt that the truth needed to be told straightforward. But at the same time you should be carful with it and not use it to hurt people. Although you need to remember the importance of truth, it should not be forgotten. But Emily is a poet and doesn’t all poet hid the truth and the significant message behind words. Isn’t that what poetry is all about, telling something without really telling it.
I wish you all good luck /Nina
Dear Supergroup,
I sincerely hate to see this come to an end. I wish we could keep it going. It’s been a wonderful experience discussing and bringing new life to some poetry that I’ve tended to overlook in my academic career. This is addressed to our friends from Sweden, and I’m certain that my classmates feel the same way.
I have to agree with Jessica and others who mentioned Olof’s cell videos. Not only were they interesting visually (I want to know how they filmed all of that!), but put in conjunction with “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant,” it puts an amazing twist on the way that I read the poem. I find it interesting that the cells, although they have an ultimate and predetermined position in the brain or in the thumb, appear to stop, start, change direction, even moving backwards sometimes. I realize that Emily Dickinson didn’t have access to these videos, and she had no idea that she was making such a connection, but it suggests to me that there is a certain truth in her words. As people we make the same motions as the cells (literally and figuratively) in attempting to find or convey what we feel to be truth. We may not ultimately reach our predetermined positions, but we at least give it a hell of a try.
And in a brief response to Olof’s question about immortality-in-death, yes I was talking about immortality as a person’s being remembered once they’ve passed on. Emily Dickinson, for example, is “immortal” because we’re still discussing her poem. I do agree that people die every day and that they are forgotten completely, as if they never existed. It’s a terrible thought, but it is a real thing that happens. However, that immortality could never be achieved without death. I guess all I’m saying is death is inevitable…I’ve just managed to go in a huge circle to get back to that. I do that quite often. I should study more of the hard sciences.
Best to all,
Russell H.
Well the last letter then. I have to say this has for many reasons been an interesting experience. Some of them are to read the thoughts of people who have the same language as the poet and who have studied literature. It has been very stimulating and even if it was pretty brief I feel that I have learned something.
Donna when I think about what you wrote “I would suggest that the poem concerns the particular problems of telling the truth to a child, or even an adult, but without causing fear or hurt”, I reach the conclusions that I agree with you. I now see the poem, at least at the moment, as a tribute to the importance of truth in relation to other people but also a remainder to have empathy with others and think through the consequences when you tell it. And also after trying I find that Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto is a good combination with the film cell migration, a fine example two things bringing an experience to a new level. .
You raise an interesting point Nina when you write “ But Emily is a poet and doesn’t all poet hid the truth and the significant message behind words. Isn’t that what poetry is all about, telling something without really telling it”. Is poetry taking truths, simple or complex, and from these weave something which beautiful and perhaps hard to comprehend. Or is poetry a tool used to reach some kind of truth and the reason poetry is hard to understand sometimes is because this is how reality is. Or is it, as it generally is, a little more complicated than that?
Russel I think I understand what you mean. I sometimes play with the thought that immortality is seeing how you yourself are connected with people around you, how your actions affect the world around and that you are apart of a tapestry woven by your and the rest of humanity’s action, in a way connected to immortality through remembrance and in a way not. And on final note, straight lines are for amateurs, reality is messy, if you want results huge circles is generally the way to go in physics.
Best regards
Olof
For the last time,
I, too, am sad to see this discussion end. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s (vastly varied) comments. To begin, I’d like to refer to Brent’s comments on “Because I could not stop for Death.” In my second letter, I commented that the speaker must experience death alone. In saying so, I meant only that the poem depicts death as a very intimate encounter. After reading Brent’s comments, however, I see that the poem does in fact convey the sense that death is not a completely solitary experience. Brent’s connection from the poem to the reader was enlightening and allowed me to view the relationship between death, the speaker, and immortality in a new way. He writes, “For instance, as we read the poem about meeting Death, we see what the speaker sees, the pattern of images which the poet shows us, and partake of that immortality which is the artist’s immortality, the Christian’s immortality, Dickinson’s immortality.” In reading poems like this, we share in the human experience of death. The readers, as Brent so nicely points out, also share in the immortality of the speaker, of the artist. I really like this connection. Thanks Brent!
Second, I’d like to comment on Olof’s second post. In the post, Olof refers to Russell’s comment on the issue of“Immortality-in-Death.” It seems, Olof, that you accept the idea that death and immortality cannot exist without the other, however, you seem to grapple with the idea of immortality/eternity existing after death (at least for the speaker of the poem). I think what Russell was saying in his first post is that Dickinson, in “Because I could not stop for Death,” is suggesting the possibility of an afterlife, of the existence of an eternity after death separate from the speaker’s world. The sad, but accepting tone of the poem, which several others have noted, supports this idea. In order to fully understand the poem, I think you have to accept that the speaker believes in some form of an afterlife. Olof also refers to the immortality achieved by artists, like Dickinson, who live on through their poetry. This connections fits in nicely with Brent’s comments on Christian and artistic immortality.
While I enjoyed everyone’s multimodal offerings, I liked Donna’s connection of Dickinson’s “I taste a liquor never brewed” to Monet’s “La Promenade.” When I looked up the painting, I wasn’t sure which Monet painting it would be. I’ve always loved Monet, so I was excited to see that Donna had chosen one of his paintings for this part of the post. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it, as it has always been one of my favorite Monet paintings. Though I wouldn’t have immediately connected the two, I find it interesting that Donna did. The speaker of Dickinson’s poem is so in love with the nature around her, that she compares it to being intoxicated. When I see Monet’s poem, I get a calm and serene sense of nature. The sentiments seem different to me, though both pieces of art give a sense of being alone and happy in nature. Both artists, in these particular works, seek to exalt nature.
Thanks for chatting,
Jana
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