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.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Group 1
Bryan B., Genny E., GustafJ., , Marie K., Michael M., Scott B.
21 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Hi guys!
My name is Marie Kristensson and I am studying chemical engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. I am taking the course “Fiction for Engineers” because I would like to get some non science into my life.
My first thought after reading “I taste a liquor never brewed” is what a positive view on life the author/narrator must have had, she compares living to being drunk (in the good way) and that she is high on life. In the poem “Because I could not stop for death” I think I can also find some of that joy of life; because she could not stop for death - meaning that she does not want to die and struggles not to let go of life.
“Joy of life” has to be a key word for the “I taste liquor never brewed” poem, such a line as “Inebriate of air – am I” just pretty much says it all, doesn't it? That she finds life so pleasurable that she can get drunk on just pure air, isn't that amazing?
My other key word has to be one from the “Because I could not stop for death” poem and it has to be struggle. This because I think that she loves life sand therefore is struggling very hard not to let go (“I could not stop for death”/”We slowly drove - He knew no haste”). And yet sometimes when I read the poem I think that she is waiting for death and that he is welcome since she speaks of him as not a bad thing but rather a nice man. Why is it like this? Is there any one else that interpret this poem in two ways or am I way off?
Hi! I'm a master student in the program Foundations of Computing: Algorithms and Logic at the Chalmers University. I chose to take this course, to get something different from the regular programming courses i normally take.
I chose to concentrate firstmost on the shortest of the poems: Tell all the Truth. The reason was that I liked the flow and rhythm of it. It feels like all of the words are well-placed, to the extent that i can't imagine any of them being exchanged for another.
The poem is obviously about the truth, but what truth? As an engineering student, I'm used to truths like 1+1=2, but that truth seldom blinds you. The truths of science are still relevant in context to the poem. The truth about our nature can sometimes be too blinding, so that when great discoveries are made at a too high pace, we remain blind to the drawbacks of it. A somewhat slower, but steady revealing of the truth leaves time to think about the ethical sides of it.
”As lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind” could also relate to the speeches of politicians and other leaders, who use the kindest of words when delivering bad news. The wise leader knows that the whole truth can often be discouraging and disappointing, but told at the right pace, it can be a powerful tool of encouragement. This is further illustrated by the use of the word ”superb” to describe the truth. It's powerful and dangerous as the lightning, but still superb and bright.
Though most of the poem is about how grand and blinding the truth can be, Dickinson still starts it with the words ”Tell all the Truth”. A slant telling of the truth is better than a lie, because a lie leads so easily into more lies, but a slant truth hopefully gives the truth to the listener at an appropriate pace.
My name is Michael. I’m a German exchange student and Chalmers and I study mechanical engineering. Since poetry was not a part of fluid dynamics and heat transfer I haven’t analyzed any poems in a long time, so please consider that before ripping me up. I find these poems not too easy or too difficult (there’s even a word for that in Swedish: lagom). I have at least an idea what each poem is about. With the days getting longer now I see “I taste a liquor never brewed” as a poem about the beauty of nature around mid-summer (foxglove blossoms in June/July). In every stanza she used words related to the fields of alcohol. In the last stanza she mentioned the word seraphs. According to the Oxford online-dictionary a seraph is an angel of the highest rank. Together with the running saint I interpret it as an “holy” drunkenness. The third poem “Because I could not stop for death” is contrary to the first one and clearly shows a morbid attitude. The fact that both poems were published in the same year implies an ambivalence in Dickinson’s character. On the one hand appreciating the beauty of nature and on the other hand thinking about getting picked up by the kind death. I find it notable that “Because I could not stop for death” was written 24 years before she actually passed away. Maybe it was just written six months after/before “I taste a liquor never brewed”. After having seen the Swedish winter for quite some time now I know how one can feel during that time of the year. The second part of the poem is a little bit more difficult to grasp. Is the house in the 13th line her grave? Do the centuries that “felt shorter than [a] day” imply some agnostic or even atheistic meaning? Again that would be contrary to “I taste a liquor never brewed”. Or am I totally wrong?
I am Genny and I am enrolled in Clemson University as a Master’s of Arts in English program. I am currently taking a Victorian Poetry seminar. I am not scientific in the slightest, so it looks as though I may be in for a treat with all the science folks. I am studying to become a Literature professor; I love to read and to write all kinds of literature, both creative and scholarly. Emily Dickinson is a highly Americanized poet, despite the fact that her view of American life was extremely sheltered due to her reclusive nature. Her observations of people, nature, and animals all have a sense of unadulterated beauty about them. Her freshness in which she sees things all take on a persona of their own. Her crisp energy given to things that most people usually ignore is one of the things I love most about Dickinson. Her sublime insights into the everyday are what intrigue me far more than her use of language—though her language is far superior to many others. One of my very favorite Dickinson poems, is one that we are reading—“Tell all the Truth, but tell it slant.” The last part, tell it slant, was the name of a creative non-fiction text I used in my undergraduate studies and my first exposure to creative non-fiction. I have found that this is one genre I truly enjoy writing about and would love to make it my life’s work. Perhaps Dickinson is telling her life slant because of the way she lived her life—mostly alone and full of time to ponder the Truths of life, not wasting her time with the truths. Sure she can paint a picture with 41 words, but with beauty and grace she succeeds, making her mark upon the reader. Per Oxford University Press, to slant means to “slope or to make sth slope in a particular direction or at a particular angle.” For me this further confirms Dickinson’s view of the world as her own, by telling things her way, from her perspective. Also, courtesy of Oxford University Press, the noun dazzle means the “quality that bright light has that stops you from seeing clearly.” Using nature and people as her inspiration, Dickinson is able to articulate an image that literally dazzles the reader into a state where she cannot see for a moment because her poetry is full of such quality.
My name is Scott, and I'm currently a student in Dr. Young's Victorian Literature class at Clemson University. I generally am focused on British literature, so I'm enjoying our in-depth look at poetry of the Victorians in Dr. Young's seminar. This blogging assignment should be an interesting exploration of some fantastic poems by an American writer of the same time period. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts and opinions on these poems.
I'd like to start by writing about “Because I could not stop for Death.” I first read this poem years ago when I was in high school. My teacher put it with a few other thematically similar poems like John Donne's “Death be not Proud.” Both poems have an interesting perspective on the nature of Death, each personifying this great unknown event. Dickenson's Death drives this carriage through the daily scenes humanity's busy lives, stopping for those whose time is come. The speaker describes the passage as one that is not frightening, or even uncomfortable, but full of nostalgia and the romantic image of the setting sun circling overhead.
And this image, of the final day of the speaker's life, is one that is remembered for eternity. To the speaker, Death is a friend and companion, not the antagonist presented in Donne's poem. That, I think, is a key element to this work. Dickenson is able to present the intimidating, frightening figure of Death as, well, just a presence. Death is never described, but he is simply there (in spirit?) throughout the poem. I suppose the catch here is how mundane, seemingly benign his presence is.
Again, I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on this poem and the two others in our collection.
My name is Bryan, and I am in the Masters Program in Literature here at Clemson University, as well as a member of Dr. Young’s Victorian Poetry class. Victorian poetry (or poetry in general) is far and away from my area of expertise however, as my academic interests here at Clemson are in Cultural Studies and Film Studies.
That being said, my interpretation of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” mirrors the last half of Marie’s analysis of the poem. The first line does denote a struggle of sorts, in that the narrator of the poem seems to have been confronted with her mortality before she was ready to accept it. But once in the carriage, that narrator quickly accepts the end of her own life, and nonchalantly casts off her mortal coil: “We slowly drove – He knew no haste / And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too, / For His captivity” (5-8).
While on this carriage ride with death, Dickenson notes distinct images: school children playing at recess, and an old dilapidated house. These images lead me to believe that once the narrator enters the carriage with death, her concept of death-of a sudden end to an individual’s lifespan-radically changes. In being confronted with these two different and distinct images of the beginning of life (school children) and the end of life (the old house), the narrator comes to understand life on earth as an eternal cycle. Life ends, only to begin again. Because the narrator’s perspective has changed from viewing death on individual terms to more holistic ones, the concept of time has become moot, because the narrator’s time alive was but a small fraction of that eternal cycle. Hence the lines in the last stanza “Since then – ‘tis centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the day / I first surmised the Horses’ Heads / Were toward eternity.”
Hi guys, First I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated when I realized that so many of you American students were literature students. I thought for sure that I was going to be totally ripped apart for my silly attempt to analyze these poems, since I have very limited experiences with reading poems and even less experience analyzing them. When I had read your comments on the poems I realized that it wasn't that bad and that we actually had some ideas in common such as me and Brian agreeing in there being a sort of struggle in “Because I could not stop for death”. And I totally understand, and agree with, what you Genny mean when you say “Her [Emily's] observations of people, nature, and animals all have a sense of unadulterated beauty about them”. I can also agree with Michael that the poem “Because I could not stop for death” is more morbid than than “I taste a liquor never brewed” but I do not totally agree that they are all contradicting, which most people (I did read the other person's letters also, not only the ones in our group) find them and I don't find it that weird that they were published the same year. I still think that I can find some joy of life in “Because I could not stop for death”. If she wanted to die she could just have stopped for death, right? I'm not saying that I don't see the differences between the two poems but I just wanted to get across that I DO see a likeness as well (even though even I can agree that the differences might be greater).
As for the multimodal part I would like you all to picture a beautiful, floral, dazzling, bright summer garden and if you look into one of the corners of the garden you'll see a whole bunch of foxgloves ( I didn't know what a foxglove was so I Googled it and they are kind of funny looking flowers but still pretty, if you don't know I can recommend a short visit to Google). This is a picture I get in my head after reading the poem “I taste a liquor never brewed”. I think this reflects the poem very well because a blossoming garden in the middle of summer in Sweden (where it is so dark and gray for so many months of the year) could be a very joyful experience, almost like being drunk.
Since i chose to comment on the ”Tell all the Truth” poem in my first post, it probably comes as no surprise that Genny's post interested me. The thought that the truth could be referring to Dickinson's own writing never reached me while reading it, but I can see the sense of it. I especially liked the part Genny wrote about the word dazzle, since that seems to correspond to all of the three poems. The first time you read them, it's hard to try and pull out any underlying messages, since they are so beautiful that you need some time to just let them sink in. Genny also mentions the shortness of the poem (41 words), and i think it's worth mentioning that most speechers/writers tend to use too long and many words to slant the message, while Dickinson through clever writing makes every word count, and still let them dazzle gradually. The slant telling of the poems makes also for an interesting view of the central topics: Life, truth and death. Despite these three topics being some of the most serious you can choose, there is some kind of joy in it, which Scott touches on, with his mention of death as a companion or friend. This even creates a feeling that Death is not important to the message of the poem, despite being the central topic itself.
I struggled to find any multimodal composition, until i thought of Grim Fandango, a computer game where all characters are dead and on their way to their final rest. This picture from it (http://www.mrbillsadventureland.com/reviews/g-h/grimfandR/mannyreaper.jpg) shows the Grim Reaper going up the lift as an ordinary person, he's not very frightening or imposing at all. Instead he looks as harmless as that odd friend of yours, who tells those strange tragi-comical jokes from time to time, but otherwise is a good friend who you always can trust to be there for you.
Hopefully i didn't bore you too much Take care /Gustaf J
after reading you comments I am surprised that we are all so close together. Despite some slightly different opinions we all had the same main conceptions. So this discussion will most likely focus on details rather than on different interpretations of the work. Were the poems too straight-forward or are we just too similar?
One different approach I could make out was the differing point of view with Maria. She didn’t see the poems “I taste a liquor never brewed” and “Because I could not stop for Death” as contrary as I did. I agree that the narrator of the latter poem didn’t want to die as it clearly says in the title. Yet I find the narrator of the first poem much more bound to life. Using the word contradiction might be too harsh but I still believe these two poems show an ambivalent Dickinson. After reading her biography on wikipedia (is that an appropriate source?) I found out about the fact that she lost many close people to death in her teenage years. She also had to suffer from a severe illness. Together with her depression that certainly explains why she didn’t fear death. Still she obviously found joy in nature.
After sneaking around in other group’s blogs and reading Bryan’s letter I found the approach to lines nine through twelve in “Because I could not stop for Death” as different stages of life very interesting. One could argue if the setting sun or the old house are the image of the end of life but either way it made that part clearer to me.
I am a big fan of music and I have quite a bit of it as mp3s and legally purchased CDs. I spent hours trying to find a song that connects to at least one of the poems but I never got really close. So all I can do now is give you a link to a song that recently filled me with as much joy as the narrator in “I taste a liquor never brewed”. It is a classical piece by Bach. Some of you might not be big fans of that kind of music but I discovered it only a few weeks ago myself. So give it a try and you might get drunk by it. http://www.stage6.com/user/muz1kf0rever/video/1092753/Glenn-Gould---J-S-Bach-Brandenburg-Concerto-No-5 (you might need to download a small plug-in in order to watch it).
I would just like to say first that I’m glad you, Marie, did not have any apprehension discussing literature with us. A lot of people I know who hate studying literature, hate it because they feel intimidated in class, or have had a bad experience in which they were told their interpretation of a work was wrong. The beauty of studying literature is that you’re never wrong as long as your argument is sound.
In regards to Michael’s comment on Monday that he thought perhaps “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” carried with it some atheistic or agnostic tones (given the lines “Since then – ‘tis centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the Day), I am not sure I agree with you on that possibility. I actually think that both “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” are highly spiritual. It may not, however, be the spirituality that we would associate with a 19th century American poet. Although I not sure of Dickinson’s knowledge of world religions, I must say that both poems have a very much “Eastern” sensibility regarding spirituality.
Zen Buddhists are taught to be aware of the past and the future, but to keep two feet firmly in the present. Both of Dickinson’s poems share that sensibility, I think. While “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” has very obvious overtones of the narrator experiencing spiritual euphoria while being firmly entrenched in the moment, those same conceits are more embedded in “Because I Could not Stop for Death.” When Dickinson writes that centuries felt like just a day, I feel like she is allowing the narrator of the poem to show us that one person’s place in time might feel like forever, but in the overall cycle of life, it is but a small faction of time; hence the images of the school children and the old house. At first, these two images seem to bookend a large stretch of time for the narrator, but as he/she travels in the carriage with death, he/she becomes increasingly aware of how short her mortal life was (“The Carriage held but just Ourselves- / And Immortality). Also, Dickinson peppers her poem with words like “eternity” and “immortality,” which hint at a very rich, very deep spirituality.
As far the multi-modal aspect of this project, I chose the last five minutes of The New World, Terrence Malick’s take on the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas. I am not sure how familiar you guys over in Sweden are with American folklore, but this story (some parts factual, some parts fiction) is a cornerstone in early American History and folklore. The reason I chose this particular clip, is that I feel it illustrates how both of the aforementioned poems could be related. In this clip, we see Pocahontas both dealing with her own mortality, as well as giving herself up to the euphoria of nature, all within a span of a couple of minutes. I hope you enjoy it.
I would just like to say first that I’m glad you, Marie, did not have any apprehension discussing literature with us. A lot of people I know who hate studying literature, hate it because they feel intimidated in class, or have had a bad experience in which they were told their interpretation of a work was wrong. The beauty of studying literature is that you’re never wrong as long as your argument is sound. I am very glad to have your insight present in our group.
In regards to Michael’s comment on Monday that he thought perhaps “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” carried with it some atheistic or agnostic tones (given the lines “Since then – ‘tis centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the Day), I am not sure I agree with you on that possibility. I actually think that both “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” are highly spiritual. It may not, however, be the spirituality that we would associate with a 19th century American poet. Although I am not sure of Dickinson’s knowledge of world religions, I must say that both poems have a very much “Eastern” sensibility regarding spirituality.
Zen Buddhists are taught to be aware of the past and the future, but to keep two feet firmly in the present. Both of Dickinson’s poems share that sensibility, I think. While “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” has very obvious overtones of the narrator experiencing spiritual euphoria while being firmly entrenched in the moment, those same conceits are more embedded in “Because I Could not Stop for Death.” When Dickinson writes that centuries felt like just a day, I feel like she is allowing the narrator of the poem to show us that one person’s place in time might feel like forever, but in the overall cycle of life, it is but a small fraction of time; hence the images of the school children and the old house. At first, these two images seem to bookend a large stretch of time for the narrator, but as he/she travels in the carriage with death, he/she becomes increasingly aware of how short her mortal life was (“The Carriage held but just Ourselves- / And Immortality). Also, Dickinson peppers her poem with words like “eternity” and “immortality,” which hint at a very rich, very deep spirituality.
As far the multi-modal aspect of this project, I chose the last five minutes of The New World, Terrence Malick’s take on the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas. I am not sure how familiar you guys over in Sweden are with American folklore, but this story (some parts factual, some parts fiction) is a cornerstone in early American History and folklore. The reason I chose this particular clip, is that I feel it illustrates how both of the aforementioned poems could be related. In this clip, we see Pocahontas both dealing with her own mortality, as well as giving herself up to the euphoria of nature, all within a span of a couple of minutes. I hope you enjoy it.
I've enjoyed reading what you have had to say so far in regards to Dickenson's poems. I'd like to start by mentioning something that Marie wrote in her first post on “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed,” and that deals with the joy the author takes in life. I definitely agree with that, and I find it fascinating that the same poet who wrote so richly about being drunk on life also wrote about the comforting presence of Death and his carriage. It is such an amazing contradiction of sorts, being able to look at life and death through the same positive lens.
What I think ties these two poems together is the sense that the poets carriage ride in “Because I could not stop for Death” seems to recreate and revisit all the things in her life that she loved. If you've heard the expression that before dying, you're life flashes before your eyes, I think that this is something similar. Instead of the narrator's life flashing, so to speak, it is a drawn-out, full revisiting of all the joy and pleasant episodes in her life. I think Bryan touched on this a little with his look at the different images that Dickenson presents within the poem, that of the children playing and the old house. Although, where I think he took it to represent a kind of larger cycle of life and death within the world, I almost see it as a gentle reminiscing of the happiest times in her life. If that is eternity, then it doesn't seem too bad!
And Gustaf, I loved your comparison to Grim Fandango, a great game and really interesting that you brought it into the discussion here, because it definitely fits. For my multimodal connection, I thought about a few things that I could do, maybe bring in some other literary representations of Death. I have to say that I love the Terry Pratchett character of Death in his Discworld novels, but that is more of a comic character who simply tries to understand the people he escorts to the other world, but fails to do so. I think the most apt comparison is from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, where Death is presented as a young girl, who not only meets people at their deaths, but also at their births. She recognizes the moments of importance in the lives of people and she spends time with some individuals, offering comfort and guidance before they must go on, to wherever it is they go. Here is a wikipedia link to her character, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(DC_Comics), and here is another page created by a fan, http://membres.lycos.fr/hiyami/library/death.htm, that does a pretty good job of explaining her character.
I really enjoyed reading your comments this time as well, I did at first not have much enthusiasm for this exchange at all, partly because I had never analyzed poems before but I was also very skeptic towards the entire idea. I thought, how much am I going to get out of this, but as it turned out it has been much fun and very educational. I have gotten some new ways to look at these poems for example when you, Bryan, talk about the spirituality of the poem “Because I could not stop for death” I had to go back and re-read it again and found that I do agree with you that it is spiritual, which I had not considered before, and that took the poem to a new level.
Scott when you say that Death in “Because I could not stop for death” is like the Death in that comic I totally get what you mean, I myself had sort of the same thoughts when I read and re-read the poem but my mind went to the TV show “Dead like me”, have you seen it? It s about a girl who dies and when she does that she becomes sort of a soul reaper. She is this person that walks around taking peoples souls and she is sort of living but no one would suspect her being a reaper by just looking at her, she look just like anyone but still she is going to take your soul. I also looked at the film that Bryan recommended and I can understand his thoughts when recommending it, the connection to both poems was pretty clear. I am just a happy camper today and agreeing with everyone, but hey it's Friday afternoon!!!
Take care guys, and good luck with your future literature studies! Marie K
just like Maria I had a lot of fun doing this. Even though we came from different scholarly backgrounds I think we all gained at least a little bit from this exchange. At least I did.
In reply to my post Bryan stated that he found the poems “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I taste a liquor never brewed” highly spiritual. After reading “Because I could not stop for Death” again I have to admit that it is spiritual. I was just missing the words I had expected from a 19th century spiritual author. So I got curious about her beliefs and did some research on the net and found this page of the Florida Gulf Coast University:
I think this quite interesting. It says that she combined Puritanism and Transcendentalism and that pretty much explains the spirituality in “Because I could not stop for Death” without using the words God, heaven and hell. I guess I was just too blind.
Our multimodal representations were very different. I liked that. We had one imaginary, one computer game, one comic and a movie. All were very interesting to watch/see/feel and it was really interesting to see what you guys had in mind when you thought of the poems. When six people look at a picture they don’t see one but six different ones, or even more. And it was enriching to see how you perceived the poems.
Even though I always had to hurry to post my letters on time and had lots of other things to do I certainly enjoyed this exchange and I hope you did as well.
So good look with your studies to the ones overseas and see you in a while to all the others.
Hi again! I enjoyed reading your further comments on the poems and they started some new thoughts. When reading the ”Because I could not stop for death”, I got the feeling that it could be spiritually inspired, but since i checked on dickinson's life history, I found out that she only had a short period when she was somewhat religious. And also, since I thought from a christian perspective, although the reduction of death can be found in both the poem and the bible, it differs in that dickinson describes death as someone personal and inescapable.I abandoned these thoughts and continued on other thoughts in my earlier letters instead, but thanks to Bryan's letter, this was interesting once again.
I agree that the zen-buddhism suits the poem much better, though it could also point to the fact that Dickinson for that short period was a christian, and during that time learned that death was not something to fear. Combined with the deaths of people close to her (which Michael mentioned) which made death a more natural part of life than it is for most people today, it became more natural to write about death as something close.
It was interesting to see that our multimodal representations spanned over such a number of different art forms. As someone who works a lot with choral music in my spare time, i especially liked michaels link. It reminded me of tuesday this week, when i got the chance to sing swedish folk music as one of hundred singers together with a very talented fiddler, which was a really great and joyful experience. Especially the weddingsong ”Skara Brudmarsch”, where you could see the couple before you and their happiness and enjoyment of life comes close to the onn in ”I taste a liquor”. You can listen to a short sample of it(no choir though) at Amazon
Finally, I enjoyed this project, and thank you for your many good and inspiring thoughts. Best wishes for the future /Gustaf Jarlert
Oh dear, its late Friday night and I almost forgot all about posting here. As luck would have it, I remembered just in time (well, almost).
First off, I'd like to thank ya'll for an interesting discussion over the last week. I feel like looking at these poems from a few different perspectives is genuinely helpful, and definitely not just for us literature types. Having married into a family full of engineers (with one strange uncle who quotes Chaucer at me whenever the mood strikes), I have to believe that reading and interpreting great literature is something that can and should be experienced by students in a variety of fields of study. While Emily Dickenson may not help with some of the more heavy mathematical concepts, reading and discussing her work can create a kind of useful mental diversion, sharpening your focus in other areas.
This also works for our class. While Dickenson is a fantastic writer, her poetry sits outside the realm of some of our (mine, at least) main areas of interest. But spending some time looking at Dickenson has provided a bit of a break from some of my other classes, which generally deal with some different ideas and styles.
So I guess I shared some of your concerns about the project, Marie. But I am glad to see that our concerns were for the most part unfounded, and I'm definitely glad that we all appear to have gotten something useful out of this collaboration.
On to the poetry and our multimodalities. I really appreciated the Bach provided by Michael. I am currently writing this post while listening to it, and I also wrote my previous post listening to it. It is interesting to put music with the ideas expressed within poetry. And while my experience in music is primarily from my time playing in jazz bands, I can relate to that feeling. Some songs express emotion better than the greatest poems of the Romantics, and it is nice to be reminded of that.
I found the discussion between Bryan and Michael on the spirituality within “Because I could not stop for Death” and to be fascinating. That poem does seem to have a sort of spiritual reverence within it, and it is something worth rereading to pay attention to. In our class recently, we've been studying the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins who seemingly found God within nature, and wrote his poems about the spirituality of the natural world. Dickenson seems to find that spiritual center in life itself. Whether it is the nostalgic reminiscing of “Because I could not stop for Death,” or the exuberant joy she expresses in “I taste a liquor never brewed,” she seems to have a great reverence for life.
Thanks again for the interesting conversations, and I wish all of you luck in your studies.
21 comments:
Hi guys!
My name is Marie Kristensson and I am studying chemical engineering at Chalmers University of Technology. I am taking the course “Fiction for Engineers” because I would like to get some non science into my life.
My first thought after reading “I taste a liquor never brewed” is what a positive view on life the author/narrator must have had, she compares living to being drunk (in the good way) and that she is high on life. In the poem “Because I could not stop for death” I think I can also find some of that joy of life; because she could not stop for death - meaning that she does not want to die and struggles not to let go of life.
“Joy of life” has to be a key word for the “I taste liquor never brewed” poem, such a line as “Inebriate of air – am I” just pretty much says it all, doesn't it? That she finds life so pleasurable that she can get drunk on just pure air, isn't that amazing?
My other key word has to be one from the “Because I could not stop for death” poem and it has to be struggle. This because I think that she loves life sand therefore is struggling very hard not to let go (“I could not stop for death”/”We slowly drove - He knew no haste”). And yet sometimes when I read the poem I think that she is waiting for death and that he is welcome since she speaks of him as not a bad thing but rather a nice man. Why is it like this? Is there any one else that interpret this poem in two ways or am I way off?
Take Care
Marie K
Hi! I'm a master student in the program Foundations of Computing: Algorithms and Logic at the Chalmers University. I chose to take this course, to get something different from the regular programming courses i normally take.
I chose to concentrate firstmost on the shortest of the poems: Tell all the Truth. The reason was that I liked the flow and rhythm of it. It feels like all of the words are well-placed, to the extent that i can't imagine any of them being exchanged for another.
The poem is obviously about the truth, but what truth? As an engineering student, I'm used to truths like 1+1=2, but that truth seldom blinds you. The truths of science are still relevant in context to the poem. The truth about our nature can sometimes be too blinding, so that when great discoveries are made at a too high pace, we remain blind to the drawbacks of it. A somewhat slower, but steady revealing of the truth leaves time to think about the ethical sides of it.
”As lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind” could also relate to the speeches of politicians and other leaders, who use the kindest of words when delivering bad news. The wise leader knows that the whole truth can often be discouraging and disappointing, but told at the right pace, it can be a powerful tool of encouragement. This is further illustrated by the use of the word ”superb” to describe the truth. It's powerful and dangerous as the lightning, but still superb and bright.
Though most of the poem is about how grand and blinding the truth can be, Dickinson still starts it with the words ”Tell all the Truth”. A slant telling of the truth is better than a lie, because a lie leads so easily into more lies, but a slant truth hopefully gives the truth to the listener at an appropriate pace.
Best Wishes
/Gustaf Jarlert
Hi there,
My name is Michael. I’m a German exchange student and Chalmers and I study mechanical engineering. Since poetry was not a part of fluid dynamics and heat transfer I haven’t analyzed any poems in a long time, so please consider that before ripping me up.
I find these poems not too easy or too difficult (there’s even a word for that in Swedish: lagom). I have at least an idea what each poem is about.
With the days getting longer now I see “I taste a liquor never brewed” as a poem about the beauty of nature around mid-summer (foxglove blossoms in June/July). In every stanza she used words related to the fields of alcohol. In the last stanza she mentioned the word seraphs. According to the Oxford online-dictionary a seraph is an angel of the highest rank. Together with the running saint I interpret it as an “holy” drunkenness.
The third poem “Because I could not stop for death” is contrary to the first one and clearly shows a morbid attitude. The fact that both poems were published in the same year implies an ambivalence in Dickinson’s character. On the one hand appreciating the beauty of nature and on the other hand thinking about getting picked up by the kind death. I find it notable that “Because I could not stop for death” was written 24 years before she actually passed away. Maybe it was just written six months after/before “I taste a liquor never brewed”. After having seen the Swedish winter for quite some time now I know how one can feel during that time of the year. The second part of the poem is a little bit more difficult to grasp. Is the house in the 13th line her grave? Do the centuries that “felt shorter than [a] day” imply some agnostic or even atheistic meaning? Again that would be contrary to “I taste a liquor never brewed”. Or am I totally wrong?
I’m looking forward to you replies.
Greetings
Michael
Hi!
I am Genny and I am enrolled in Clemson University as a Master’s of Arts in English program. I am currently taking a Victorian Poetry seminar. I am not scientific in the slightest, so it looks as though I may be in for a treat with all the science folks. I am studying to become a Literature professor; I love to read and to write all kinds of literature, both creative and scholarly.
Emily Dickinson is a highly Americanized poet, despite the fact that her view of American life was extremely sheltered due to her reclusive nature. Her observations of people, nature, and animals all have a sense of unadulterated beauty about them. Her freshness in which she sees things all take on a persona of their own. Her crisp energy given to things that most people usually ignore is one of the things I love most about Dickinson. Her sublime insights into the everyday are what intrigue me far more than her use of language—though her language is far superior to many others.
One of my very favorite Dickinson poems, is one that we are reading—“Tell all the Truth, but tell it slant.” The last part, tell it slant, was the name of a creative non-fiction text I used in my undergraduate studies and my first exposure to creative non-fiction. I have found that this is one genre I truly enjoy writing about and would love to make it my life’s work. Perhaps Dickinson is telling her life slant because of the way she lived her life—mostly alone and full of time to ponder the Truths of life, not wasting her time with the truths. Sure she can paint a picture with 41 words, but with beauty and grace she succeeds, making her mark upon the reader.
Per Oxford University Press, to slant means to “slope or to make sth slope in a particular direction or at a particular angle.” For me this further confirms Dickinson’s view of the world as her own, by telling things her way, from her perspective. Also, courtesy of Oxford University Press, the noun dazzle means the “quality that bright light has that stops you from seeing clearly.” Using nature and people as her inspiration, Dickinson is able to articulate an image that literally dazzles the reader into a state where she cannot see for a moment because her poetry is full of such quality.
Hope to talk to you guys soon,
Genny, Clemson U
Hello Everyone,
My name is Scott, and I'm currently a student in Dr. Young's Victorian Literature class at Clemson University. I generally am focused on British literature, so I'm enjoying our in-depth look at poetry of the Victorians in Dr. Young's seminar. This blogging assignment should be an interesting exploration of some fantastic poems by an American writer of the same time period. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts and opinions on these poems.
I'd like to start by writing about “Because I could not stop for Death.” I first read this poem years ago when I was in high school. My teacher put it with a few other thematically similar poems like John Donne's “Death be not Proud.” Both poems have an interesting perspective on the nature of Death, each personifying this great unknown event. Dickenson's Death drives this carriage through the daily scenes humanity's busy lives, stopping for those whose time is come. The speaker describes the passage as one that is not frightening, or even uncomfortable, but full of nostalgia and the romantic image of the setting sun circling overhead.
And this image, of the final day of the speaker's life, is one that is remembered for eternity. To the speaker, Death is a friend and companion, not the antagonist presented in Donne's poem. That, I think, is a key element to this work. Dickenson is able to present the intimidating, frightening figure of Death as, well, just a presence. Death is never described, but he is simply there (in spirit?) throughout the poem. I suppose the catch here is how mundane, seemingly benign his presence is.
Again, I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on this poem and the two others in our collection.
Farewell,
Scott
Hello all,
My name is Bryan, and I am in the Masters Program in Literature here at Clemson University, as well as a member of Dr. Young’s Victorian Poetry class. Victorian poetry (or poetry in general) is far and away from my area of expertise however, as my academic interests here at Clemson are in Cultural Studies and Film Studies.
That being said, my interpretation of “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” mirrors the last half of Marie’s analysis of the poem. The first line does denote a struggle of sorts, in that the narrator of the poem seems to have been confronted with her mortality before she was ready to accept it. But once in the carriage, that narrator quickly accepts the end of her own life, and nonchalantly casts off her mortal coil: “We slowly drove – He knew no haste / And I had put away / My labor and my leisure too, / For His captivity” (5-8).
While on this carriage ride with death, Dickenson notes distinct images: school children playing at recess, and an old dilapidated house. These images lead me to believe that once the narrator enters the carriage with death, her concept of death-of a sudden end to an individual’s lifespan-radically changes. In being confronted with these two different and distinct images of the beginning of life (school children) and the end of life (the old house), the narrator comes to understand life on earth as an eternal cycle. Life ends, only to begin again. Because the narrator’s perspective has changed from viewing death on individual terms to more holistic ones, the concept of time has become moot, because the narrator’s time alive was but a small fraction of that eternal cycle. Hence the lines in the last stanza “Since then – ‘tis centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the day / I first surmised the Horses’ Heads / Were toward eternity.”
Until Wednesday guys,
Bryan
Hi guys,
First I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated when I realized that so many of you American students were literature students. I thought for sure that I was going to be totally ripped apart for my silly attempt to analyze these poems, since I have very limited experiences with reading poems and even less experience analyzing them. When I had read your comments on the poems I realized that it wasn't that bad and that we actually had some ideas in common such as me and Brian agreeing in there being a sort of struggle in “Because I could not stop for death”. And I totally understand, and agree with, what you Genny mean when you say “Her [Emily's] observations of people, nature, and animals all have a sense of unadulterated beauty about them”. I can also agree with Michael that the poem “Because I could not stop for death” is more morbid than than “I taste a liquor never brewed” but I do not totally agree that they are all contradicting, which most people (I did read the other person's letters also, not only the ones in our group) find them and I don't find it that weird that they were published the same year. I still think that I can find some joy of life in “Because I could not stop for death”. If she wanted to die she could just have stopped for death, right? I'm not saying that I don't see the differences between the two poems but I just wanted to get across that I DO see a likeness as well (even though even I can agree that the differences might be greater).
As for the multimodal part I would like you all to picture a beautiful, floral, dazzling, bright summer garden and if you look into one of the corners of the garden you'll see a whole bunch of foxgloves ( I didn't know what a foxglove was so I Googled it and they are kind of funny looking flowers but still pretty, if you don't know I can recommend a short visit to Google). This is a picture I get in my head after reading the poem “I taste a liquor never brewed”. I think this reflects the poem very well because a blossoming garden in the middle of summer in Sweden (where it is so dark and gray for so many months of the year) could be a very joyful experience, almost like being drunk.
Looking forward to reading your letters
Marie K
Hi again!
Since i chose to comment on the ”Tell all the Truth” poem in my first post, it probably comes as no surprise that Genny's post interested me. The thought that the truth could be referring to Dickinson's own writing never reached me while reading it, but I can see the sense of it. I especially liked the part Genny wrote about the word dazzle, since that seems to correspond to all of the three poems. The first time you read them, it's hard to try and pull out any underlying messages, since they are so beautiful that you need some time to just let them sink in.
Genny also mentions the shortness of the poem (41 words), and i think it's worth mentioning that most speechers/writers tend to use too long and many words to slant the message, while Dickinson through clever writing makes every word count, and still let them dazzle gradually.
The slant telling of the poems makes also for an interesting view of the central topics: Life, truth and death. Despite these three topics being some of the most serious you can choose, there is some kind of joy in it, which Scott touches on, with his mention of death as a companion or friend. This even creates a feeling that Death is not important to the message of the poem, despite being the central topic itself.
I struggled to find any multimodal composition, until i thought of Grim Fandango, a computer game where all characters are dead and on their way to their final rest. This picture from it (http://www.mrbillsadventureland.com/reviews/g-h/grimfandR/mannyreaper.jpg) shows the Grim Reaper going up the lift as an ordinary person, he's not very frightening or imposing at all. Instead he looks as harmless as that odd friend of yours, who tells those strange tragi-comical jokes from time to time, but otherwise is a good friend who you always can trust to be there for you.
Hopefully i didn't bore you too much
Take care
/Gustaf J
Hello everyone,
after reading you comments I am surprised that we are all so close together. Despite some slightly different opinions we all had the same main conceptions. So this discussion will most likely focus on details rather than on different interpretations of the work. Were the poems too straight-forward or are we just too similar?
One different approach I could make out was the differing point of view with Maria. She didn’t see the poems “I taste a liquor never brewed” and “Because I could not stop for Death” as contrary as I did. I agree that the narrator of the latter poem didn’t want to die as it clearly says in the title. Yet I find the narrator of the first poem much more bound to life. Using the word contradiction might be too harsh but I still believe these two poems show an ambivalent Dickinson. After reading her biography on wikipedia (is that an appropriate source?) I found out about the fact that she lost many close people to death in her teenage years. She also had to suffer from a severe illness. Together with her depression that certainly explains why she didn’t fear death. Still she obviously found joy in nature.
After sneaking around in other group’s blogs and reading Bryan’s letter I found the approach to lines nine through twelve in “Because I could not stop for Death” as different stages of life very interesting. One could argue if the setting sun or the old house are the image of the end of life but either way it made that part clearer to me.
I am a big fan of music and I have quite a bit of it as mp3s and legally purchased CDs. I spent hours trying to find a song that connects to at least one of the poems but I never got really close. So all I can do now is give you a link to a song that recently filled me with as much joy as the narrator in “I taste a liquor never brewed”. It is a classical piece by Bach. Some of you might not be big fans of that kind of music but I discovered it only a few weeks ago myself. So give it a try and you might get drunk by it.
http://www.stage6.com/user/muz1kf0rever/video/1092753/Glenn-Gould---J-S-Bach-Brandenburg-Concerto-No-5 (you might need to download a small plug-in in order to watch it).
Again I’m looking forward to your replies.
Greetings
Michael
i just noticed that the link is not shown properly. so i just leave the youtube link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fyh1o0Gfy6Y
note: that is part one of three
Hello again guys,
I would just like to say first that I’m glad you, Marie, did not have any apprehension discussing literature with us. A lot of people I know who hate studying literature, hate it because they feel intimidated in class, or have had a bad experience in which they were told their interpretation of a work was wrong. The beauty of studying literature is that you’re never wrong as long as your argument is sound.
In regards to Michael’s comment on Monday that he thought perhaps “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” carried with it some atheistic or agnostic tones (given the lines “Since then – ‘tis centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the Day), I am not sure I agree with you on that possibility. I actually think that both “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” are highly spiritual. It may not, however, be the spirituality that we would associate with a 19th century American poet. Although I not sure of Dickinson’s knowledge of world religions, I must say that both poems have a very much “Eastern” sensibility regarding spirituality.
Zen Buddhists are taught to be aware of the past and the future, but to keep two feet firmly in the present. Both of Dickinson’s poems share that sensibility, I think. While “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” has very obvious overtones of the narrator experiencing spiritual euphoria while being firmly entrenched in the moment, those same conceits are more embedded in “Because I Could not Stop for Death.” When Dickinson writes that centuries felt like just a day, I feel like she is allowing the narrator of the poem to show us that one person’s place in time might feel like forever, but in the overall cycle of life, it is but a small faction of time; hence the images of the school children and the old house. At first, these two images seem to bookend a large stretch of time for the narrator, but as he/she travels in the carriage with death, he/she becomes increasingly aware of how short her mortal life was (“The Carriage held but just Ourselves- / And Immortality). Also, Dickinson peppers her poem with words like “eternity” and “immortality,” which hint at a very rich, very deep spirituality.
As far the multi-modal aspect of this project, I chose the last five minutes of The New World, Terrence Malick’s take on the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas. I am not sure how familiar you guys over in Sweden are with American folklore, but this story (some parts factual, some parts fiction) is a cornerstone in early American History and folklore. The reason I chose this particular clip, is that I feel it illustrates how both of the aforementioned poems could be related. In this clip, we see Pocahontas both dealing with her own mortality, as well as giving herself up to the euphoria of nature, all within a span of a couple of minutes. I hope you enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8CVXHT8EdI
Until next time,
Bryan B
Hello again guys,
I would just like to say first that I’m glad you, Marie, did not have any apprehension discussing literature with us. A lot of people I know who hate studying literature, hate it because they feel intimidated in class, or have had a bad experience in which they were told their interpretation of a work was wrong. The beauty of studying literature is that you’re never wrong as long as your argument is sound. I am very glad to have your insight present in our group.
In regards to Michael’s comment on Monday that he thought perhaps “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” carried with it some atheistic or agnostic tones (given the lines “Since then – ‘tis centuries – and yet / Feels shorter than the Day), I am not sure I agree with you on that possibility. I actually think that both “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” and “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” are highly spiritual. It may not, however, be the spirituality that we would associate with a 19th century American poet. Although I am not sure of Dickinson’s knowledge of world religions, I must say that both poems have a very much “Eastern” sensibility regarding spirituality.
Zen Buddhists are taught to be aware of the past and the future, but to keep two feet firmly in the present. Both of Dickinson’s poems share that sensibility, I think. While “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed” has very obvious overtones of the narrator experiencing spiritual euphoria while being firmly entrenched in the moment, those same conceits are more embedded in “Because I Could not Stop for Death.” When Dickinson writes that centuries felt like just a day, I feel like she is allowing the narrator of the poem to show us that one person’s place in time might feel like forever, but in the overall cycle of life, it is but a small fraction of time; hence the images of the school children and the old house. At first, these two images seem to bookend a large stretch of time for the narrator, but as he/she travels in the carriage with death, he/she becomes increasingly aware of how short her mortal life was (“The Carriage held but just Ourselves- / And Immortality). Also, Dickinson peppers her poem with words like “eternity” and “immortality,” which hint at a very rich, very deep spirituality.
As far the multi-modal aspect of this project, I chose the last five minutes of The New World, Terrence Malick’s take on the legend of John Smith and Pocahontas. I am not sure how familiar you guys over in Sweden are with American folklore, but this story (some parts factual, some parts fiction) is a cornerstone in early American History and folklore. The reason I chose this particular clip, is that I feel it illustrates how both of the aforementioned poems could be related. In this clip, we see Pocahontas both dealing with her own mortality, as well as giving herself up to the euphoria of nature, all within a span of a couple of minutes. I hope you enjoy it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8CVXHT8EdI
Until next time,
Bryan B
Hi Folks,
I've enjoyed reading what you have had to say so far in regards to Dickenson's poems. I'd like to start by mentioning something that Marie wrote in her first post on “I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed,” and that deals with the joy the author takes in life. I definitely agree with that, and I find it fascinating that the same poet who wrote so richly about being drunk on life also wrote about the comforting presence of Death and his carriage. It is such an amazing contradiction of sorts, being able to look at life and death through the same positive lens.
What I think ties these two poems together is the sense that the poets carriage ride in “Because I could not stop for Death” seems to recreate and revisit all the things in her life that she loved. If you've heard the expression that before dying, you're life flashes before your eyes, I think that this is something similar. Instead of the narrator's life flashing, so to speak, it is a drawn-out, full revisiting of all the joy and pleasant episodes in her life. I think Bryan touched on this a little with his look at the different images that Dickenson presents within the poem, that of the children playing and the old house. Although, where I think he took it to represent a kind of larger cycle of life and death within the world, I almost see it as a gentle reminiscing of the happiest times in her life. If that is eternity, then it doesn't seem too bad!
And Gustaf, I loved your comparison to Grim Fandango, a great game and really interesting that you brought it into the discussion here, because it definitely fits. For my multimodal connection, I thought about a few things that I could do, maybe bring in some other literary representations of Death. I have to say that I love the Terry Pratchett character of Death in his Discworld novels, but that is more of a comic character who simply tries to understand the people he escorts to the other world, but fails to do so. I think the most apt comparison is from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, where Death is presented as a young girl, who not only meets people at their deaths, but also at their births. She recognizes the moments of importance in the lives of people and she spends time with some individuals, offering comfort and guidance before they must go on, to wherever it is they go. Here is a wikipedia link to her character, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(DC_Comics), and here is another page created by a fan, http://membres.lycos.fr/hiyami/library/death.htm, that does a pretty good job of explaining her character.
Until Friday,
-Scott
Hi again!
I really enjoyed reading your comments this time as well, I did at first not have much enthusiasm for this exchange at all, partly because I had never analyzed poems before but I was also very skeptic towards the entire idea. I thought, how much am I going to get out of this, but as it turned out it has been much fun and very educational. I have gotten some new ways to look at these poems for example when you, Bryan, talk about the spirituality of the poem “Because I could not stop for death” I had to go back and re-read it again and found that I do agree with you that it is spiritual, which I had not considered before, and that took the poem to a new level.
Scott when you say that Death in “Because I could not stop for death” is like the Death in that comic I totally get what you mean, I myself had sort of the same thoughts when I read and re-read the poem but my mind went to the TV show “Dead like me”, have you seen it? It s about a girl who dies and when she does that she becomes sort of a soul reaper. She is this person that walks around taking peoples souls and she is sort of living but no one would suspect her being a reaper by just looking at her, she look just like anyone but still she is going to take your soul.
I also looked at the film that Bryan recommended and I can understand his thoughts when recommending it, the connection to both poems was pretty clear.
I am just a happy camper today and agreeing with everyone, but hey it's Friday afternoon!!!
Take care guys, and good luck with your future literature studies!
Marie K
Hi again!
Discovered first today that my link was cut short. Hopefully
this will work better.
Returning soon with my next real post.
/Gustaf
Hi there,
just like Maria I had a lot of fun doing this. Even though we came from different scholarly backgrounds I think we all gained at least a little bit from this exchange. At least I did.
In reply to my post Bryan stated that he found the poems “Because I could not stop for Death” and “I taste a liquor never brewed” highly spiritual. After reading “Because I could not stop for Death” again I have to admit that it is spiritual. I was just missing the words I had expected from a 19th century spiritual author. So I got curious about her beliefs and did some research on the net and found this page of the Florida Gulf Coast University:
http://itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/edidwell.htm
I think this quite interesting. It says that she combined Puritanism and Transcendentalism and that pretty much explains the spirituality in “Because I could not stop for Death” without using the words God, heaven and hell. I guess I was just too blind.
Our multimodal representations were very different. I liked that. We had one imaginary, one computer game, one comic and a movie. All were very interesting to watch/see/feel and it was really interesting to see what you guys had in mind when you thought of the poems. When six people look at a picture they don’t see one but six different ones, or even more. And it was enriching to see how you perceived the poems.
Even though I always had to hurry to post my letters on time and had lots of other things to do I certainly enjoyed this exchange and I hope you did as well.
So good look with your studies to the ones overseas and see you in a while to all the others.
Greetings
Michael
Hi again!
I enjoyed reading your further comments on the poems and they started some new thoughts. When reading the ”Because I could not stop for death”, I got the feeling that it could be spiritually inspired, but since i checked on dickinson's life history, I found out that she only had a short period when she was somewhat religious. And also, since I thought from a christian perspective, although the reduction of death can be found in both the poem and the bible, it differs in that dickinson describes death as someone personal and inescapable.I abandoned these thoughts and continued on other thoughts in my earlier letters instead, but thanks to Bryan's letter, this was interesting once again.
I agree that the zen-buddhism suits the poem much better, though it could also point to the fact that Dickinson for that short period was a christian, and during that time learned that death was not something to fear. Combined with the deaths of people close to her (which Michael mentioned) which made death a more natural part of life than it is for most people today, it became more natural to write about death as something close.
It was interesting to see that our multimodal representations spanned over such a number of different art forms. As someone who works a lot with choral music in my spare time, i especially liked michaels link. It reminded me of tuesday this week, when i got the chance to sing swedish folk music as one of hundred singers together with a very talented fiddler, which was a really great and joyful experience. Especially the weddingsong ”Skara Brudmarsch”, where you could see the couple before you and their happiness and enjoyment of life comes close to the onn in ”I taste a liquor”. You can listen to a short sample of it(no choir though) at Amazon
Finally, I enjoyed this project, and thank you for your many good and inspiring thoughts.
Best wishes for the future
/Gustaf Jarlert
Hi Folks,
Oh dear, its late Friday night and I almost forgot all about posting here. As luck would have it, I remembered just in time (well, almost).
First off, I'd like to thank ya'll for an interesting discussion over the last week. I feel like looking at these poems from a few different perspectives is genuinely helpful, and definitely not just for us literature types. Having married into a family full of engineers (with one strange uncle who quotes Chaucer at me whenever the mood strikes), I have to believe that reading and interpreting great literature is something that can and should be experienced by students in a variety of fields of study. While Emily Dickenson may not help with some of the more heavy mathematical concepts, reading and discussing her work can create a kind of useful mental diversion, sharpening your focus in other areas.
This also works for our class. While Dickenson is a fantastic writer, her poetry sits outside the realm of some of our (mine, at least) main areas of interest. But spending some time looking at Dickenson has provided a bit of a break from some of my other classes, which generally deal with some different ideas and styles.
So I guess I shared some of your concerns about the project, Marie. But I am glad to see that our concerns were for the most part unfounded, and I'm definitely glad that we all appear to have gotten something useful out of this collaboration.
On to the poetry and our multimodalities. I really appreciated the Bach provided by Michael. I am currently writing this post while listening to it, and I also wrote my previous post listening to it. It is interesting to put music with the ideas expressed within poetry. And while my experience in music is primarily from my time playing in jazz bands, I can relate to that feeling. Some songs express emotion better than the greatest poems of the Romantics, and it is nice to be reminded of that.
I found the discussion between Bryan and Michael on the spirituality within “Because I could not stop for Death” and to be fascinating. That poem does seem to have a sort of spiritual reverence within it, and it is something worth rereading to pay attention to. In our class recently, we've been studying the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins who seemingly found God within nature, and wrote his poems about the spirituality of the natural world. Dickenson seems to find that spiritual center in life itself. Whether it is the nostalgic reminiscing of “Because I could not stop for Death,” or the exuberant joy she expresses in “I taste a liquor never brewed,” she seems to have a great reverence for life.
Thanks again for the interesting conversations, and I wish all of you luck in your studies.
Take care,
Scott Bevill
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