Emily Dickinson--Dawn

俄尔甫斯的猫

Dawn

When night is almost done,
And sunrise grows so near
That we can touch the spaces,
It 's time to smooth the hair

And get the dimples ready,
And wonder we could care
For that old faded midnight
That frightened but an hour.

from Poems, Series 1 XVII

Biography




Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American lyrical poet, and an obsessively private writer -- only seven of her some 1800 poems were published during her lifetime. Dickinson withdrew from social contact at the age of 23 and devoted herself in secret into writing.

[ 本帖最后由 竖琴·俄尔甫斯 于 2006-5-31 18:38 编辑 ]

怀抱花朵的孩子

Welcome! Orpheus!

Thank you for your passage! I've wanted to paste something about Dickinson here yesterday, and see your contribute now. But why the Biography is so short, I know there isn't many sources about her, but this seems too brief．

Actually I read little about Dickinson, I feel a bit afraid of her,I would rather to read some more complicated poems than to read hers. I feel she was challenging some basic conventions. Although every great poet is challenging convention, but Dickinson's chanllenging so great as to make her poems difficult to understand.

Can you give us some reviews or comments on this poem or her other poems?

[ 本帖最后由 怀抱花朵的孩子 于 2006-5-31 20:15 编辑 ]

duessa

Dickinson is always so special. Who but her could express the feelings of a person that has experienced a dark, frightening night so well!

怀抱花朵的孩子

原帖由 duessa 于 2006-6-1 00:03 发表
Dickinson is always so special. Who but her could express the feelings of a person that has experienced a dark, frightening night so well!

Her life is more specialer! She was always in her own house alone, pepole little saw her out, just from her window saw her countenance from time to time. She was totally secluded from the world by herself, no lover, even no friend, there was a newspaper editor with whom she wrote letters and who can appreciate her, but they little meet face to face. When the editor went to call her , he found that she had lost part of her communicative capability, even couldn't speak influencely. She had been totally immersed  into her own world.
Maybe that's just why she is so great. But I can hardly imagine this kind of life. And how can I approach her if I can't live like her? I don't know!

[ 本帖最后由 怀抱花朵的孩子 于 2006-6-1 01:04 编辑 ]

怀抱花朵的孩子

And sunrise grows so near
That we can touch the spaces

Not is to touch the sun but the spaces, and "It 's time to smooth the hair",  Here "hair" is compounded by "the spaces", which give readers an illusion that the "hair" contains "the spaces" and the person who has the "hair" give us a impression of sculpture(a kind of three-dimensional feeling).

And get the dimples ready

here the sculpture get its life. and give us a bright feeling, happy, lovely and so on.

And wonder we could care
For that old faded midnight
That frightened but an hour.

Till here Dickinson show us the dark aspect of our life, the night, the nightmare,terror and so on. But the word "wonder" give us a false appearance of her feeling, just like be "frightened but an hour", like a joke.

She gave us nothing more, just this 8 lines, Just like the first part of usual sonnet, but she didn't give the last 6 lines, as if laughing at us.

There is something lost in this poem by the poet deliberately. She didn't want to reveal to us or to herself or she can't give the revelation. There is something more essential, can not be told.

[ 本帖最后由 怀抱花朵的孩子 于 2006-6-1 02:30 编辑 ]

mu

Thanks for your excellent comment!
"something was lost in this poem by the poet deliberately"...what an interesting point of view, and I'm nearly blind in symbols-especially in British poets' poems.

duessa

A very good comment. "Sculpture" gives me a vivid picture and I like this metaphor a lot.

怀抱花朵的孩子

Thank you two! MuMu and duessa.

俄尔甫斯的猫

Emily Dickinson has an emotional position,particularly deemed to be pertaining to love

怀抱花朵的孩子

原帖由 竖琴·俄尔甫斯 于 2006-6-22 18:36 发表
Emily Dickinson has an emotional position,particularly deemed to be pertaining to love

But she didn't marry. It's a  pity!