Tuesday, February 12, 2013

almost a loneliness









A day when I long for retreat, a winter beach cottage, a lonely boat,
I make do with my rocking chair,
and a page from an antique speller.
Words from The Death of the Flowers--Bryant.
melancholy, rustle, sisterhood, smoky...

I am more interested in the words chosen, and the title of the poem,
than the poem itself (too baroque for my mood this night,
 though it has some wonderful lines). What did the children make of it,
when their teacher read it to them some autumn morning?

I prefer the astringency of Emily Dickinson:

 I hide myself within my flower,
That, fading from your vase,
You, unsuspecting, feel for me
Almost a loneliness.

18 comments:

  1. Beautiful images and I like both poems

    Helen

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  2. I always like the flowers in your house:-)

    xo Jane

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  3. Hello Jen:
    Wonderful images to match this sombre, but not unhappy, mood. Emily Dickinson's poetry is so very often thought provoking as are the lines which you include here.

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    1. She takes my breath away--continues to surprise.

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  4. Hello Jen, I like the way the blue color underlines the mood in each photo. For a gentler and more sentimental version of Death of the Flowers, you might try Stephen Foster's song, Ah, May the Red Rose Live Alway (many version on Youtube).
    --Road to Parnassus

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  5. Well -- m-m-m -- while reading Death of the Flowers, I was reminded that at the time of its writing and for years after, most children were rural children, and so understood its natural imagery very well. And at that time many knew of someone young who had died, often of TB.

    Want to give you a heads up, when you can venture out to a newsstand (unless you get it) of a large article on ETSY in the Time magazine with Rubio on the cover.

    Is the snow melting yet? Thinking of you.

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    Replies
    1. I love looking at those old textbooks and imagining whose hands they were in.

      ETSY and Time? We're not in Kansan anymore.

      Snow is melting, slowly...

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  6. i also sometimes pick poignant words from poems like single flowers from vases.

    lovely

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  7. Death of the Flowers fills me with too much sadness today. Emily Dickinson's is far softer on my mood. M x

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    Replies
    1. E.D. can be heavy without feeling heavy--there is always something sprightly about her work.

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  8. I've never heard nor read about loneliness with such lovely words.
    I also sometimes dream about retreat and the first some lines are so ideal for that.

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    Replies
    1. I wonder if Emily DIckinson ever read japanese poetry.

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  9. I had never heard that Dickinson poem... its exquisite.

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  10. I like the words, just listed and to be studied. The poem is just too depressing and gloomy, someone young always dies it seems and its so final. Flowers (most) are reborn every Spring, and the world goes round. I love the wintery beach cottage.

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