Welcome to Cross-Cultural Collaboration-Spring 2007: A Conversation about Emily Dickinson, an online conversation among students in two classes at Clemson University, South Carolina, United States, and one class at Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Group 3: Kali B., Izabela C., Mathew F.. Ashley G., Andreas H., Kara M., Joey S.
22 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.
I'm currently attending Chalmer, studying Computer Engineering with a primary focus on digital construction and manufacturing so not really your run of the mill poetry interpreter. I go by the name of Andreas Haraldsson, and quite the beginner at this poetry reading, but hopefully I'll gain some insight during this events.
When I'm looking at the 3rd poem, I get an eerie feeling. I liked this one very much. From here on, any assumptions are my own feelings and interpretation.
It begins with a slant of light, and she keeps referring it in each verse. In the first, she tells it to be oppressive and heavy, I'm not quite sure, but I think it's rather straight forward.
The second verse it tells of how it hurts, without scaring, but in the way we look at things. What one man see can be, and probably is, different from the next.
The third verse talks about how none may teach it anything, it just is, and there is nothing to be done. She follows up with "T is the seal, despair,". Not only is there nothing to be done, when you see it, it's sealed, done. Despair is the only course of action. I further believe that the third line, imperial affliction, means to be, both an affliction of the United Kingdom, and perhaps also in another meaning as "of superior or unusual size or excellence", especially size. I cannot quite figure out what, if any, meaning of "Sent us of the air", and why 'of', not 'from'. What would the air be here?
Fourth verse, as the slanting light starts to fade with the sunset, the shadows follows the land, every mark and every feature usually stands our clearly marked by the light. Until the sun is completely gone, and all that remains are the blackness of the skies, and space. As black and distant as death itself.
To end it all, I feel there is definitly something behind the scenes, mostly evident in the third verse, about the unavoidable imperial seal and how it should make us despair. But not being very versed in Dickinsson timeperiod or personal feelings, I cannot make much further analysis on that subject, but there does seem to be some kind of anti-england feelings there, strong such even.
Joey S., Victorian Poetry, Clemson I am in my first year of Clemson’s English Literature graduate program after having attended Clemson for four years as an undergraduate. After obtaining undergraduate degrees in English and Spanish, I took some time away from school to work professionally for the Wachovia Bank Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Scared (or maybe scarred) by the impersonal corporate world, I decided to come back to school to study one of my favorite interests: literature.
Dear groupmates,
I’ve been looking over Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—,” and I have some thoughts that I’d like to share in hopes of being enlightened by any furthering comments you all would like to offer.
In all of these poems, Emily Dickinson takes on some pretty abstract ideas. Here, she discusses the idea of Truth and how it should be unveiled to every man (and woman). I see the opening line being a request from the speaker to receive truth in a slow, easy-to-handle manner. The speaker worries that any blunt communication of the truth could be “too bright for our infirm Delight,” which seems to hint at mankind’s willingness to accept contemporary notions of fact even though the full understanding of our place in the world may not be totally identifiable yet. I made this assertion due to the described infirmness of the Delight. In this case “infirm,” also meaning “unstable,” seems to hint at a fickleness that accompanies human understanding (Merriam-Webster).
When considering this idea, it seems to fit well with the underlying Victorian sentiment that times were changing (with the introduction of ideas from Freud, Einstein, Darwin, etc.). Perhaps this is Dickinson’s way of acknowledging a “truth” (in perhaps a religious or natural sense) that still rules over mankind despite the contemporary innovations in thought that have created a wide-eyed “Delight” in human understanding. I feel like this is a little bit of speculation on my part, though, so I’ll keep moving along. I just wanted to throw that thought into the conversation to see if anyone else noticed the same thing.
The simile that Dickinson presents through the next three lines seems to support the notion that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. She further elaborates upon the purity and brightness of truth by comparing the effect of its “superb surprise” to lightening as viewed through children’s eyes. Just as lightening has the ability to stop a person in his/her tracks with awe, so too does truth. However, in witnessing such a natural event, one is capable of seeing a subtle truth in the way that the world functions as a living and breathing thing. After all, lightening is recognized as one of the catalytic functions of the world throughout its natural evolution. Furthermore, the word “Children” is capitalized in these lines, which to me emphasizes the naivety that usually accompanies a delighted and primitive understanding.
The final two lines of the poem seem to reiterate the need for a slanted or subtle unveiling of the truth, for the idea of truth is so bright that unless eased into human understanding in such a way, it will blind every man (and woman). The question that remains is whether or not this blindness signifies a misinterpretation of the truth by mankind or whether or not mankind will even recognize the fact as truth unless that notion is reaffirmed through a gradual “dazzling.” Perhaps its something totally different altogether. Hopefully, someone out there can connect the dots in the gaps that I’ve left.
And while you’re at it, here are a couple other questions I have: - Who is the speaker of this poem? (Random observer?) - To whom is the speaker speaking? (God? Nature? A general apostrophe to Truth?)
Thanks for all of your help in picking apart this poem. I’m looking forward to hearing some more ideas.
My name is Matthew Fairman. I am taking Victorian Poetry at Clemson University. My main area of interest is modern poetry.
I just want to talk about one of the poems right now: the one starting with “There’s a certain slant of light.” By the time I’ve finished reading the first stanza of this poem, it strikes me that there certainly does exist “a certain slant of light” on chilly, overcast afternoons that can hold a melancholic sway over our emotions more powerful than even the most gloomy organ fugue. I mention the organ because that is the instrument I associate most closely with “cathedral tunes.” It seems to me that the poet’s use of “cathedral tunes” to describe the visual sensation of the “certain slant of light” is the perfect choice; the words convey the somber oppression of the light better probably than most any other visual imagery she could have chosen.
It is on afternoons like these that the light is almost dark or shadowy in some way, and we sense this keenly even before we’ve seen the cloudy sky. I imagine the “heavenly hurt” of the second stanza as referring to the strong inward impression that such dreary daylight can have on us. To be sure, “we can find no scar;” there is no obvious, physical reason for which we are depressed or “oppressed,” but we are nonetheless. We can’t change or “teach” it in any way. It is the “seal” (the most relevant meaning of which I found in Merriam-Webster as “something that confirms, ratifies, or makes secure.”) In other words, it is set and done. I looked up “imperial” in the Merriam-Webster as well in order to find out what meaning of the word might fit best in my reading. I feel that “imperial,” here, most closely means sovereign. Thus, just as an imperial seal might make something conclusive, our despair might be made final by the “certain slant of light.”
At the end of the poem I’m confronted with more questions than answers. How might the landscape be said to be “listen[ing]” or the shadows to be hold[ing] their breath” when this light comes? And then I’m pretty much just as baffled by the final two lines. What is “distance on the look of death”? If anyone can help me out with this last stanza, I’d much appreciate it. Also, while I’m asking questions, what can we make of lines 7-8 (“But internal difference / Where the meanings are")? Thanks in advance for your consideration.
Hey group, As evidenced by the header up there, my name is Kara McManus. This is my first year as an English MA graduate student at Clemson University, and I’m taking Dr. Young’s Victorian Poetry seminar (ENG 814). I have academic interests in medieval English lit. and British/Irish lit., and most of my previous poetry studies have revolved around the post-WWII American Beat poets. Disjointed? Yeah, but oh-so-interesting.
I picked up the obvious nature theme in pretty much all of the poems, from the overt imagery in “I taste a liquor never brewed,” to the thought that nature overpowering human impact on the world (in the overgrown house in “Because I could not stop for death’) shows the expendability of a human life in the grander scheme of the world. One of the things that I’ve always loved about Dickinson is that her images are so striking: the almost-malicious nature of light in “There’s a certain slant of light,” the sexualized ocean tide in “I started early, took my dog,” and her command to tell the truth circuitously, as to alleviate the shock of what it holds (and, implicitly, how far from it society has been misled) in “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.”
I see Dickinson’s contradiction to society especially evidenced in “I taste a liquor never brewed.” Throughout the short piece, she identifies the power of nature as something so intoxicating that she literally becomes inebriated off of it. So then, she seems to ask, what does it mean to be “drunk,” and is she a glutton if she overzealously partakes in something so seemingly innocent as the splendor of nature? Though the poem seems nice and lovely, I get this underlying theme in which she states that the societal norms that dictate one’s position in the social caste system of the day are pointless. The last lines especially show the difference between God’s message and the human manipulation of God’s message as the “little tippler,” a drunkard, is hanging out, “leaning against the sun,” with God. The “tippler,” whether drunk off of alcohol or nature or whatever, has the same capacity for God’s grace as do the saints and seraphim that are the staples of human reverence. So then who becomes the sinner: the judged or the judgers? I heart Dickinson.
Till next time, when I probably read too much into another poem, -Kara
My name is Ashley and I am taking American Literature with Professor Reiss. I am a senior at Clemson University and will be graduating in May with a degree is history but I will be returning in the Fall to start my Masters. Poetry is not usually my specialty, so please bear with me if my analysis seems puerile. I will be discussing Emily Dickinson’s [There’s a certain Slant of light] and my reason for doing so was that I really liked the imagery of the poem, for instance the entire first stanza was very vivid to me. [There’s a certain Slant of light] struck me because it had this melancholy feel to it, it seems depressed. Words like “oppresses” (line 3), “Heavenly Hurt” (line 5), “Despair” (line 10), and “affliction” (line 11), and I suppose the word “Death” (line 16) itself. I decided to define oppress and affliction because those words are powerful, yet she did not capitalize them the way she did the others. Oppress, according to the American Heritage Dictionary means, to keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority; affliction means, a condition of pain, suffering, or distress. I think that these two definitions alone highlight my initial impression of the dreary nature of this work. Did anyone else enjoy this work, yet were overwhelmed by its sense of pain and to use one of her words, despair? Also, did anyone else find it interesting that in a time when churches were so important that one of her images associated with “oppress” was a church, more specifically a Cathedral?
I'm a student from Poland and at present I'm taking part in exchange programme on Chalmers in Sweden. I'm studying Logistics on Master's programme in Poland. This is my first time when I participate in that kind of course. So far I've been interested only in Polish literature and poems. This exchange is for me new experience but I hope I will interpret Dickinson's poems correctly.
I chose from five Dickinson's poems, one in my opinion the most interesting - "Because I could not stop for Death". The speaker of this poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker, in ironic way, personifies death as nice and considerate gentleman. In normal life many people assosiate deadth as a horrife event. The narrator describe death as a calm character. She treats death as a normal way and characterized death with a positive side. It is a description of the death. We are in front of a kind a very concrete story, in front of a course of events which gives a feeling of familiarity, with only a reference a nostalgic memories (the children at school, the corn-field) and a feeling of cold in the dew which goes down on the body. The death is nice and “polite”, but anyway very determined to respect its appointments. We can not choose to stop, to finish our life, but it is the death that arrives, it stops in front of our door and it does not need to dominate with the strength because it knows to be inevitable. And we make the “last trip” in solitude, with the death and that mystery which is the eternity. The way is very slow: the death, of course, is not in a hurry. The feeling of slowness is underline in the third and fourth stanza: the children during the break, the corn-field, the sunset, the night dew give a feeling of a way which develops during the whole day, as if the author lived again her life in the moment in which it finishes. In the next to the last stanza, the “trip” is over and we arrive. The house look like a “swelling of the ground”, the ages which will be without time, very short ones if in comparison with that long day, when we understood that the trip was towards the eternity. I would like to focus on the three “we passed” in the third stanza, which underline the feeling and the characteristic of the very slow but dynamic movement of the beginning, and after, the first line of the next stanza “He passed Us”, in my opinion it is a overturning which stops the action and brings us towards the “We paused” in the next to the last stanza. The poem contains six quatrains, and does not follow any consistent rhyme scheme. Every line starts with a strong beat and ends up with a weak beat. The first and third lines in each stanza have iambic tetrameter, but the second and fourth lines do not contain any consistent meter.
In this poem I would like to mark two keywords which are for me quite important and they force me to deeper thinking: 1. Immortality – people life is on the one hand mortal and on the other hand we want to be immortal. This two expressions excluding to each other. 2. Set sun – death in this same way like the sun slowly setting down and finishes humans life.
I'm a student from Poland and at present I'm taking part in exchange programme on Chalmers in Sweden. I'm studying Logistics on Master's programme in Poland. This is my first time when I participate in that kind of course. So far I've been interested only in Polish literature and poems. This exchange is for me new experience but I hope I will interpret Dickinson's poems correctly.
I chose from five Dickinson's poems, one in my opinion the most interesting - "Because I could not stop for Death". The speaker of this poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker, in ironic way, personifies death as nice and considerate gentleman. In normal life many people assosiate deadth as a horrife event. The narrator describe death as a calm character. She treats death as a normal way and characterized death with a positive side. It is a description of the death. We are in front of a kind a very concrete story, in front of a course of events which gives a feeling of familiarity, with only a reference a nostalgic memories (the children at school, the corn-field) and a feeling of cold in the dew which goes down on the body. The death is nice and “polite”, but anyway very determined to respect its appointments. We can not choose to stop, to finish our life, but it is the death that arrives, it stops in front of our door and it does not need to dominate with the strength because it knows to be inevitable. And we make the “last trip” in solitude, with the death and that mystery which is the eternity. The way is very slow: the death, of course, is not in a hurry. The feeling of slowness is underline in the third and fourth stanza: the children during the break, the corn-field, the sunset, the night dew give a feeling of a way which develops during the whole day, as if the author lived again her life in the moment in which it finishes. In the next to the last stanza, the “trip” is over and we arrive. The house look like a “swelling of the ground”, the ages which will be without time, very short ones if in comparison with that long day, when we understood that the trip was towards the eternity. I would like to focus on the three “we passed” in the third stanza, which underline the feeling and the characteristic of the very slow but dynamic movement of the beginning, and after, the first line of the next stanza “He passed Us”, in my opinion it is a overturning which stops the action and brings us towards the “We paused” in the next to the last stanza. The poem contains six quatrains, and does not follow any consistent rhyme scheme. Every line starts with a strong beat and ends up with a weak beat. The first and third lines in each stanza have iambic tetrameter, but the second and fourth lines do not contain any consistent meter.
In this poem I would like to mark two keywords which are for me quite important and they force me to deeper thinking: 1. Immortality – people life is on the one hand mortal and on the other hand we want to be immortal. This two expressions excluding to each other. 2. Set sun – death in this same way like the sun slowly setting down and finishes humans life.
I hope we can discuss about this poems on our blog site. Have a nice lecture.
Hello Group, My name is Kali, I am a sophomore psychology major at Clemson University. I am taking American Literature this semester with Professor Reiss. Poetry is not my favorite or my best when it comes to literature, but I do what I can. One of the poem’s I found most interesting by Emily Dickinson was “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—,” My first thought from reading the title only was that she must be referring to something similar to a “white lie.” For the most part we do not think of “white lies” to be a big deal or harmful. This is the same feeling I got from Dickinson’s poem. From my understanding, she is saying to not tell a flat out lie, but do not tell the entire truth. The truth should sometime be sugarcoated a little bit in order for it to sound better and maybe be less hurtful to someone. She compares the surprising truth to a person, to the surprise of lightening to a child. It both cases it needs to be explained gently to the individual in a way that makes it sound like something nice and free of any damage. I do not advise you to begin telling little “white lies” about everything, but sometimes it is ok to leave some details out of a story. For example, say you are throwing a surprise birthday party for a friend and they ask you what you are doing the day you are planning the party, it would be reasonable for you to respond by saying, “I am going to dinner with my parents.” You must be careful with the situations you choose to tell the truth with a “slant,” so that it does not become a bad habit that gets you in trouble. If a person is constantly not being honest people will begin to think they are untrustworthy and would not put themselves in situations with that person. I liked Dickinson’s poem and agreed with her. Some things are better kept to oneself!
With a great interest I read all letters which are run on our web side . Each of you described different poems. Thanks to yours comments now I better understand their meaning. I have to say when I was read them for the first time some poems were quite difficult to interpret for me. The biggest problem I had with third poem: “There’s a certain slight of light” but after read Andreas interpretation of this poem, it seems too much clearly. At the beginning this poem was for me a little bit confusing, but you explained in simply way how Dickinson to describe the visual sensation of the “certain slant of light”. I like your point of view. Also Matthew focused on this poem. His interpretation allowed me to imagine “heavenly hurt” in vivid way. I didn’t take note of “cathedral tunes” in this poem, but after reading Matthew’s letters I notice some connecion between the description of this poem and my understanding of it.
My picture shows a certain slight of light : http://www.wisarts.com/digital/water/brama.html Dickinson described light on the negative point of view, but I think light is life. And this picture gives me a very deep and positive feeling: in fact when I saw it I felt carefreeness and brightness in my mind.
I enjoyed reading everyone’s responses to the set of Emily Dickinson poems that we had to read. Everyone’s responses helped me to understand them better and in some cases gave me new and different ideas than I had previously had about certain poems.
Izabela, I like how you described death in your response, “…death is nice and “polite”, but anyway very determined to respect its appointments. We cannot choose to stop, to finish our life, but it is the death that arrives, it stops in front of our door and it does not need to dominate with the strength because it knows to be inevitable.” I think you described her words affectively and simplified them in a way that really summed up Dickinson’s poem.
Kara, when I first read your comment on [I started Early—Took my Dog—] I did not really get what you were saying. But it prompted me to reread the poem… and now I understand. Like I said before, poetry is not usually my things, I do not tend to get too deep into the meanings of poems. Thank you for enlightening me. I just all around liked how you analyzed her work, it definitely gave me a new perspective and I went back and reread the works you wrote about because of it.
I searched the internet for images that reminded me of the poem I originally discussed [There’s a certain Slant of light]. The image is of a winter scene but it has a religious aspect to it, (it looks like a cemetery of some sort) but the shadow it makes is pretty cool looking. I thought it nicely portrayed the poem because it seemed sad and stark. Although there is a sunset in the background I do not find the picture to be hopeful, I saw it as depressed because of the cemetery and the bleak surroundings.
Maybe it’s because I was raised Catholic (somewhat against my will due to an overly religious Italian mother), but I took the oppressive weight of that certain slant of light as a total slam to the Church (whether that cathedral be Catholic, Protestant, whatever) and the idea of humankind’s manipulation of the word of God diluting the actual message. Or maybe I’m just bitter. Matt F. stated that the organ used in the cathedral tunes best painted the picture of what Dickinson was trying to relate; after I read his blog, I stopped for a second, shut my eyes, turned off the television, and got that picture in my head of a certain, odd angle of light (y’know, the one where you can see dust particles floating around in it?), stabbing through the shadowy atmosphere of a large, old cathedral; the statuary of saints that I’ll never live up to looking down on me from the cold, grey walls; the resounding chords of a musty organ deafening the previously silent fortress of a church; the feeling of being so insignificant in this huge, somber edifice, though that one specific slant of light is able to find me: I realized that the light is so oppressive because it illuminates all of my sins (and, more symbolically, the sins of humankind). I totally got one of those full-body chills. Andreas S. defines this utter state of hopelessness with the statement that “despair is the only course of action,” though despair is not a feeling the Church hopes to effect from it’s congregates. Andreas also pulls in that imperialistic-England-in-the-nineteenth-century angle that only substantiates Dickinson’s slam on the overarching, propaganda-laced principals (Mother England and Mother Church) that were supposed to define a “good” British patriot. I really heart Dickinson.
The picture I was looking for was this awesome shot of a pietá-themed statue that sits on your left upon entering the church overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome. It had this one crazy slant of light that hit the Virgin Mary’s face perfectly, as her dying son awkwardly lies across her small-framed body. But I couldn’t find that one anymore, so this is a shot of Michelangelo’s “Pietá,” which stands inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The light is not there, but that same oppressive, cold feeling remains (I think at least). Here’s the address: http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art50.htm.
Dear Group, Reading everyone’s responses to the different poems by Emily Dickinson helped me to gain a better understanding of some of the things I was unsure about. As I mentioned before, understanding poems and grasping their deeper meanings is not my favorite thing to do. One of the poems that I also found interesting, but did not choose to write about was, “There’s a certain slant of light.” As Ashley pointed out, Emily Dickinson’s choice of words are very dramatic. She is definitely trying to paint a picture or emotion for the audience through her word choices. An interesting point that was also made was the use of the word “oppresses” with the church. I wonder how people during this time took that and if they formed prejudice opinions towards Dickinson. When I first read the poem that I originally wrote about, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—,” the first thing that I thought of was a poster that a friend of mine has. The poster is of Al Pacino from the movie Scarface and has the quote, “I always tell the truth, even when I lie.” I have always found this quote interesting and connected it to Dickinson’s poem. The link will take you to the website with an example of the poster. http://www.bazaario.ca/pics.asp?id=26637&bigpic=0#desc.
I just finished looking over all the responses thus far, and I really liked the comments you all generated.
Matt – Great description of the cathedral tune; it was dead on. Before I read your ideas about that, it was an obstacle for me. Having read it, I feel like I get the image a lot better. Thanks for that.
Izabela – I really liked your discussion about “Because I could not stop for Death.” The attitude toward the personified death character, I think, greatly affects the overall meaning of the poem. I just re-read this poem with that thought in mind, and I noticed that she basically takes no emotional side toward death at all. I’ve heard other interpretations that seem to hint at the idea that Dickinson portrays death as a pseudo-suitor to the narrator. So if anything, there’s a somewhat pleasant feel to her otherwise indifference. For me that seems to increase the matter-of-factness that the idea of death holds in the poem. I feel that no matter how busy one’s daily routine seems (filled up with worldly obligations and ideas that always seem way more important than they probably are in the long run), death will find time to escort that person on a ride to the “house” in the ground.
Another part of this poem that I really enjoy is the description of the grave that Dickinson gives us under the metaphor of a house. The “swelling of the ground” for me indicates a newly covered gravesite with fresh dirt that still piles high above the natural level of the lawn. The roof and cornice work together to hint at a gravestone that marks the site.
I’ve attached a picture along with my proactive apology for any technical difficulties my lack of computer knowledge ensures. The picture is of a fresh grave as I imagined it when reading the poem; but seeing as how that seems a bit morbid for an image, the particular grave that I've chosen to showcase is actually part of a Halloween lawn decoration set. So, there’s that.
Check it out: http://www.aidtopia.com/halloween/ freshgrave/index.html
I'd like to begin with qouting a certain passage from Mathew F's letter, since we both chose the same poem, yet have some different views on it. How exellent really. "“There’s a certain slant of light.” By the time I’ve finished reading the first stanza of this poem, it strikes me that there certainly does exist “a certain slant of light” on chilly, overcast afternoons that can hold a melancholic sway over our emotions more powerful than even the most gloomy organ fugue." This is the part of the poem that I couldn't get my head around to begin with, I picture this light as something cosy and comforting, not as oppressive and heavy. Yet, after reading through Mathew's comments, I can see this part as well, and it fits right into the rest of me feelings for the remainder of the poem, thanks for that one!
Next, I'd like to try and answer one of Mathew's questions as well, especially the ones on the last verse of the poem, and I'll refer to what I wrote in my first letter. I feel that as the setting sun on a winter afternoon, light plays very clearly over the landscape, and it could be said it listens, to the light, since there is nothing it can do to prevent it's movements. Here I also picture this in a quiet place, a place where not a sound can be heard, even though the shadows move, ie, they hold their breath. Lastly, I don't have it very hard to picture death in the form of the Grim Reaper, and I can easily imagine his gaze being both black, and distant, much like the a clear winters night.
I also toke notice of Izabela C's, portrayal of Death as a gentleman, while this being far far from my own general perspective, I can see where it comes from in this poem, and that puts a different spin to it. I did find it quite entetaining to re-read the poem with this new look on death, and getting a quite different impression of the whole picture. Quite special indeed.
My own link will be of a picture, much like I first pictured the slant of light, before I read Mathew's comments, a calm, and cosy light, not heavy or oppressive. http://www.visionswestgallery.com/work/318T.jpg?1170905127 A bit small, sadly, but it shows the warm light shining through a forest, just before the sun sets.
I’ve enjoyed reading all your postings very much as each has offered valuable information for interpreting Dickinson’s poems. I already feel like I know a great deal more than when I began (and the blogging isn’t even over yet). Before I get into some specifics about what you guys said, I’d like to apologize for posting so late. I’ve been very sick for the past several days, and this is the first bit of thinking that I’ve been able to do since the last blog. Hopefully you won’t be able to tell how cloudy my head still is.
First off, Andreas H. noted that “there is definitly something behind the scenes, mostly evident in the third verse, about the unavoidable imperial seal and how it should make us despair.” I also looked up the words “seal” and “imperial,” but when I noticed the specific United Kingdom references in the definitions of “imperial,” I disregarded them. However, after reading Andreas’ comments, I can certainly see the possibility of despair arising in some way out of the “unavoidable imperial seal.” For me, these thoughts added a whole new level of meaning to the poem that I hadn’t previously considered.
I also appreciated Joey’s comment that “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” may have been “Dickinson’s way of acknowledging a “truth” (in perhaps a religious or natural sense) that still rules over mankind despite the contemporary innovations in thought that have created a wide-eyed “Delight” in human understanding.” I feel like these are certainly valid thoughts on the poem. The poem does seem to want to allow for some version of an overarching “Truth” by suggesting only a very gradual revelation of that “Truth.”
Anyways, a lot of us have chosen to try to illustrate our feelings on “There’s a certain slant of light.” It has been very telling to see the pictures and the various choices. I would like to add one of my own that I think provides the perfect "dreariness" of color. The picture is of a winter storm at sunset.
I wanted to comment that I really liked Kara's choice for her visual accompaniment. Michaelangelo’s “Pieta” is magnificent. And seeing the note under it that the artist sculpted the piece when he was 23? Well, that certainly makes me feel to some degree worthless. But regardless, it was cool to look at, and it definitely helped me re-familiarize myself with the stoic feel of catholic church settings.
Also, I liked Kali’s input concerning Dickinson’s diction in choosing “oppresses” for her “certain slant of light” poem. It makes me wonder more about who Emily Dickinson was as a person.
While many are familiar with the poet’s physical seclusion, I feel that her specific word choices (using “oppresses” here as an example) are what point to the psychological seclusion she must have felt as well. Not only that, but I also feel that they are responsible for the sometimes subtle (and sometimes very obvious) dreary or morose tone that she carries in most of her verse. I always find myself fascinated by trying to psychoanalyze some of the writers we read. With these thoughts about Dickinson’s mindset, I feel like I’m reading her personal cathartic exercises with each line. Given the nature of her poetry’s discovery and its later publication, I think it’s fair to say that Dickinson never envisioned her own work having the popularity it does today. Without that ambition clouding the water, we can get a good glimpse of the artist’s subconcious dwelling on the ocean floor.
I have really enjoyed our time on the blog, everyone. If this should be our last correspondence, then good luck to you all, and thanks again for all your thoughts.
I really enjoyed looking at your visual expressions (although one or two of them did not work… but that’s ok). I liked how many of us chose the same poem to find a visual representation, yet all the visuals were so different.
Kali, I liked how you used a very modern image to further expand our understanding of [Tell the Truth but tell it slant—]. I thought it was funny, but it also really expressed the point you were trying to make and helped to bring out what you thought Dickinson was saying. Good choice!
I know this was part of the third letter, but Joey, I liked how you tried to get into her head and to better understand what life might have been like for her and why she might be depressed and very isolated. I agree that beyond the physical isolation there must have been some psychological affects because of it, but I think she knew that everything was not right with her, especially because of the language she used.
Thank you all for your visuals. I always wonder if those types of exercises really aid in people’s understanding of the work itself, but I think it really helps us to understand how we all viewed the poem rather than how the poem was supposed to be viewed. Because of the way the assignment was presented, I think the former is what was important.
Good luck to all of you. It was so nice to have this collaboration with students not only from different academic backgrounds, but different cultural and ethnic ones as well. Thank you for helping me to further understand Emily Dickinson’s work.
Thanks to all of you for your comments. It really always does help for me to see how others respond to the poems that I’m reading.
I think Kara had it perfect when she described the scene in mind in the first stanza of “There’s a certain slant of light”: got that picture in my head of a certain, odd angle of light (y’know, the one where you can see dust particles floating around in it?), stabbing through the shadowy atmosphere of a large, old cathedral; the statuary of saints that I’ll never live up to looking down on me from the cold, grey walls; the resounding chords of a musty organ deafening the previously silent fortress of a church; the feeling of being so insignificant in this huge, somber edifice, though that one specific slant of light is able to find me: I realized that the light is so oppressive because it illuminates all of my sins (and, more symbolically, the sins of humankind). I totally got one of those full-body chills.” Yep, that was pretty much what I had in mind when I read that first stanza and thought about the organ in the cathedral tunes. There’s something about the first stanza of that poem (I know I’ve been talking about it pretty much the whole time) that lets me see that light and to some extent, feel the oppression. I think Kara did a good job of picking up on that in her description.
Also, I liked the picture that Ashley G chose to accompany “There’s a certain slant of light.” I think that she was right about the dismal tone of the piece. The color in that picture has a lot of the same amber hues and shadows that, for me at least, combine with the cold and the ecclesiastical surroundings to give a perfect visual of the “slant of light” that I can see in Dickinson’s poem. Also, the gravesite is a nice touch in light of the somber tone of this poem and of many other of Dickinson’s.
Till landlords run the drunken bee Out of the foxglove’s door,
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats, And saints to windows run, To see the little tippler Leaning against the sun!
This is the last letter which I’m writing about Dickinson’s poems. With a pleasure I read yours comments about my interpretation. I am very pleased with this poems exchange. Now I better understand Emily Dickinson’s poems.
After reading second letters in our group I noticed that a lot of us have used pictures or photos to describe this poems. Especially I took note of Ashley’s image. I think that is a great photo to express Dickinson’s poems. I agree with you that this photo seemed sad and stark. This monument (cross) is a main part of it. All light is hidding behind it. In the Dickinson’s poems I found the same situation i.e. "Because I could not stop for Death", she tried described Death as a polite person but in fact death is inevitable part of our life. On the other hand there is something mysteroius in this picture. This light try to show through but day is on the end. Amdreas, I like also your pictures. It’s a little bit sadly and dim but at the same time “shows the warm light shining”. We can perceive a positive side on this picture. In my opinion in Emily’s poems is lacking positive feeling so that is why she is not my favourite writer.
Thanks for all your comments and thoughts. It was nice to corresponding with you all. Regards
Sadly, alsmot half of the pictures aren't working at the time of my viewing, but I gotta put in
some honorable mentions for the one chosen by Izabela. That ball of light and water and all was,
surreal, yet strangely suitable to the certain slant of light indeed. It was pretty much as far from what I imagined, both before and after reading the second letters, and that difference made it all the better.
I've followed the rest of the discussion with great interest, lots of different views and lots of good thoughts being put forward. Particularly the one about death as a gentlemen, a not so common view of things. I also like Joey's accompanying picture, halloween ornament or not.
While I found many of the pictures nice, and a pleasant change to the reading, or as supplement to the, the understanding of the poems itself wasn't really affected in my book. The understanding comes from reading, and thinking, then reading again. I guess that the fact that it's not the author that tries to convey her poems with the images, but rather someone interpreting the author sortof put me off a bit. It's too artificial to bring much new understanding, this instead came from the different views presented in the blog, now -this- was very enlightning overall.
I’ve really dug the blog so far, and the differing viewpoints have totally helped me realize the impact of Dickinson’s poems far more than what I could have done on my own. Thanks everybody.
When I first read “Because I could not stop for death,” I took the “house” image of the grave as a literal domicile grown over by centuries of history’s neglect. The fact that it’s the image of a grave, and Dickinson’s own “house” for the rest of eternity, was completely lost on me. Joey’s image really solidified the impact of that one specific set of lines (although I’m pretty sure that if I were to see skeletal hands thrusting up through some topsoil, I’d be lying comatose on the ground). But seriously, the idea of one place being one’s final place, in life or in death, is really disturbing, especially when Dickinson states that she was, I’m assuming, too busy to “stop for death.”
I thought that Kali’s application of “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” to Scarface was awesome. Whether Dickinson is advocating the gradual revelation of a somewhat jarring truth, or the “kind” reworking of the words so as not to blind the listener, it’s still lying, to some extent. So then we have to ask ourselves whether, to use the bedraggled metaphor, ignorance really is bliss? The Scarface quote states it perfectly: even when I’m telling you a blatant lie, it’s the truth, and you’re inability to know the difference is what keeps you alive” (that may have been taken too far into the Cuban gangster mafioso context, but I think the message translates, somehow). It really made me think of Dickinson as this powerful controller over society’s concepts of truth, and it changed the frame of the poem, for me, from social commentary to sinister revelation. I got chills.
This experience has been really enlightening. Reading the other points of view have definitely expanded my concepts of the meanings of these poems. Thanks for the opportunity!
Dear Group, I really enjoyed looking at everyone’s pictures they chose that reminded them of Emily Dickinson’s poems. The pictures were all very interesting, and I found the different ways everyone imagined the poems was very interesting. The only picture that I was unable to see was Mathew’s. However, from how he described I wish I was able to see it. I like that he found a picture of a storm to show the “dreariness.” I would guess that most people would have a feeling of calmness when they think about a gleam of light shining through, but I suppose in this case it is a little different. Andreas, I liked how you answered/explained Mathew’s question based on your understanding. It also helped me to better vision it in my mind. The mood of “There’s a certain slant of light,” seems to be calm, but at the same time a little creepy. I have really enjoyed this group discussion of Emily Dickinson’s poetry. I enjoy reading how other people perceive poems and comparing them with my own. I especially like seeing how creative everyone is with the pictures they come up with to represent their ideas. Everyone brought their own personality and creativity to the table making this a much appreciated experience.
22 comments:
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen.
I'm currently attending Chalmer, studying Computer Engineering with a primary focus on digital construction and manufacturing so not really your run of the mill poetry interpreter. I go by the name of Andreas Haraldsson, and quite the beginner at this poetry reading, but hopefully I'll gain some insight during this events.
When I'm looking at the 3rd poem, I get an eerie feeling. I liked this one very much. From here on, any assumptions are my own feelings and interpretation.
It begins with a slant of light, and she keeps referring it in each verse. In the first, she tells it to be oppressive and heavy, I'm not quite sure, but I think it's rather straight forward.
The second verse it tells of how it hurts, without scaring, but in the way we look at things. What one man see can be, and probably is, different from the next.
The third verse talks about how none may teach it anything, it just is, and there is nothing to be done. She follows up with "T is the seal, despair,". Not only is there nothing to be done, when you see it, it's sealed, done. Despair is the only course of action. I further believe that the third line, imperial affliction, means to be, both an affliction of the United Kingdom, and perhaps also in another meaning as "of superior or unusual size or excellence", especially size. I cannot quite figure out what, if any, meaning of "Sent us of the air", and why 'of', not 'from'. What would the air be here?
Fourth verse, as the slanting light starts to fade with the sunset, the shadows follows the land, every mark and every feature usually stands our clearly marked by the light. Until the sun is completely gone, and all that remains are the blackness of the skies, and space. As black and distant as death itself.
To end it all, I feel there is definitly something behind the scenes, mostly evident in the third verse, about the unavoidable imperial seal and how it should make us despair. But not being very versed in Dickinsson timeperiod or personal feelings, I cannot make much further analysis on that subject, but there does seem to be some kind of anti-england feelings there, strong such even.
Joey S., Victorian Poetry, Clemson
I am in my first year of Clemson’s English Literature graduate program after having attended Clemson for four years as an undergraduate. After obtaining undergraduate degrees in English and Spanish, I took some time away from school to work professionally for the Wachovia Bank Corporation in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. Scared (or maybe scarred) by the impersonal corporate world, I decided to come back to school to study one of my favorite interests: literature.
Dear groupmates,
I’ve been looking over Dickinson’s “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—,” and I have some thoughts that I’d like to share in hopes of being enlightened by any furthering comments you all would like to offer.
In all of these poems, Emily Dickinson takes on some pretty abstract ideas. Here, she discusses the idea of Truth and how it should be unveiled to every man (and woman). I see the opening line being a request from the speaker to receive truth in a slow, easy-to-handle manner. The speaker worries that any blunt communication of the truth could be “too bright for our infirm Delight,” which seems to hint at mankind’s willingness to accept contemporary notions of fact even though the full understanding of our place in the world may not be totally identifiable yet. I made this assertion due to the described infirmness of the Delight. In this case “infirm,” also meaning “unstable,” seems to hint at a fickleness that accompanies human understanding (Merriam-Webster).
When considering this idea, it seems to fit well with the underlying Victorian sentiment that times were changing (with the introduction of ideas from Freud, Einstein, Darwin, etc.). Perhaps this is Dickinson’s way of acknowledging a “truth” (in perhaps a religious or natural sense) that still rules over mankind despite the contemporary innovations in thought that have created a wide-eyed “Delight” in human understanding. I feel like this is a little bit of speculation on my part, though, so I’ll keep moving along. I just wanted to throw that thought into the conversation to see if anyone else noticed the same thing.
The simile that Dickinson presents through the next three lines seems to support the notion that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. She further elaborates upon the purity and brightness of truth by comparing the effect of its “superb surprise” to lightening as viewed through children’s eyes. Just as lightening has the ability to stop a person in his/her tracks with awe, so too does truth. However, in witnessing such a natural event, one is capable of seeing a subtle truth in the way that the world functions as a living and breathing thing. After all, lightening is recognized as one of the catalytic functions of the world throughout its natural evolution. Furthermore, the word “Children” is capitalized in these lines, which to me emphasizes the naivety that usually accompanies a delighted and primitive understanding.
The final two lines of the poem seem to reiterate the need for a slanted or subtle unveiling
of the truth, for the idea of truth is so bright that unless eased into human understanding in such a way, it will blind every man (and woman). The question that remains is whether or not this blindness signifies a misinterpretation of the truth by mankind or whether or not mankind will even recognize the fact as truth unless that notion is reaffirmed through a gradual “dazzling.” Perhaps its something totally different altogether. Hopefully, someone out there can connect the dots in the gaps that I’ve left.
And while you’re at it, here are a couple other questions I have:
- Who is the speaker of this poem? (Random observer?)
- To whom is the speaker speaking? (God? Nature? A general apostrophe to Truth?)
Thanks for all of your help in picking apart this poem. I’m looking forward to hearing some more ideas.
Sincerely yours,
Joey S.
Hello group,
My name is Matthew Fairman. I am taking Victorian Poetry at Clemson University. My main area of interest is modern poetry.
I just want to talk about one of the poems right now: the one starting with “There’s a certain slant of light.” By the time I’ve finished reading the first stanza of this poem, it strikes me that there certainly does exist “a certain slant of light” on chilly, overcast afternoons that can hold a melancholic sway over our emotions more powerful than even the most gloomy organ fugue. I mention the organ because that is the instrument I associate most closely with “cathedral tunes.” It seems to me that the poet’s use of “cathedral tunes” to describe the visual sensation of the “certain slant of light” is the perfect choice; the words convey the somber oppression of the light better probably than most any other visual imagery she could have chosen.
It is on afternoons like these that the light is almost dark or shadowy in some way, and we sense this keenly even before we’ve seen the cloudy sky. I imagine the “heavenly hurt” of the second stanza as referring to the strong inward impression that such dreary daylight can have on us. To be sure, “we can find no scar;” there is no obvious, physical reason for which we are depressed or “oppressed,” but we are nonetheless. We can’t change or “teach” it in any way. It is the “seal” (the most relevant meaning of which I found in Merriam-Webster as “something that confirms, ratifies, or makes secure.”) In other words, it is set and done. I looked up “imperial” in the Merriam-Webster as well in order to find out what meaning of the word might fit best in my reading. I feel that “imperial,” here, most closely means sovereign. Thus, just as an imperial seal might make something conclusive, our despair might be made final by the “certain slant of light.”
At the end of the poem I’m confronted with more questions than answers. How might the landscape be said to be “listen[ing]” or the shadows to be hold[ing] their breath” when this light comes? And then I’m pretty much just as baffled by the final two lines. What is “distance on the look of death”? If anyone can help me out with this last stanza, I’d much appreciate it. Also, while I’m asking questions, what can we make of lines 7-8 (“But internal difference / Where the meanings are")? Thanks in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Matthew Fairman
Kara McManus – Letter 1
March 26, 2007
Hey group,
As evidenced by the header up there, my name is Kara McManus. This is my first year as an English MA graduate student at Clemson University, and I’m taking Dr. Young’s Victorian Poetry seminar (ENG 814). I have academic interests in medieval English lit. and British/Irish lit., and most of my previous poetry studies have revolved around the post-WWII American Beat poets. Disjointed? Yeah, but oh-so-interesting.
I picked up the obvious nature theme in pretty much all of the poems, from the overt imagery in “I taste a liquor never brewed,” to the thought that nature overpowering human impact on the world (in the overgrown house in “Because I could not stop for death’) shows the expendability of a human life in the grander scheme of the world. One of the things that I’ve always loved about Dickinson is that her images are so striking: the almost-malicious nature of light in “There’s a certain slant of light,” the sexualized ocean tide in “I started early, took my dog,” and her command to tell the truth circuitously, as to alleviate the shock of what it holds (and, implicitly, how far from it society has been misled) in “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant.”
I see Dickinson’s contradiction to society especially evidenced in “I taste a liquor never brewed.” Throughout the short piece, she identifies the power of nature as something so intoxicating that she literally becomes inebriated off of it. So then, she seems to ask, what does it mean to be “drunk,” and is she a glutton if she overzealously partakes in something so seemingly innocent as the splendor of nature? Though the poem seems nice and lovely, I get this underlying theme in which she states that the societal norms that dictate one’s position in the social caste system of the day are pointless. The last lines especially show the difference between God’s message and the human manipulation of God’s message as the “little tippler,” a drunkard, is hanging out, “leaning against the sun,” with God. The “tippler,” whether drunk off of alcohol or nature or whatever, has the same capacity for God’s grace as do the saints and seraphim that are the staples of human reverence. So then who becomes the sinner: the judged or the judgers? I heart Dickinson.
Till next time, when I probably read too much into another poem,
-Kara
Hello Group,
My name is Ashley and I am taking American Literature with Professor Reiss. I am a senior at Clemson University and will be graduating in May with a degree is history but I will be returning in the Fall to start my Masters. Poetry is not usually my specialty, so please bear with me if my analysis seems puerile.
I will be discussing Emily Dickinson’s [There’s a certain Slant of light] and my reason for doing so was that I really liked the imagery of the poem, for instance the entire first stanza was very vivid to me.
[There’s a certain Slant of light] struck me because it had this melancholy feel to it, it seems depressed. Words like “oppresses” (line 3), “Heavenly Hurt” (line 5), “Despair” (line 10), and “affliction” (line 11), and I suppose the word “Death” (line 16) itself. I decided to define oppress and affliction because those words are powerful, yet she did not capitalize them the way she did the others. Oppress, according to the American Heritage Dictionary means, to keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority; affliction means, a condition of pain, suffering, or distress. I think that these two definitions alone highlight my initial impression of the dreary nature of this work.
Did anyone else enjoy this work, yet were overwhelmed by its sense of pain and to use one of her words, despair? Also, did anyone else find it interesting that in a time when churches were so important that one of her images associated with “oppress” was a church, more specifically a Cathedral?
Sincerely,
Ashley Goldberg
Hello friends
I'm a student from Poland and at present I'm taking part in exchange programme on Chalmers in Sweden. I'm studying Logistics on Master's programme in Poland. This is my first time when I participate in that kind of course. So far I've been interested only in Polish literature and poems. This exchange is for me new experience but I hope I will interpret Dickinson's poems correctly.
I chose from five Dickinson's poems, one in my opinion the most interesting - "Because I could not stop for Death". The speaker of this poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker, in ironic way, personifies death as nice and considerate gentleman. In normal life many people assosiate deadth as a horrife event. The narrator describe death as a calm character. She treats death as a normal way and characterized death with a positive side.
It is a description of the death. We are in front of a kind a very concrete story, in front of a course of events which gives a feeling of familiarity, with only a reference a nostalgic memories (the children at school, the corn-field) and a feeling of cold in the dew which goes down on the body.
The death is nice and “polite”, but anyway very determined to respect its appointments. We can not choose to stop, to finish our life, but it is the death that arrives, it stops in front of our door and it does not need to dominate with the strength because it knows to be inevitable. And we make the “last trip” in solitude, with the death and that mystery which is the eternity.
The way is very slow: the death, of course, is not in a hurry. The feeling of slowness is underline in the third and fourth stanza: the children during the break, the corn-field, the sunset, the night dew give a feeling of a way which develops during the whole day, as if the author lived again her life in the moment in which it finishes.
In the next to the last stanza, the “trip” is over and we arrive. The house look like a “swelling of the ground”, the ages which will be without time, very short ones if in comparison with that long day, when we understood that the trip was towards the eternity.
I would like to focus on the three “we passed” in the third stanza, which underline the feeling and the characteristic of the very slow but dynamic movement of the beginning, and after, the first line of the next stanza “He passed Us”, in my opinion it is a overturning which stops the action and brings us towards the “We paused” in the next to the last stanza.
The poem contains six quatrains, and does not follow any consistent rhyme scheme. Every line starts with a strong beat and ends up with a weak beat. The first and third lines in each stanza have iambic tetrameter, but the second and fourth lines do not contain any consistent meter.
In this poem I would like to mark two keywords which are for me quite important and they force me to deeper thinking:
1. Immortality – people life is on the one hand mortal and on the other hand we want to be immortal. This two expressions excluding to each other.
2. Set sun – death in this same way like the sun slowly setting down and finishes humans life.
Hello friends
I'm a student from Poland and at present I'm taking part in exchange programme on Chalmers in Sweden. I'm studying Logistics on Master's programme in Poland. This is my first time when I participate in that kind of course. So far I've been interested only in Polish literature and poems. This exchange is for me new experience but I hope I will interpret Dickinson's poems correctly.
I chose from five Dickinson's poems, one in my opinion the most interesting - "Because I could not stop for Death". The speaker of this poem is a woman who relates about a situation after her death. The speaker, in ironic way, personifies death as nice and considerate gentleman. In normal life many people assosiate deadth as a horrife event. The narrator describe death as a calm character. She treats death as a normal way and characterized death with a positive side.
It is a description of the death. We are in front of a kind a very concrete story, in front of a course of events which gives a feeling of familiarity, with only a reference a nostalgic memories (the children at school, the corn-field) and a feeling of cold in the dew which goes down on the body.
The death is nice and “polite”, but anyway very determined to respect its appointments. We can not choose to stop, to finish our life, but it is the death that arrives, it stops in front of our door and it does not need to dominate with the strength because it knows to be inevitable. And we make the “last trip” in solitude, with the death and that mystery which is the eternity.
The way is very slow: the death, of course, is not in a hurry. The feeling of slowness is underline in the third and fourth stanza: the children during the break, the corn-field, the sunset, the night dew give a feeling of a way which develops during the whole day, as if the author lived again her life in the moment in which it finishes.
In the next to the last stanza, the “trip” is over and we arrive. The house look like a “swelling of the ground”, the ages which will be without time, very short ones if in comparison with that long day, when we understood that the trip was towards the eternity.
I would like to focus on the three “we passed” in the third stanza, which underline the feeling and the characteristic of the very slow but dynamic movement of the beginning, and after, the first line of the next stanza “He passed Us”, in my opinion it is a overturning which stops the action and brings us towards the “We paused” in the next to the last stanza.
The poem contains six quatrains, and does not follow any consistent rhyme scheme. Every line starts with a strong beat and ends up with a weak beat. The first and third lines in each stanza have iambic tetrameter, but the second and fourth lines do not contain any consistent meter.
In this poem I would like to mark two keywords which are for me quite important and they force me to deeper thinking:
1. Immortality – people life is on the one hand mortal and on the other hand we want to be immortal. This two expressions excluding to each other.
2. Set sun – death in this same way like the sun slowly setting down and finishes humans life.
I hope we can discuss about this poems on our blog site. Have a nice lecture.
Best regards
Izabela C. - Chalmers
Hello Group,
My name is Kali, I am a sophomore psychology major at Clemson University. I am taking American Literature this semester with Professor Reiss. Poetry is not my favorite or my best when it comes to literature, but I do what I can.
One of the poem’s I found most interesting by Emily Dickinson was “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—,” My first thought from reading the title only was that she must be referring to something similar to a “white lie.” For the most part we do not think of “white lies” to be a big deal or harmful. This is the same feeling I got from Dickinson’s poem. From my understanding, she is saying to not tell a flat out lie, but do not tell the entire truth. The truth should sometime be sugarcoated a little bit in order for it to sound better and maybe be less hurtful to someone. She compares the surprising truth to a person, to the surprise of lightening to a child. It both cases it needs to be explained gently to the individual in a way that makes it sound like something nice and free of any damage.
I do not advise you to begin telling little “white lies” about everything, but sometimes it is ok to leave some details out of a story. For example, say you are throwing a surprise birthday party for a friend and they ask you what you are doing the day you are planning the party, it would be reasonable for you to respond by saying, “I am going to dinner with my parents.” You must be careful with the situations you choose to tell the truth with a “slant,” so that it does not become a bad habit that gets you in trouble. If a person is constantly not being honest people will begin to think they are untrustworthy and would not put themselves in situations with that person.
I liked Dickinson’s poem and agreed with her. Some things are better kept to oneself!
Sincerely,
Kali
Hello group 3,
With a great interest I read all letters which are run on our web side . Each of you described different poems. Thanks to yours comments now I better understand their meaning. I have to say when I was read them for the first time some poems were quite difficult to interpret for me. The biggest problem I had with third poem: “There’s a certain slight of light” but after read Andreas interpretation of this poem, it seems too much clearly. At the beginning this poem was for me a little bit confusing, but you explained in simply way how Dickinson to describe the visual sensation of the “certain slant of light”. I like your point of view. Also Matthew focused on this poem. His interpretation allowed me to imagine “heavenly hurt” in vivid way. I didn’t take note of “cathedral tunes” in this poem, but after reading Matthew’s letters I notice some connecion between the description of this poem and my understanding of it.
My picture shows a certain slight of light : http://www.wisarts.com/digital/water/brama.html
Dickinson described light on the negative point of view, but I think light is life. And this picture gives me a very deep and positive feeling: in fact when I saw it I felt carefreeness and brightness in my mind.
Sincerely
Izabela C. - Chalmers
Hello Again Group,
I enjoyed reading everyone’s responses to the set of Emily Dickinson poems that we had to read. Everyone’s responses helped me to understand them better and in some cases gave me new and different ideas than I had previously had about certain poems.
Izabela, I like how you described death in your response, “…death is nice and “polite”, but anyway very determined to respect its appointments. We cannot choose to stop, to finish our life, but it is the death that arrives, it stops in front of our door and it does not need to dominate with the strength because it knows to be inevitable.” I think you described her words affectively and simplified them in a way that really summed up Dickinson’s poem.
Kara, when I first read your comment on [I started Early—Took my Dog—] I did not really get what you were saying. But it prompted me to reread the poem… and now I understand. Like I said before, poetry is not usually my things, I do not tend to get too deep into the meanings of poems. Thank you for enlightening me. I just all around liked how you analyzed her work, it definitely gave me a new perspective and I went back and reread the works you wrote about because of it.
I searched the internet for images that reminded me of the poem I originally discussed [There’s a certain Slant of light]. The image is of a winter scene but it has a religious aspect to it, (it looks like a cemetery of some sort) but the shadow it makes is pretty cool looking. I thought it nicely portrayed the poem because it seemed sad and stark. Although there is a sunset in the background I do not find the picture to be hopeful, I saw it as depressed because of the cemetery and the bleak surroundings.
http://www.visual-voice.net/images/photos/dec05/ph_dec_crosssnow.jpg
Sincerely,
Ashley G.
Kara McManus – Letter 2
March 28, 2007
Hey group,
Maybe it’s because I was raised Catholic (somewhat against my will due to an overly religious Italian mother), but I took the oppressive weight of that certain slant of light as a total slam to the Church (whether that cathedral be Catholic, Protestant, whatever) and the idea of humankind’s manipulation of the word of God diluting the actual message. Or maybe I’m just bitter.
Matt F. stated that the organ used in the cathedral tunes best painted the picture of what Dickinson was trying to relate; after I read his blog, I stopped for a second, shut my eyes, turned off the television, and got that picture in my head of a certain, odd angle of light (y’know, the one where you can see dust particles floating around in it?), stabbing through the shadowy atmosphere of a large, old cathedral; the statuary of saints that I’ll never live up to looking down on me from the cold, grey walls; the resounding chords of a musty organ deafening the previously silent fortress of a church; the feeling of being so insignificant in this huge, somber edifice, though that one specific slant of light is able to find me: I realized that the light is so oppressive because it illuminates all of my sins (and, more symbolically, the sins of humankind). I totally got one of those full-body chills.
Andreas S. defines this utter state of hopelessness with the statement that “despair is the only course of action,” though despair is not a feeling the Church hopes to effect from it’s congregates. Andreas also pulls in that imperialistic-England-in-the-nineteenth-century angle that only substantiates Dickinson’s slam on the overarching, propaganda-laced principals (Mother England and Mother Church) that were supposed to define a “good” British patriot. I really heart Dickinson.
The picture I was looking for was this awesome shot of a pietá-themed statue that sits on your left upon entering the church overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome. It had this one crazy slant of light that hit the Virgin Mary’s face perfectly, as her dying son awkwardly lies across her small-framed body. But I couldn’t find that one anymore, so this is a shot of Michelangelo’s “Pietá,” which stands inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The light is not there, but that same oppressive, cold feeling remains (I think at least). Here’s the address: http://www.gardenofpraise.com/art50.htm.
Dear Group,
Reading everyone’s responses to the different poems by Emily Dickinson helped me to gain a better understanding of some of the things I was unsure about. As I mentioned before, understanding poems and grasping their deeper meanings is not my favorite thing to do.
One of the poems that I also found interesting, but did not choose to write about was, “There’s a certain slant of light.” As Ashley pointed out, Emily Dickinson’s choice of words are very dramatic. She is definitely trying to paint a picture or emotion for the audience through her word choices. An interesting point that was also made was the use of the word “oppresses” with the church. I wonder how people during this time took that and if they formed prejudice opinions towards Dickinson.
When I first read the poem that I originally wrote about, “Tell all the truth but tell it slant—,” the first thing that I thought of was a poster that a friend of mine has. The poster is of Al Pacino from the movie Scarface and has the quote, “I always tell the truth, even when I lie.” I have always found this quote interesting and connected it to Dickinson’s poem. The link will take you to the website with an example of the poster. http://www.bazaario.ca/pics.asp?id=26637&bigpic=0#desc.
Sincerely,
Kali
What’s going on everyone,
I just finished looking over all the responses thus far, and I really liked the comments you all generated.
Matt – Great description of the cathedral tune; it was dead on. Before I read your ideas about that, it was an obstacle for me. Having read it, I feel like I get the image a lot better. Thanks for that.
Izabela – I really liked your discussion about “Because I could not stop for Death.” The attitude toward the personified death character, I think, greatly affects the overall meaning of the poem. I just re-read this poem with that thought in mind, and I noticed that she basically takes no emotional side toward death at all. I’ve heard other interpretations that seem to hint at the idea that Dickinson portrays death as a pseudo-suitor to the narrator. So if anything, there’s a somewhat pleasant feel to her otherwise indifference. For me that seems to increase the matter-of-factness that the idea of death holds in the poem. I feel that no matter how busy one’s daily routine seems (filled up with worldly obligations and ideas that always seem way more important than they probably are in the long run), death will find time to escort that person on a ride to the “house” in the ground.
Another part of this poem that I really enjoy is the description of the grave that Dickinson gives us under the metaphor of a house. The “swelling of the ground” for me indicates a newly covered gravesite with fresh dirt that still piles high above the natural level of the lawn. The roof and cornice work together to hint at a gravestone that marks the site.
I’ve attached a picture along with my proactive apology for any technical difficulties my lack of computer knowledge ensures. The picture is of a fresh grave as I imagined it when reading the poem; but seeing as how that seems a bit morbid for an image, the particular grave that I've chosen to showcase is actually part of a Halloween lawn decoration set. So, there’s that.
Check it out:
http://www.aidtopia.com/halloween/
freshgrave/index.html
Boo,
Joey S., Clemson, 814
Afternoon, good folks.
I'd like to begin with qouting a certain passage from Mathew F's letter, since we both chose the same poem, yet have some different views on it. How exellent really. "“There’s a certain slant of light.” By the time I’ve finished reading the first stanza of this poem, it strikes me that there certainly does exist “a certain slant of light” on chilly, overcast afternoons that can hold a melancholic sway over our emotions more powerful than even the most gloomy organ fugue." This is the part of the poem that I couldn't get my head around to begin with, I picture this light as something cosy and comforting, not as oppressive and heavy. Yet, after reading through Mathew's comments, I can see this part as well, and it fits right into the rest of me feelings for the remainder of the poem, thanks for that one!
Next, I'd like to try and answer one of Mathew's questions as well, especially the ones on the last verse of the poem, and I'll refer to what I wrote in my first letter. I feel that as the setting sun on a winter afternoon, light plays very clearly over the landscape, and it could be said it listens, to the light, since there is nothing it can do to prevent it's movements. Here I also picture this in a quiet place, a place where not a sound can be heard, even though the shadows move, ie, they hold their breath. Lastly, I don't have it very hard to picture death in the form of the Grim Reaper, and I can easily imagine his gaze being both black, and distant, much like the a clear winters night.
I also toke notice of Izabela C's, portrayal of Death as a gentleman, while this being far far from my own general perspective, I can see where it comes from in this poem, and that puts a different spin to it. I did find it quite entetaining to re-read the poem with this new look on death, and getting a quite different impression of the whole picture. Quite special indeed.
My own link will be of a picture, much like I first pictured the slant of light, before I read Mathew's comments, a calm, and cosy light, not heavy or oppressive. http://www.visionswestgallery.com/work/318T.jpg?1170905127 A bit small, sadly, but it shows the warm light shining through a forest, just before the sun sets.
Until next time, fly safe,
Andreas
Dear poetical explicators,
I’ve enjoyed reading all your postings very much as each has offered valuable information for interpreting Dickinson’s poems. I already feel like I know a great deal more than when I began (and the blogging isn’t even over yet). Before I get into some specifics about what you guys said, I’d like to apologize for posting so late. I’ve been very sick for the past several days, and this is the first bit of thinking that I’ve been able to do since the last blog. Hopefully you won’t be able to tell how cloudy my head still is.
First off, Andreas H. noted that “there is definitly something behind the scenes, mostly evident in the third verse, about the unavoidable imperial seal and how it should make us despair.” I also looked up the words “seal” and “imperial,” but when I noticed the specific United Kingdom references in the definitions of “imperial,” I disregarded them. However, after reading Andreas’ comments, I can certainly see the possibility of despair arising in some way out of the “unavoidable imperial seal.” For me, these thoughts added a whole new level of meaning to the poem that I hadn’t previously considered.
I also appreciated Joey’s comment that “Tell all the Truth but tell it slant” may have been “Dickinson’s way of acknowledging a “truth” (in perhaps a religious or natural sense) that still rules over mankind despite the contemporary innovations in thought that have created a wide-eyed “Delight” in human understanding.” I feel like these are certainly valid thoughts on the poem. The poem does seem to want to allow for some version of an overarching “Truth” by suggesting only a very gradual revelation of that “Truth.”
Anyways, a lot of us have chosen to try to illustrate our feelings on “There’s a certain slant of light.” It has been very telling to see the pictures and the various choices. I would like to add one of my own that I think provides the perfect "dreariness" of color. The picture is of a winter storm at sunset.
http://static.flickr.com/37/110737327_51e2f70df6.jpgs
With kind regards,
Matt F., Victorian Poetry, Clemson University
Hello group,
Good to see the comments continuing to roll in.
I wanted to comment that I really liked Kara's choice for her visual accompaniment. Michaelangelo’s “Pieta” is magnificent. And seeing the note under it that the artist sculpted the piece when he was 23? Well, that certainly makes me feel to some degree worthless. But regardless, it was cool to look at, and it definitely helped me re-familiarize myself with the stoic feel of catholic church settings.
Also, I liked Kali’s input concerning Dickinson’s diction in choosing “oppresses” for her “certain slant of light” poem. It makes me wonder more about who Emily Dickinson was as a person.
While many are familiar with the poet’s physical seclusion, I feel that her specific word choices (using “oppresses” here as an example) are what point to the psychological seclusion she must have felt as well. Not only that, but I also feel that they are responsible for the sometimes subtle (and sometimes very obvious) dreary or morose tone that she carries in most of her verse. I always find myself fascinated by trying to psychoanalyze some of the writers we read. With these thoughts about Dickinson’s mindset, I feel like I’m reading her personal cathartic exercises with each line. Given the nature of her poetry’s discovery and its later publication, I think it’s fair to say that Dickinson never envisioned her own work having the popularity it does today. Without that ambition clouding the water, we can get a good glimpse of the artist’s subconcious dwelling on the ocean floor.
I have really enjoyed our time on the blog, everyone. If this should be our last correspondence, then good luck to you all, and thanks again for all your thoughts.
Best,
Joey
Hello Group,
I really enjoyed looking at your visual expressions (although one or two of them did not work… but that’s ok). I liked how many of us chose the same poem to find a visual representation, yet all the visuals were so different.
Kali, I liked how you used a very modern image to further expand our understanding of [Tell the Truth but tell it slant—]. I thought it was funny, but it also really expressed the point you were trying to make and helped to bring out what you thought Dickinson was saying. Good choice!
I know this was part of the third letter, but Joey, I liked how you tried to get into her head and to better understand what life might have been like for her and why she might be depressed and very isolated. I agree that beyond the physical isolation there must have been some psychological affects because of it, but I think she knew that everything was not right with her, especially because of the language she used.
Thank you all for your visuals. I always wonder if those types of exercises really aid in people’s understanding of the work itself, but I think it really helps us to understand how we all viewed the poem rather than how the poem was supposed to be viewed. Because of the way the assignment was presented, I think the former is what was important.
Good luck to all of you. It was so nice to have this collaboration with students not only from different academic backgrounds, but different cultural and ethnic ones as well. Thank you for helping me to further understand Emily Dickinson’s work.
Best Wishes,
Ashley G.
Howdy groupmates,
Thanks to all of you for your comments. It really always does help for me to see how others respond to the poems that I’m reading.
I think Kara had it perfect when she described the scene in mind in the first stanza of “There’s a certain slant of light”: got that picture in my head of a certain, odd angle of light (y’know, the one where you can see dust particles floating around in it?), stabbing through the shadowy atmosphere of a large, old cathedral; the statuary of saints that I’ll never live up to looking down on me from the cold, grey walls; the resounding chords of a musty organ deafening the previously silent fortress of a church; the feeling of being so insignificant in this huge, somber edifice, though that one specific slant of light is able to find me: I realized that the light is so oppressive because it illuminates all of my sins (and, more symbolically, the sins of humankind). I totally got one of those full-body chills.” Yep, that was pretty much what I had in mind when I read that first stanza and thought about the organ in the cathedral tunes. There’s something about the first stanza of that poem (I know I’ve been talking about it pretty much the whole time) that lets me see that light and to some extent, feel the oppression. I think Kara did a good job of picking up on that in her description.
Also, I liked the picture that Ashley G chose to accompany “There’s a certain slant of light.” I think that she was right about the dismal tone of the piece. The color in that picture has a lot of the same amber hues and shadows that, for me at least, combine with the cold and the ecclesiastical surroundings to give a perfect visual of the “slant of light” that I can see in Dickinson’s poem. Also, the gravesite is a nice touch in light of the somber tone of this poem and of many other of Dickinson’s.
Till landlords run the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove’s door,
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!
I’ll be Matt F., Victorian Poetry
Hello group 3
This is the last letter which I’m writing about Dickinson’s poems. With a pleasure I read yours comments about my interpretation. I am very pleased with this poems exchange. Now I better understand Emily Dickinson’s poems.
After reading second letters in our group I noticed that a lot of us have used pictures or photos to describe this poems. Especially I took note of Ashley’s image. I think that is a great photo to express Dickinson’s poems. I agree with you that this photo seemed sad and stark. This monument (cross) is a main part of it. All light is hidding behind it. In the Dickinson’s poems I found the same situation i.e. "Because I could not stop for Death", she tried described Death as a polite person but in fact death is inevitable part of our life. On the other hand there is something mysteroius in this picture. This light try to show through but day is on the end.
Amdreas, I like also your pictures. It’s a little bit sadly and dim but at the same time “shows the warm light shining”. We can perceive a positive side on this picture. In my opinion in Emily’s poems is lacking positive feeling so that is why she is not my favourite writer.
Thanks for all your comments and thoughts. It was nice to corresponding with you all.
Regards
Izabela C. Chalmers
G'evening good folks.
Sadly, alsmot half of the pictures aren't working at the time of my viewing, but I gotta put in
some honorable mentions for the one chosen by Izabela. That ball of light and water and all was,
surreal, yet strangely suitable to the certain slant of light indeed. It was pretty much as far from what I imagined, both before and after reading the second letters, and that difference made it all the better.
I've followed the rest of the discussion with great interest, lots of different views and lots of good thoughts being put forward. Particularly the one about death as a gentlemen, a not so common view of things. I also like Joey's accompanying picture, halloween ornament or not.
While I found many of the pictures nice, and a pleasant change to the reading, or as supplement to the, the understanding of the poems itself wasn't really affected in my book. The understanding comes from reading, and thinking, then reading again. I guess that the fact that it's not the author that tries to convey her poems with the images, but rather someone interpreting the author sortof put me off a bit. It's too artificial to bring much new understanding, this instead came from the different views presented in the blog, now -this- was very enlightning overall.
Now I bid you farewell, good night,
Andreas
Kara McManus – Letter 3
March 30, 2007
Hey there group-mates,
I’ve really dug the blog so far, and the differing viewpoints have totally helped me realize the impact of Dickinson’s poems far more than what I could have done on my own. Thanks everybody.
When I first read “Because I could not stop for death,” I took the “house” image of the grave as a literal domicile grown over by centuries of history’s neglect. The fact that it’s the image of a grave, and Dickinson’s own “house” for the rest of eternity, was completely lost on me. Joey’s image really solidified the impact of that one specific set of lines (although I’m pretty sure that if I were to see skeletal hands thrusting up through some topsoil, I’d be lying comatose on the ground). But seriously, the idea of one place being one’s final place, in life or in death, is really disturbing, especially when Dickinson states that she was, I’m assuming, too busy to “stop for death.”
I thought that Kali’s application of “Tell all the truth but tell it slant” to Scarface was awesome. Whether Dickinson is advocating the gradual revelation of a somewhat jarring truth, or the “kind” reworking of the words so as not to blind the listener, it’s still lying, to some extent. So then we have to ask ourselves whether, to use the bedraggled metaphor, ignorance really is bliss? The Scarface quote states it perfectly: even when I’m telling you a blatant lie, it’s the truth, and you’re inability to know the difference is what keeps you alive” (that may have been taken too far into the Cuban gangster mafioso context, but I think the message translates, somehow). It really made me think of Dickinson as this powerful controller over society’s concepts of truth, and it changed the frame of the poem, for me, from social commentary to sinister revelation. I got chills.
This experience has been really enlightening. Reading the other points of view have definitely expanded my concepts of the meanings of these poems. Thanks for the opportunity!
-Kara
Dear Group,
I really enjoyed looking at everyone’s pictures they chose that reminded them of Emily Dickinson’s poems. The pictures were all very interesting, and I found the different ways everyone imagined the poems was very interesting. The only picture that I was unable to see was Mathew’s. However, from how he described I wish I was able to see it. I like that he found a picture of a storm to show the “dreariness.” I would guess that most people would have a feeling of calmness when they think about a gleam of light shining through, but I suppose in this case it is a little different.
Andreas, I liked how you answered/explained Mathew’s question based on your understanding. It also helped me to better vision it in my mind. The mood of “There’s a certain slant of light,” seems to be calm, but at the same time a little creepy.
I have really enjoyed this group discussion of Emily Dickinson’s poetry. I enjoy reading how other people perceive poems and comparing them with my own. I especially like seeing how creative everyone is with the pictures they come up with to represent their ideas. Everyone brought their own personality and creativity to the table making this a much appreciated experience.
Thank you all,
Kali
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