Birds and Emily Dickinson
Hi,
For those of you who follow this blog (or know me), it should come as no great surprise that occasionally a poem or two by Emily Dickinson gets tossed into the mix. (Alright... Stop carping! I admit it... I'm an Emily Dickinson groupie! There... Now are you happy?)
To give you a bit of a background on the woman... Ms. Dickinson was a reclusive, neurotic (and perhaps sometimes psychotic), poetic genius. The quality of her 1,775 mid-19th-century works varied from sappy to superb. Emily wrote at least 30 poems that were astonishing, and at least 3 that could arguably be considered the finest ever penned. Her subjects ran the gamut - from love to death to God to psychosis to humor to... You name it, and E.D. wrote about it. And that absolutely included nature in general, and birds in particular. Here are a couple of my favorites accompanied by pics...
The next poem is a tad trickier... But for me, I love the line that reads, "The Hills untied their Bonnets --". It reminds me of flocks of birds taking wing in the morning... Anyway, here it is...
I'll tell you how the Sun rose --
A Ribbon at a time --
The Steeples swam in Amethyst --
The news, like Squirrels, ran --
The Hills untied their Bonnets --
The Bobolinks -- begun --
Then I said softly to myself --
"That must have been the Sun"!
But how he set -- I know not --
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while --
Till when they reached the other side,
A Dominie in Gray --
Put gently up the evening Bars --
And led the flock away --
See you by the feeders if Little Cousins don't call me back!
CapeCodAlan
P.S. The complete collection of Emily Dickinson's poems are available on the Project Gutenberg site.
For those of you who follow this blog (or know me), it should come as no great surprise that occasionally a poem or two by Emily Dickinson gets tossed into the mix. (Alright... Stop carping! I admit it... I'm an Emily Dickinson groupie! There... Now are you happy?)
To give you a bit of a background on the woman... Ms. Dickinson was a reclusive, neurotic (and perhaps sometimes psychotic), poetic genius. The quality of her 1,775 mid-19th-century works varied from sappy to superb. Emily wrote at least 30 poems that were astonishing, and at least 3 that could arguably be considered the finest ever penned. Her subjects ran the gamut - from love to death to God to psychosis to humor to... You name it, and E.D. wrote about it. And that absolutely included nature in general, and birds in particular. Here are a couple of my favorites accompanied by pics...
A Bird came down the Walk --
He did not know I saw --
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,
And then he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass --
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass --
He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all around --
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought --
He stirred his Velvet Head
Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home --
Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam --
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon
Leap, plashless as they swim.
The next poem is a tad trickier... But for me, I love the line that reads, "The Hills untied their Bonnets --". It reminds me of flocks of birds taking wing in the morning... Anyway, here it is...
I'll tell you how the Sun rose --A Ribbon at a time --
The Steeples swam in Amethyst --
The news, like Squirrels, ran --
The Hills untied their Bonnets --
The Bobolinks -- begun --
Then I said softly to myself --
"That must have been the Sun"!
But how he set -- I know not --
There seemed a purple stile
That little Yellow boys and girls
Were climbing all the while --
Till when they reached the other side,
A Dominie in Gray --
Put gently up the evening Bars --
And led the flock away --
See you by the feeders if Little Cousins don't call me back!
CapeCodAlan
P.S. The complete collection of Emily Dickinson's poems are available on the Project Gutenberg site.
Comments
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Posted by: Mary Barnes | October 11, 2007 8:10 PM
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Thank you!
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Posted by: Joyce Laverty | October 13, 2007 2:19 PM
A large variety of birds here in East Texas love the non-sprouting bird seed...and I love it too. Now, no more mess under the bird feeder.
{CCA replies: "Ms Laverty, check your email for a message from me."}
Posted by: Joyce Laverty | October 13, 2007 2:22 PM