Beware the Sides of March! And isn’t today – along with the 31st – one of the sides? I best have my wits about me today!
I began the day on our back porch about an hour before sun-up. Although I was enjoying an iced coffee and a slice of the world’s best banana bread, I was benumbed, in utter disbelief that the calendar displayed “MARCH 1.” Stoically, I popped the word “March” into the Dickinson archive. Sixty-two entries popped up, representing 19 different poems. Beware the lines of March, though! Not all of them are about “March” the month; some use the word as the verb, “to march.”
It was for you, dear reader, that I sifted through the poems to ascertain which were March, the seasonal lion-to-lamb division of time, and which were march, the measured and military manner of one’s tread. I take my work seriously and judge it to be both vital and nugatory; additionally, I figured if I don’t do it, who will? The results, though, I am troubled to report, are clearly unclear.
In two of the poems, the word “March” is open to interpretation. For example, In the first line of the second stanza of "After all Birds have been investigated and laid aside," Dickinson wrote, "First at the March – competing with the Wind." Is that March, the month? Or march, the measured maneuver of movement? Or is it both? (Emily Dickinson was a clever word-smith to be sure!)
Similarly, in the first line of the second stanza of "Their barricades against the sky," Dickinson wrote, "What Russet Halts in Nature's March." Is that the month of March that belongs to Nature, or is it the passage of the seasons through time as they proceed through Nature’s march? Or – again – is it both?
Depending upon how one interprets those two lines, the month of March is named by Dickinson in either thirteen, fourteen or fifteen poems.
I began the day on our back porch about an hour before sun-up. Although I was enjoying an iced coffee and a slice of the world’s best banana bread, I was benumbed, in utter disbelief that the calendar displayed “MARCH 1.” Stoically, I popped the word “March” into the Dickinson archive. Sixty-two entries popped up, representing 19 different poems. Beware the lines of March, though! Not all of them are about “March” the month; some use the word as the verb, “to march.”
It was for you, dear reader, that I sifted through the poems to ascertain which were March, the seasonal lion-to-lamb division of time, and which were march, the measured and military manner of one’s tread. I take my work seriously and judge it to be both vital and nugatory; additionally, I figured if I don’t do it, who will? The results, though, I am troubled to report, are clearly unclear.
In two of the poems, the word “March” is open to interpretation. For example, In the first line of the second stanza of "After all Birds have been investigated and laid aside," Dickinson wrote, "First at the March – competing with the Wind." Is that March, the month? Or march, the measured maneuver of movement? Or is it both? (Emily Dickinson was a clever word-smith to be sure!)
Similarly, in the first line of the second stanza of "Their barricades against the sky," Dickinson wrote, "What Russet Halts in Nature's March." Is that the month of March that belongs to Nature, or is it the passage of the seasons through time as they proceed through Nature’s march? Or – again – is it both?
Depending upon how one interprets those two lines, the month of March is named by Dickinson in either thirteen, fourteen or fifteen poems.
| In the coming days, as we march through March, I’ll discuss the two poems mentioned above along with a few others, and I’ve got to warn you – you won’t believe what I have come across. My upcoming posts will most def cause us all to rethink, reevaluate, and redefine the meaning of “March madness.” Consider me a soothsayer here to warn you, “beware the idea of March.”  |  |
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