Happy September!
I thought I’d pause from writing about the sun and the moon in Dickinson’s poems, and instead, I’d write a post about her poems that use the word “September.” But guess what? There are none (September and December are the two months Dickinson never mentioned in any of her poems).
Sooo…for today, back to the sun and the moon!
This series of posts started back on August 19th when we experienced the Super Blue Moon, and after a few posts about the moon, I shifted to Dickinson’s use of the sun. For today: How many of Dickinson’s 165 poems about the sun ALSO mention the moon.
Any guesses?
I thought I’d pause from writing about the sun and the moon in Dickinson’s poems, and instead, I’d write a post about her poems that use the word “September.” But guess what? There are none (September and December are the two months Dickinson never mentioned in any of her poems).
Sooo…for today, back to the sun and the moon!
This series of posts started back on August 19th when we experienced the Super Blue Moon, and after a few posts about the moon, I shifted to Dickinson’s use of the sun. For today: How many of Dickinson’s 165 poems about the sun ALSO mention the moon.
Any guesses?
 | In all of the poems that mention the sun, there is only one to mention both the sun and the moon, “The sun and moon must make their haste.” This poem does seem to suggest the awe-inspiring nature of the divine -- more so than many others of Dickinson’s works – and also the sense of “time is of the essence.” That final stanza, though, seems a bit more ominous to me, and it called to mind a passage from Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” – when the crew from the Pequod lower into the sea at night, and “in the midst of despair” and wind and squall, “Starbuck contrived to ignite the lamp in the lantern; then stretching it on a waif pole, handed it to Queequeg as the standard-bearer of this forlorn hope.” Yes, the final stanza makes me think of “forlorn hope,” and there sat Queequeg, “holding up that imbecile candle in the heart of that almighty forlornness.” |
That image is so chilling to me.
“There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.”
Is that what Dickinson is doing here?
“There, then, he sat, the sign and symbol of a man without faith, hopelessly holding up hope in the midst of despair.”
Is that what Dickinson is doing here?
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