Back in the middle of the month, I shared info related to the VMFA’s exhibit “Frida: Beyond the Myth.” One of the posts focused on a still life by Kahlo that included depictions of the sun and moon, and I paired that painting with two of my favorite poems by Dickinson, “The Sun just touched the Morning” and “The Moon was but a Chin of Gold” (HERE).
Today I thought I would share two other of my favorite sun/moon poems, and due to some related language and imagery, I have two additional sun poems to throw in as a bonus!
First, the sun poem, “When I have seen the Sun emerge,” a favorite because it always reminds me of my father-in-law who each morning would proclaim exuberantly, “Another day in which to excel.”
Dickinson’s take on that sentiment goes like this:
Today I thought I would share two other of my favorite sun/moon poems, and due to some related language and imagery, I have two additional sun poems to throw in as a bonus!
First, the sun poem, “When I have seen the Sun emerge,” a favorite because it always reminds me of my father-in-law who each morning would proclaim exuberantly, “Another day in which to excel.”
Dickinson’s take on that sentiment goes like this:
 | Isn’t this a wonderful poem? The sun rises humbly from his “amazing House” each and every morning to provide us with a new and glorious day, and while the event to most goes unnoticed, the speaker of the poem (Dickinson?) sees the earth as “a Drum / Pursued of little Boys” – and what little boy or girl doens’t want to play the drums! In addition, the sun does this flawlessly – every day – without “incident of Fame / Or accident of Noise.” |
| Of course, “accident of Noise” would differ from deliberate and purposeful noise – say, the twittering of birds (“nature’s little poets” to Dickinson) at civil twilight – and such heavenly hubbub was dubbed “yellow noise” in Dickinson’s solemn threnody “Ample make this Bed”:  | The reality that most of us view the daily emergence of the sun with outright indifference is echoed in Dickinson’s “The largest Fire ever known"; the poem is an admonition addressing our collective apathy toward a daily conflagration – the sunset:  |
No one clamors at this daily calamity. There is no surprise or concern. There are no reports. We just go about our business each day as the recurrent fire blazes. Ho hum – another sunset.
In addition to the daily course of the sun, Dickinson was also charmed by the orbit of the moon, and in “I watched the Moon around the House,” she described its progress through the night sky – and the image introduced in the third stanza and fulfilled in the fourth is beyond brilliant: “for not a Foot – nor Hand / Nor Formula – had she / But like a Head – a Guillotine / Slid carelessly away.”
In addition to the daily course of the sun, Dickinson was also charmed by the orbit of the moon, and in “I watched the Moon around the House,” she described its progress through the night sky – and the image introduced in the third stanza and fulfilled in the fourth is beyond brilliant: “for not a Foot – nor Hand / Nor Formula – had she / But like a Head – a Guillotine / Slid carelessly away.”
| How perfect: the image of the moon as a disembodied head sustained in the sky “By finer Gravitations / Than bind Philosopher.” After all, what do Philosophers know about life and death – and afterwards – compared to the practice of this silver, cryptic specter. And then there’s that fun plot twist at the end: the speaker, at some point thereafter, spies the moon again during the daytime; however, being grounded “too far below,” she is unable to determine its precise path – “Or its advantage – Blue.” |  |
I love that abrupt ending, the full stop “Blue,” the great expanse of sky – and it’s an advantageous, positive, happy blue.
Hmm…perhaps I’ll talk about Dickinson’s use of “Blue” tomorrow.
Hmm…perhaps I’ll talk about Dickinson’s use of “Blue” tomorrow.
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