In recent weeks some of my posts have centered on Emily Dickinson’s and Robert Frost’s poems about butterflies. I’m not sure if I tagged them all, but certainly most can be found on my plog (poetry blog) HERE.
As I was exploring and writing about the various butterfly poems of these two poets, I stumbled upon info related to a podcast run by Christopher Lydon with an interview of Helen Vendler, an American academic, writer and literary critic (additionally, Vendler was a professor of English language and history at Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, and other universities). The podcast’s webpage includes info about the interview, and in particular, a bit of their conversations related to a very short but meaningful butterfly poem by Dickinson.
Alas, it seems as though the actual podcast with the full interview is no longer available. I clicked on a couple of different links to “listen,” but all I’d get in return was “page not found.” However, the podcast’s webpage does include some info about their discussion.
“The poem that taught Vendler how to read Dickinson,” states Lydon, “is ‘Ashes denote that fire was…’”
“For me,” he continued, “the Dickinson poem that cracks the central mystery of her theology — her devotion to King James language, her preoccupations with Jesus’ suffering and Christian ideas of resurrection and immortality, and finally her staunch unbelief — is this three-line stanza…”
In the name of the bee
And of the butterfly
And of the breeze, Amen!
Lydon continues:
“It’s a parody, of course, of Jesus’ admonition to his disciples to baptize all nations ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ The three-B Dickinson version is the first fragment in Vendler’s grand selection of Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems and Commentaries. It marked for me, as I volunteered to Professor Vendler, the first of Dickinson’s endless bouts — some playful, some pitiless — with the Big Guy.”
Here's the only bit of the transcript of the interview that Lydon provides:
As I was exploring and writing about the various butterfly poems of these two poets, I stumbled upon info related to a podcast run by Christopher Lydon with an interview of Helen Vendler, an American academic, writer and literary critic (additionally, Vendler was a professor of English language and history at Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, and other universities). The podcast’s webpage includes info about the interview, and in particular, a bit of their conversations related to a very short but meaningful butterfly poem by Dickinson.
Alas, it seems as though the actual podcast with the full interview is no longer available. I clicked on a couple of different links to “listen,” but all I’d get in return was “page not found.” However, the podcast’s webpage does include some info about their discussion.
“The poem that taught Vendler how to read Dickinson,” states Lydon, “is ‘Ashes denote that fire was…’”
“For me,” he continued, “the Dickinson poem that cracks the central mystery of her theology — her devotion to King James language, her preoccupations with Jesus’ suffering and Christian ideas of resurrection and immortality, and finally her staunch unbelief — is this three-line stanza…”
In the name of the bee
And of the butterfly
And of the breeze, Amen!
Lydon continues:
“It’s a parody, of course, of Jesus’ admonition to his disciples to baptize all nations ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ The three-B Dickinson version is the first fragment in Vendler’s grand selection of Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems and Commentaries. It marked for me, as I volunteered to Professor Vendler, the first of Dickinson’s endless bouts — some playful, some pitiless — with the Big Guy.”
Here's the only bit of the transcript of the interview that Lydon provides:
Lydon then mentions that the full 90-minute interview included their discussion of a dozen of Dickinson’s poems – but again, the actual interview does not seem to be available. I’ll keep looking!
By the way – did you catch the name of the podcast’s episode, “Whose Words These Are: Helen Vendler’s Emily Dickinson” – a not-so-subtle nod to Robert Frost. (“Whose woods these are I think I know” – a poem I shared recently in a post which touches on Dickinson’s influence on Frost, HERE.).
By the way – did you catch the name of the podcast’s episode, “Whose Words These Are: Helen Vendler’s Emily Dickinson” – a not-so-subtle nod to Robert Frost. (“Whose woods these are I think I know” – a poem I shared recently in a post which touches on Dickinson’s influence on Frost, HERE.).
By the way, if you have interest in lepidopterology (that's a fancy-schmancy word for butterflies), take a look at my brother's insta account (@butterflygardan -- his name is Dan; therefore, "garDAN" instead of "garDEN"). I've told him for years to post his pics online, and he just started his account a coupla weeks back.
RSS Feed
