Hmm…I don’t remember exactly how this popped into my head this morning, but I was thinking about the word “lens” – it’s a singular noun but sounds like a plural; the plural form is “lenses.”
In a recent post (HERE), I talked about singular nouns which have no plural form, words like “information,” “homework,” “butter,” “mud,” and “furniture” – but I did not think to explore singular nouns that sound like a plural – and have a separate plural form. I don’t think there are many – I came up with “lens” and “summons.” I did find a couple of singular but plural-sounding nouns that are used in both the singular and plural forms – “news” and “gallows.” Can you think of others?
I searched the word “lens” in the online Dickinson archive and found that the poet used the word once, in the short but powerful poem, “The Poets light but lamps.”
The Poets light but Lamps –
Themselves – go out –
The Wicks they stimulate
If vital Light
Inhere as do the Suns –
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference –
I found a great discussion of the poem HERE. Within the analysis, I grinned when I read this line, “There is no punctuation other than the em(ily) dash which adds space without slowing the reading down, thereby energising the piece, as it draws the eye forward.”
Em(ily). ;-)
And about those dashes – likened in the piece to “a visual representation of a wick” – the author observed that “The poem ends with the dash, which, except in the work of Dickinson, is rarely used for the ending of something, and hints at the ongoing nature of the work - visually indicating that this is not an ending as such, but something that will continue - poetry being immortal.”
The analysis also discusses Dickinson’s use of the word “inhere,” which means “exist essentially or permanently in” – think “inherent”; how fitting is it that the word literally says “in here”? Dickinson used the word in one other poem, “Not to discover weakness is,” and in one variation of the poem “As imperceptibly as grief.”
After reading the post, I wondered what a “Magdalena ball” was. Turns out it’s not a “what” but a “who.” Magadelna Ball is, according to her bio, is “a novelist, poet, reviewer and interviewer, and is the Managing Editor of Compulsive Reader (compulsivereader.com).” Her blog was active between 2009 and 2024, but there are no posts from this year. Not so for the Compulsive Reader -- there’s a post on that site published today.
Finally, Ball’s post on “The Poets light but lamps” opens with this: “It's ModPo time again! I've participated in the, by now famous, Modern and Contemporary Poetry (‘ModPo’) course since it began in 2012.” Say what? I’ll explore that later. At first glance, I discovered a free, online UPenn course (HERE), -- but I’m not sure exactly what was meant (in the blog piece) by “This year (2020), the Emily Dickinson poem is number 930.” I’m a bit bewildered – modern and contemporary…Emily Dickinson…this year…“my essay follows.” I'm not sure what's going on, but I’ll look into that with a more inquisitive lens later. (LOL – you see how I circled back to “lens”?)
One last thing before I close: Two days ago, in my post about crimes from mid-1800’s Amherst (HERE), I wrote about Zephaniah Swift Moore. I noted that “the post-colonial-slash-pre-Gilded-Age period had some great names, no?”
I’m substituting in a high school math class today, and in the first class – there’s a kid here named Zephaniah.
In a recent post (HERE), I talked about singular nouns which have no plural form, words like “information,” “homework,” “butter,” “mud,” and “furniture” – but I did not think to explore singular nouns that sound like a plural – and have a separate plural form. I don’t think there are many – I came up with “lens” and “summons.” I did find a couple of singular but plural-sounding nouns that are used in both the singular and plural forms – “news” and “gallows.” Can you think of others?
I searched the word “lens” in the online Dickinson archive and found that the poet used the word once, in the short but powerful poem, “The Poets light but lamps.”
The Poets light but Lamps –
Themselves – go out –
The Wicks they stimulate
If vital Light
Inhere as do the Suns –
Each Age a Lens
Disseminating their
Circumference –
I found a great discussion of the poem HERE. Within the analysis, I grinned when I read this line, “There is no punctuation other than the em(ily) dash which adds space without slowing the reading down, thereby energising the piece, as it draws the eye forward.”
Em(ily). ;-)
And about those dashes – likened in the piece to “a visual representation of a wick” – the author observed that “The poem ends with the dash, which, except in the work of Dickinson, is rarely used for the ending of something, and hints at the ongoing nature of the work - visually indicating that this is not an ending as such, but something that will continue - poetry being immortal.”
The analysis also discusses Dickinson’s use of the word “inhere,” which means “exist essentially or permanently in” – think “inherent”; how fitting is it that the word literally says “in here”? Dickinson used the word in one other poem, “Not to discover weakness is,” and in one variation of the poem “As imperceptibly as grief.”
After reading the post, I wondered what a “Magdalena ball” was. Turns out it’s not a “what” but a “who.” Magadelna Ball is, according to her bio, is “a novelist, poet, reviewer and interviewer, and is the Managing Editor of Compulsive Reader (compulsivereader.com).” Her blog was active between 2009 and 2024, but there are no posts from this year. Not so for the Compulsive Reader -- there’s a post on that site published today.
Finally, Ball’s post on “The Poets light but lamps” opens with this: “It's ModPo time again! I've participated in the, by now famous, Modern and Contemporary Poetry (‘ModPo’) course since it began in 2012.” Say what? I’ll explore that later. At first glance, I discovered a free, online UPenn course (HERE), -- but I’m not sure exactly what was meant (in the blog piece) by “This year (2020), the Emily Dickinson poem is number 930.” I’m a bit bewildered – modern and contemporary…Emily Dickinson…this year…“my essay follows.” I'm not sure what's going on, but I’ll look into that with a more inquisitive lens later. (LOL – you see how I circled back to “lens”?)
One last thing before I close: Two days ago, in my post about crimes from mid-1800’s Amherst (HERE), I wrote about Zephaniah Swift Moore. I noted that “the post-colonial-slash-pre-Gilded-Age period had some great names, no?”
I’m substituting in a high school math class today, and in the first class – there’s a kid here named Zephaniah.
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