Emily Dickinson used the word “March” in 19 different poems. However, not all of them are about the month of March. Some of the poems use the word as a verb.
Anyway, for this entire week, I thought I’d select one of her poems about March, the month, and then post a second poem with which to draw some sort of comparison, contrast, or correlation.
For today, I selected Dickinson’s poem “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise,” a poem of “that magical frontier” between “the March and April line” – when a familiar sound, an evening chorus of birds in this case, brings about the memories of loved ones who are no longer with us.
In the third stanza the poem turned to the memories of the dead, and as the poem progressed, it reminded me of a similar poem, “If anybody’s friend be dead.” This poem is similar in theme – except instead of particular sounds conjuring up memories of the dead, it is recollections and sights which bring up the thoughts – and it is these very rembrances which make “the Quick of Woe!”
Anyway, for this entire week, I thought I’d select one of her poems about March, the month, and then post a second poem with which to draw some sort of comparison, contrast, or correlation.
For today, I selected Dickinson’s poem “The saddest noise, the sweetest noise,” a poem of “that magical frontier” between “the March and April line” – when a familiar sound, an evening chorus of birds in this case, brings about the memories of loved ones who are no longer with us.
In the third stanza the poem turned to the memories of the dead, and as the poem progressed, it reminded me of a similar poem, “If anybody’s friend be dead.” This poem is similar in theme – except instead of particular sounds conjuring up memories of the dead, it is recollections and sights which bring up the thoughts – and it is these very rembrances which make “the Quick of Woe!”
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| Incidentally, the 1955 Johnson edition of “Complete Poems,” includes Dickinson’s spelling, “Wo!” The 1998 Franklin edition added the “e” for “Woe!” |  |
In “The saddest noice, the sweetest noise,” I love the idea of how an ear “can break the human heart” by conjuring up a past memory – and that oxymoron-like line, “Made cruelly more dear,” is so poignant.
BTW: That particular line is reminiscent of “Heavenly hurt,” the oxymoron in “There’s a certain Slant of light.”
In “If anybody’s friend be dead,” some of my favorite lines are line 7, “A prank nobody knew but them’; the images of the passage of time in the third stanza (“you almost feel the date”); and line 13, “How pleased they were, at what you said.”
BTW: That particular line is reminiscent of “Heavenly hurt,” the oxymoron in “There’s a certain Slant of light.”
In “If anybody’s friend be dead,” some of my favorite lines are line 7, “A prank nobody knew but them’; the images of the passage of time in the third stanza (“you almost feel the date”); and line 13, “How pleased they were, at what you said.”
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