PART 1 (posted on 5/4); to see PART 2 (posted on 5/5), scroll down the page.
In the past, I have featured bits and pieces from Judy Jo Small’s book “Positive as Sound, Emily Dickinson’s Rhyme.” I thumbed through the book again recently, and yesterday I shared this from page 128 of her book:
“The Dickinson poem most heavily laden with full rhyme, though, is probably this one, composed in otherwise conventional quatrains,” and I was completely surprised by the poem, “Mine – by the Right of the White Election.” It wasn’t what I expected at all.
In the past, I have featured bits and pieces from Judy Jo Small’s book “Positive as Sound, Emily Dickinson’s Rhyme.” I thumbed through the book again recently, and yesterday I shared this from page 128 of her book:
“The Dickinson poem most heavily laden with full rhyme, though, is probably this one, composed in otherwise conventional quatrains,” and I was completely surprised by the poem, “Mine – by the Right of the White Election.” It wasn’t what I expected at all.
Here’s what Small said about the poem:
“The rhymes here exceed all expectations for what is normal in this stanza pattern. Both stanzas are built on the same end rhyme (seal/conceal/repeal/steal), and the first pair of these are identical in sound (an instance of rime riche). There are two internal rhymes (right/white and mine/sign), and lines begin the repeated 'Mine.' All the rhyme words contain high-front vowels, i and e, and, with an added ripple of alliteration throughout, the total effect is of noisy excess. Expertly, the lyric uses statement and sound to express a mood of wildly confident exultation. Everything about it contributes to a tone of self-assertion that is Delirious and slightly shrill. Rhyme is crucial in producing that tone.”
And what was it that Dickinson was so “wildly confident” about? What was it that was “Mine”?
I’ll discuss that tomorrow.
BTW: The prologue to this post is HERE.
“The rhymes here exceed all expectations for what is normal in this stanza pattern. Both stanzas are built on the same end rhyme (seal/conceal/repeal/steal), and the first pair of these are identical in sound (an instance of rime riche). There are two internal rhymes (right/white and mine/sign), and lines begin the repeated 'Mine.' All the rhyme words contain high-front vowels, i and e, and, with an added ripple of alliteration throughout, the total effect is of noisy excess. Expertly, the lyric uses statement and sound to express a mood of wildly confident exultation. Everything about it contributes to a tone of self-assertion that is Delirious and slightly shrill. Rhyme is crucial in producing that tone.”
And what was it that Dickinson was so “wildly confident” about? What was it that was “Mine”?
I’ll discuss that tomorrow.
BTW: The prologue to this post is HERE.
PART 2:
Yesterday I posted Dickinson’s poem “Mine – by the Right of the White Election,” the poem Dickinson scholar Judy Jo Small declared “most heavily laden with full rhyme" (see Part 1 above).
“Expertly,” said Small, “the lyric uses statement and sound to express a mood of wildly confident exultation” – about what, though, exactly? What was Dickinson so excited about? What is it that she so adamantly claims as “Mine”?
Is it her soul? Her voice in poetry? Is it some thing – or some one – she loves? Is there some theological meaning? (LOL – I confess an extremely limited understanding of Old and New Testament theology – so if you have a deeper theological understanding than I do, and you see some meaning in this poem, lemme know.)
To be honest, though – the speaker in the poem might not even be Dickinson?
In July 1862, the poet wrote to her mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and said this: “When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse – it does not mean – me – but a supposed person.”
Sooo…in “Mine – by the Right of the White Election,” when she staunchly proclaims “Mine” – she might not mean herself.
Elizabeth Phillips, in Emily Dickinson: Personae and Performance, argued that in this poem Dickinson is giving voice to Hester Prynne, Hawthorne's famous adulteress in The Scarlet Letter (1850).
Phillips said this:
“Having accepted the consequences of love, the grief, the hardships and injustice she suffered, (Hester) refuses to acknowledge guilt but pleads for the trust she has earned and the vision of life denied her. Her rage is hardly muted.”
In this reading, the "Scarlet prison" is the scarlet letter "A," the mark of shame Hester must wear to mark her as an adulteress and outcast.
What do you think about this? And/or the poem in general? What do you see as Dickinson’s – or the speaker’s – “Mine”?
Yesterday I posted Dickinson’s poem “Mine – by the Right of the White Election,” the poem Dickinson scholar Judy Jo Small declared “most heavily laden with full rhyme" (see Part 1 above).
“Expertly,” said Small, “the lyric uses statement and sound to express a mood of wildly confident exultation” – about what, though, exactly? What was Dickinson so excited about? What is it that she so adamantly claims as “Mine”?
Is it her soul? Her voice in poetry? Is it some thing – or some one – she loves? Is there some theological meaning? (LOL – I confess an extremely limited understanding of Old and New Testament theology – so if you have a deeper theological understanding than I do, and you see some meaning in this poem, lemme know.)
To be honest, though – the speaker in the poem might not even be Dickinson?
In July 1862, the poet wrote to her mentor, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and said this: “When I state myself, as the Representative of the Verse – it does not mean – me – but a supposed person.”
Sooo…in “Mine – by the Right of the White Election,” when she staunchly proclaims “Mine” – she might not mean herself.
Elizabeth Phillips, in Emily Dickinson: Personae and Performance, argued that in this poem Dickinson is giving voice to Hester Prynne, Hawthorne's famous adulteress in The Scarlet Letter (1850).
Phillips said this:
“Having accepted the consequences of love, the grief, the hardships and injustice she suffered, (Hester) refuses to acknowledge guilt but pleads for the trust she has earned and the vision of life denied her. Her rage is hardly muted.”
In this reading, the "Scarlet prison" is the scarlet letter "A," the mark of shame Hester must wear to mark her as an adulteress and outcast.
What do you think about this? And/or the poem in general? What do you see as Dickinson’s – or the speaker’s – “Mine”?
RSS Feed
