I have two titanic poems to share today, but first – a quick recap as to how we got here:
I was substitute teaching at a middle school, so I checked the online Dickinson archive to see if Dickinson ever used the word “substitute” in any of her poems. She did, once, in “The Future never spoke.”
Dickinson’s portrayal of the Future, a mute and indifferent figure who executes “Fate’s telegram to him,” called to mind Dickens’ silent specter of Death in “A Christmas Carol” as well as the “threatening” figure of Death in Somerset Maugham’s (very) short story “Appointment in Samarra." Click HERE.
Those works and Dickinson’s poem reminded me of the punctual and passionless “Spinner of the Years” in Thomas Hardy’s chilling work “The Convergence of the Twain,” an eerie poem of the Titanic’s “intimate welding” with an iceberg, “twin halves of one august event.” Click HERE.
So that led me to the word “titanic.” Did Dickinson ever use “titanic” in any of her poetry?
Indeed she did, in two wonderful – and powerful – poems: “I have never seen ‘Volcanoes’” and “I think I was enchanted.”
I was substitute teaching at a middle school, so I checked the online Dickinson archive to see if Dickinson ever used the word “substitute” in any of her poems. She did, once, in “The Future never spoke.”
Dickinson’s portrayal of the Future, a mute and indifferent figure who executes “Fate’s telegram to him,” called to mind Dickens’ silent specter of Death in “A Christmas Carol” as well as the “threatening” figure of Death in Somerset Maugham’s (very) short story “Appointment in Samarra." Click HERE.
Those works and Dickinson’s poem reminded me of the punctual and passionless “Spinner of the Years” in Thomas Hardy’s chilling work “The Convergence of the Twain,” an eerie poem of the Titanic’s “intimate welding” with an iceberg, “twin halves of one august event.” Click HERE.
So that led me to the word “titanic.” Did Dickinson ever use “titanic” in any of her poetry?
Indeed she did, in two wonderful – and powerful – poems: “I have never seen ‘Volcanoes’” and “I think I was enchanted.”
 |  | Both have thought-provoking analyses at Susan Kornfeld’s – and now Adam Wade Degraff’s – blog site, “The Prowling Bee.” “I have never seen ‘Volcanoes’” is HERE and “I think I was enchanted” is HERE. There is so much “Fire, and smoke, and gun,” witchcraft and magic one could discuss with either of these two poems that my brain is currently tossing in tumult. Where to begin? Well, for now, lets begin with the analyses of the poems and their corresponding comments (and be sure to read the comment section for each poem too), and then I’ll check for variations of the poems in the different editions of Dickinson’s poetry. |
Then, in the coming days, I’ll cherry-pick a few details that jump out at me to review, and we’ll see where those discussions take us.
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