Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Poem!

Today's poem was Because I Could Not Stop For Death by Emily Dickinson.

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove,
he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school,
where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.


I've mentioned before that she is one of my favorite poets. We were talking about her in class one day and someone mentioned something I think is absolutely hilarious. Almost every Emily Dickinson poem can be sung to "The Yellow Rose of Texas"! There is a YouTube video out there that shows this, but it isn't very good so I didn't want to post it. Every time I read an Emily Dickinson poem now, I hum it to "Yellow Rose of Texas" in my head.

5 comments:

  1. So true! Emily Dickinson did use on standard rhythmic pattern. NO matter. She is quite brilliant :)

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  2. I adore Emily. I just bought some art online that is dedicated to her. So wonderful, dark and mysterious. I had no idea you could sing her poems to that song! How odd.

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  3. Or, more appropriately to the season, generally you can take the tune of 'God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen' as well.

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  4. I love Emily's poems, too! 'There is no frigate like a book' 'Faith is a fine invention' & 'I'm nobody' are a few of my favorites!
    I found a book about her gardens at the library - she was mostly a recluse, as much as we love her, we probably wouldn't have known her if we lived close by - I wonder if she would blog ??

    Smiles

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  5. Oh Emily would blog! She was so shy but wanted contact in her own way too. My favorite story about her is that she had a basket that she would fill with sweets and lower down from her upstairs window for the children in her neighborhood.

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