How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43), Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
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 drew 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 – in the Ground –
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
E.B. Browning or E. Dickinson?
The Browning is a pleasing, familiar read. Always nice to revisit.
The Dickinson was new to me, fresh in that fact, but fresher still in the writing and narrative. Thank you for sharing that one John. Muchly enjoyed its elements of surprise!
Bw
Phil
The Dickinson was new to me, fresh in that fact, but fresher still in the writing and narrative. Thank you for sharing that one John. Muchly enjoyed its elements of surprise!
Bw
Phil
Fresh I think is a very good word for Dickinson. SHe's also unremittingly weird IMO, not in a bad way, but somewhat as Blake is weird. She published about ten of her 2,000-odd poems in her lifetime, the rest were in a drawer at her death.
I agree, the Browning is a good poem, and perhaps almost over-familiar.
Cheers,
John
I agree, the Browning is a good poem, and perhaps almost over-familiar.
Cheers,
John
Well, there's that. And then, there's just their thought processes. Dickinson for instance seems to me quite tangential and paratactic here. She does not lend herself to easy recuperation by readers. Like Blake's weird storm-flying invisible worm in the rose poem.
Cheers,
John
Cheers,
John
It's true. I use the word being a weird person (psychosis is pretty weird) but that remains problematic, not least because I likely appear fairly normal to those i meet. Though a good friend's wife, who's known me forty years, said the other day she thought me weird when we met. I said: "I am weird."
Cheers,
John
Cheers,
John
I think yes, that, and also, to get into the ring is to run the race of life, to compete, to play. From boxing, even for Dickinson in the 1840s (I think).
Gazing Grain is also pretty wild. Blakean, dare I say?
Cheers,
John
Gazing Grain is also pretty wild. Blakean, dare I say?
Cheers,
John
Ah, it's the old weirdness kicking in! 
THanks for the Blake, I shall now click on that link.
Fliss thinks I should ask you about potential publishing venues for my Ice Cream and Talmud MS. But I'll PM you soonish.
Cheers,
John
THanks for the Blake, I shall now click on that link.
Fliss thinks I should ask you about potential publishing venues for my Ice Cream and Talmud MS. But I'll PM you soonish.
Cheers,
John
Fragments indeed! Some I knew, some not, but consistently amazing. Dickinson said "When I feel the top of my head being taken off, I know i am reading poetry."
The first fragment was borrowed by Dylan. I like it fine (and the Dylan), but I like what The Doors did with the last one.
Cheers,
john
The first fragment was borrowed by Dylan. I like it fine (and the Dylan), but I like what The Doors did with the last one.
Cheers,
john
I found the Dickinson poem a more rewarding read, but the 'fluff' of r&r in Browning makes the poem one I am more likely to reread. Either way an interesting coupling of Death poems
Off to reread the Donne/Milton. Death genre to light my morning 
Off to reread the Donne/Milton. Death genre to light my morning 
Death! Death! I believe is what the riders of Rohan call out before their last battle in LOTR.
I think most folks revisit the Browning more often than the Dickinson. Frankly, I return to Dickinson's first quatrain and tend to skip the rest! Though it is beautiful. I might try to rustle up another pairing, copyright-free. But I can't guarantee death! Though I suppose nature does that for us.
Cheers,
John
I think most folks revisit the Browning more often than the Dickinson. Frankly, I return to Dickinson's first quatrain and tend to skip the rest! Though it is beautiful. I might try to rustle up another pairing, copyright-free. But I can't guarantee death! Though I suppose nature does that for us.
Cheers,
John
