Emily Dickinson
I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--
Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--
Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow
Hands To gather Paradise--
Today in class we put Emily Dickinson up against Plato, and I think we all sort of went for Dickinson, to my relief. At the very least, in this poem she's arguing (arguing being the wrong word; perhaps expressing?) that poetry tells us something about the nature of reality (my student: "Isn't Emily Dickinson putting down prose?"). I denied it for a while (because, of course, that isn't all or precisely what she's doing), but finally gave in and contrasted that with Plato. He says toward the end of Republic that poet's don't have special access into what it means to be human.
I have the students read the poem out loud stanza by stanza at the beginning of our discussion. My secret strategy is to pick the side of the room with most men/boys on it and ask that side to start reading. This way it pushes the boys right into the middle of it. But, for crying out loud, one of the boys brought Sir Philip Sydney's Defense of Poesie up in class today.
I dwell in Possibility--
A fairer House than Prose--
More numerous of Windows--
Superior--for Doors--
Of Chambers as the Cedars--
Impregnable of Eye--
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky--
Of Visitors--the fairest--
For Occupation--This--
The spreading wide my narrow
Hands To gather Paradise--
Today in class we put Emily Dickinson up against Plato, and I think we all sort of went for Dickinson, to my relief. At the very least, in this poem she's arguing (arguing being the wrong word; perhaps expressing?) that poetry tells us something about the nature of reality (my student: "Isn't Emily Dickinson putting down prose?"). I denied it for a while (because, of course, that isn't all or precisely what she's doing), but finally gave in and contrasted that with Plato. He says toward the end of Republic that poet's don't have special access into what it means to be human.
I have the students read the poem out loud stanza by stanza at the beginning of our discussion. My secret strategy is to pick the side of the room with most men/boys on it and ask that side to start reading. This way it pushes the boys right into the middle of it. But, for crying out loud, one of the boys brought Sir Philip Sydney's Defense of Poesie up in class today.
One of the students cleverly asked what "gambrels" means. I had no idea. Turns out it is "a frame used by butchers for hanging carcasses by the legs." How fitting--"The gambrels of the sky."
2 comments:
Is it insulting that I'm not sure whether you're joking? I, too, looked up "gambrels" (before I even got to the part of your post where you did). A gambrel is one o' them roofs (rooves?) with two different angles of slope, i.e. 4 segments, like on a barn.
Haha. The point is--I should've been joking. You're evidentally better at online dictionaries than I am--I only read the first definition, but the one you refer to is clearly more appropriate. How shocking! (and predictable) that I'd teach my poor, unsuspecting kids the wrong thing.
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