Wednesday, November 4, 2015

What is the meaning of the poem "There is a June when Corn is cut" written by Emily Dickinson?

This is a very interesting poem. Emily Dickinson starts by
contemplating the corn being cut in Summer and thinking about nature. However, this
leads her to compare what she sees with our own lives and to contemplate the two ages
that we experience as humans. Note how the third stanza makes this link clear when she
says:



Two
Seasons, it is said, exist —
The Summer of the Just,
And this of
Ours, diversified
With Prospect, and with Frost



"The Summer of the Just"
obviously refers to the afterlife that Christians have to look forward to, and the other
"Season" that exists is our present one, that is characterised by "Prospect" and
"Frost," obviously symbolising the opportunities but also the hardships that we face.
However, the final stanza makes clear the point of the poem. As the speaker of the poem
considers both of these "Seasons," she considers their relationship to each
other:



May not
our Second with its First
So infinite compare
That We but recollect
the one
The other to
prefer?



Viewed from the
second season, we will remember the first season but only so we can appreciate the way
that the second season compares so much better with the first. The speaker thus moves us
to a time beyond the first season of our lives on this earth, just as the reaping of the
corn makes her think of the different seasons, and she thus compares the two different
seasons of our lives and wonders how we will think of our lives here and now when we are
enjoying the afterlife.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Calculate tan(x-y), if sin x=1/2 and sin y=1/3. 0

We'll write the formula of the tangent of difference of 2 angles. tan (x-y) = (tan x - tan y)/(1 + tan x*tan y) ...