My literary studies focused mostly on British literature, but I do have my favorites among the Americans, Dickinson being near the top. Her style fascinates me, and her "Meanings" even more so. I tend to dislike winter, and this poem heightens that dislike by reminding me of the way light -- or "a certain Slant of light" -- can remind us of the despair we may suffer from and that its genesis may even be from heaven itself. And yet -- the beauty! And something in "the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes" brings me a kind of hope . . . even in my feeling of despair, even in "the Distance / On the look of Death," if this comes from heaven? if it comes from God? Is the poem one of hope? No, and yet . . . if we listen with the landscape? hold our breath with the shadows?
Yes. Growing up in the South, I read this poem (like in high school), and loved it for its sounds --- and for the phrase "a certain slant of light" --- but did not AT ALL understand how light could oppress anybody. Then years later I moved to England, and many things clicked into place . . .
My literary studies focused mostly on British literature, but I do have my favorites among the Americans, Dickinson being near the top. Her style fascinates me, and her "Meanings" even more so. I tend to dislike winter, and this poem heightens that dislike by reminding me of the way light -- or "a certain Slant of light" -- can remind us of the despair we may suffer from and that its genesis may even be from heaven itself. And yet -- the beauty! And something in "the Heft / Of Cathedral Tunes" brings me a kind of hope . . . even in my feeling of despair, even in "the Distance / On the look of Death," if this comes from heaven? if it comes from God? Is the poem one of hope? No, and yet . . . if we listen with the landscape? hold our breath with the shadows?
Yes. Growing up in the South, I read this poem (like in high school), and loved it for its sounds --- and for the phrase "a certain slant of light" --- but did not AT ALL understand how light could oppress anybody. Then years later I moved to England, and many things clicked into place . . .