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 . . .
I wonder what the comparison with "Cathedral Tunes" says about her relationship with her religion, or her religious community.
The progression of the rhyme scheme is very subtle, isn't it? All the way down to the recalling of the first stanza in the last:
Afternoons
Tunes
listens
Distance
-
Slant of light
like the Heft
Landscape listens
look of Death
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 . . .