A Little Madness in the Spring

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!  

~~Emily Dickinson

For several years now,every April during my spring vacation I visit Emily Dickinson's garden at The Homestead. Emily is my neighbor to the southeast, less than a half hour's drive from where I live. This is one of my top favorite places in Western Massachusetts.

 Since childhood I've been fascinated by The Belle of Amherst. Her reclusiveness has been speculated upon by all manner of scholars, some of whom have made it their entire life's work to study her poems and letters, in an effort to understand who she really was.

A very private person, obviously. By her own instructions, her letters were burned after her death by her younger sister Lavinia, who while doing so, came upon a box of 1700 of Emily's poems. During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson felt uneasy about publishing her very personal and highly passionate writing. Perhaps she felt secure that her tiny bundles of poems, sewed together into little books, would one day be discovered and found to have merit.

I've always entertained a suspicion that Emily's reclusiveness was not a result of serious mental illness as was once highly speculated. The old stereotype of her as a frail, perhaps frigid spinster have more recently given way to a view of Emily much more after my own heart!  In thinking of someone like Dickinson, we assume that she was like a little mouse, never speaking to anyone, holing up in her upstairs bedroom to write, paranoid that anyone was watching her. In fact, Emily interacted fully with her own family, having close relationships with both her siblings and an adoration of her nieces and nephews. She tended the family garden and baked the family bread daily. Eccentric, yes. Yet busy and productive, with a sharpness of mind that is one of the trademarks of her poetry.

That her poems reveal, at times, a smoldering physical passion is obvious. Her relationship with God and religion  tentative and questioning, she was most comfortable worshiping nature in her garden. Her father and brother Austin, prominent citizens of Amherst, helped to found the Congregational Church, just across the street from the Dickinson home. Emily never stepped foot inside of it.

"I feel that the world holds a predominant place in my affections. I do not feel that I could give up all for Christ, were I called to die" (L13)

 I have not gone into a full biography, as others have done a much better job of it than I could possibly. For everything that is known about Emily, please visit The Homestead website, linked above. For many things speculated and invented, read Jerome Charyn's delightful novel The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson.

Here some more photos of Emily's garden in April, 2011. If you visit last year's post on this subject, you will notice a difference in how the garden is blooming. Spring is here, albeit somewhat delayed.

Scilla

Spring comes on the World—
I sight the Aprils—
Hueless to me until thou come
As, till the Bee
Blossoms stand negative
Touched to Conditions
By a Hum. 

~~Emily Dickinson

 

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown -
Who ponders this tremendous scene -
This whole Experiment of Green -
As if it were his own!

 The path from the Dickinson Homestead to The Evergreens, Austin and Susan Dickinson's home.

Magnolia

Hyacinth

 

 

Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile - the Winds -
To a Heart in port -
Done with the Compass -
Done with the Chart!

Rowing in Eden -
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor - Tonight -
In Thee!

Linking to That's My World

Happy Birthday, Emily Dickinson

 

December 10, 1830-May 15, 1886

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts at the Homestead on December 10, 1830. Her quiet life was infused with a creative energy that produced almost 1800 poems and a profusion of vibrant letters.
Her lively Childhood and Youth were filled with schooling, reading, explorations of nature, religious activities, significant friendships, and several key encounters with poetry. Her most intense Writing Years consumed the decade of her late 20s and early 30s; during that time she composed almost 1100 poems. She made few attempts to publish her work, choosing instead to share them privately with family and friends. In her Later Years Dickinson increasingly withdrew from public life. Her garden, her family (especially her brother’s family at The Evergreens) and close friends, and health concerns occupied her.
With a few exceptions, her poetry remained virtually unpublished until after she died on May 15, 1886. After her death, her poems and life story were brought to the attention of the wider world through the competing efforts of family members and intimates.

To learn more about this iconic American poet, visit the website of The Emily Dickinson Museum. I live very close to Amherst and stop in to visit the garden in spring and summer every year. Here is a photo I took of the summer garden this year. It is pretty much kept the way Emily once kept it.

As an aside, I once read an article about Emily Dickinson entitled Emily Dickinson:  The Pagan Sphinx and borrowed the name (with credit to the writer which can be found just below the blog header, under Pages About the Pagan Sphinx Blog.) which is my blog and blog moniker.  TPS will be three years old in February and it has never regretted its name.  :-)

Happy Friday,

Pagan Sphinx

Pagan Sphinx Photo 2010 © All Rights Reserved

Shadow Shot Sunday and Today's Flowers

Poetic Shadows in Honor of National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month in the United States. An appreciator of poetry from a young age, I'm weaving the theme through several of my posts all month.

For the last couple of years, I've been making a pilgrimage to The Emily Dickinson Museum. The Homestead and The Evergreens is made up of two historic houses and their three-acre landscape on Main Street in Amherst, Massachusetts. Here, the small sphere of existence is preserved  of one of America's most significant poets. The Homestead was the birthplace, in 1830, and home of the Emily Dickinson. The Evergreens, next door, was home to her beloved brother and sister-in-law, Austin and Susan Dickinson, and their three children.

Here are a few photos I took of The Dickinson Homestead and The Evergreens. 

The yellow brick house front door faces south.

If I'm not mistaken the window farthest to the right and the one around the corner are those of the poet's bedroom.

"Where thou art, that is home."

 ~ Emily Dickinson
 

 The sideyard

"My friends are my estate."

~ Emily Dickinson

 The stone path that leads East to Emily's Garden

"How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!"
Emily Dickinson

"The lovely flowers
embarrass me.
They make me regret
I am not a bee..."

"Forever is composed of now."

"Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough"

A path described by Emily Dickinson as “just wide enough for two who love” linked the two Dickinson houses, crossing the lawn from the back door of the Homestead to the east piazza of The Evergreens.
which lies west of the main house.

"The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience." 

side porch of The Evergreens

I'll be back in May or June to see how things are growing then, in Emily's garden.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Today's Flowers

Tonight's Vigil

A quick post about the candlelight vigil I attended this evening on the Amherst, Massachusetts town common. About one hundred people showed up in a college town of 30,000 students. Granted, classes at UMASS haven't yet started but there were plenty of kids on the sidewalks and a few scattered around the common, that were not even curious about the event, let alone participating. It would be interesting to see one of these events happen when classes at UMASS are in session. I wouldn't be too surprised if the turn-out was very much as it was tonight. A bunch of aging and aged leftie progressives still trying to make our ourselves heard. It was so incredibly depressing. I just felt flattened and defeated. Honestly, I have no hope.  American politicians (and a lot of Americans) have decided that national healthcare is un-American. We're stuck with the consequences and I doubt the national mindset on this will ever change. It's hard to believe what the MoveOn organizers were passing around as literature:  that 83% of Americans support a single-payer healthcare system. It's mind boggling how if that figure is true, how can it be that it is not a reality? While I know the answers to that question all too well, the reasons are unacceptable to me. Yet I'm powerless to do anything about it except stand there with the rest of the crowd and and feel discouraged.

There is no leadership on the left. In a college town with a bumper crop of college professors, you'd think that someone eloquent, passionate and inspirational would sieze this opportunity to speak up. The healthcare stories are important and I admired and respected the people who stood up to tell theirs, but we need strong leadership on this issue. Where was my local senator? Where was the local clergy? Unions, anyone? If someone isn't there to attract the media, they don't come. They weren't there. It was all very sad and tired.

And as Spadoman pointed out in a comment on my last post:  the U.S. is fighting two wars and lack of healthcare is inextricably linked to lack of money to pay for it. The insurance industry is making massive amounts of money off us and anything from the government that could subsize those costs even minimally, is being sucked dry by the wars. We can't ask for single payer healthcare without demanding an end to these wars.

Keeping it local sounds nice, but the real media exposure should happen nationally. Well-mobilized efforts to gather tens of thousands of people in Washington to protest the wars and highlight our demands for change.  Until massive demonstrations start making it to the nighly news, there will be no change in attitude of the nation toward healthcare, nevemindr an actual program for all. For while it might be true that 83% of Americans support a national healthcare iniciative, not a whole lot of that percentage is speaking up.

Thanks for listening. I came home very discouraged.

MoveOn.Org : Vigils for Healthcare Reform (the good kind)

Are you American? Do want to  eulogize Ted Kennedy? Is one reason you mourn his loss to American politics because of his strong leadership on healthcare? Yup. Me too. I'm going to the closest vigil organized by MoveOn.org tomorrow night (in Amherst, Massachusetts, in fact. As well it should be - my favorite Happy Valley college town, home to my alma mater (such as she is) UMASS) to participate in a candlelight vigil. What are you doing tomorrow night?  :-)  I'd say join me if you're not doing anything, except only about one of you is a neighbor. I think it's just The Cunning Runt. Find some other people to go with or go alone to the vigil nearest you. If you can. For me it's a 20 minute drive and a convenient time to make it. The weather is very hopeful and so am I. Trying to be, anyway. Trying real hard to be hopeful on this issue...

Leave a comment, please. You'll be helping me be hopeful. And if you're not hopeful, then just tell me your truth, damn it!  :-)

Make love, not war Children (hee!)
Pagan Sphinx

Here is the information I received in email:

Dear MoveOn member,

Thanks so much for signing up for a "We Can't Afford to Wait" vigil in your community.

These vigils are happening at a key moment in the fight for real health care reform. And they are coming together beautifully. Over 25,000 people are now signed up for over 300 events!

Now, with just a day until the vigils, local organizers are making their final, most important preparations. To make sure each event is a positive and powerful experience, they'll need your help.

So you're invited to a special national webcast TONIGHT for vigil participants like you. It's very brief—less than 15 minutes. Please tune in at 9 p.m. Eastern / 8 p.m. Central / 7 p.m. Mountain / 6 p.m. Pacific to hear what to expect, get important political updates from our campaign team, and learn how to make sure your vigil is a success.

Here's the link for the webcast at 9 p.m. Eastern / 8 p.m. Central / 7 p.m. Mountain / 6 p.m. Pacific Time tonight:

http://www.moveon.org/augustrecess/vigils/call.html?id=17077-15346766-vmyOj2x&t=1

Scenic Sunday and Mellow Yellow Monday

A Tour of historic Amherst, Massachusetts

I'm linking to Brenda's Mellow Yellow Monday meme and linking my first entry to Aisha's Scenic Sunday meme, as well. Look for more information on these photo memes at the end of the post.

Downtown Amherst is a quintessential American college town. With one private college, Amherst College and a large state university, UMass Amherst, the downtown is bustling with students, professors, young families, artists and musicians. The atmosphere is busy but really friendly and peaceful. On this day, all types of people of all racial, religious and ethnic stripe, were going about their day. Some where relaxing and catching sun on the expansive town common, others sitting on the park benches that line North Pleasant Street.

Outside the center, lies the giant metropolis that is UMass, which is surrounded by rolling hills, farmland and woods. As I turned the corner from North Pleasant Street to Main, I stopped (finally) to take this photograph.

"First rate men and women will not and cannot work under conditions fixed by those who are afraid of ideas."

~American historian Henry Steele Commanger and life-long town resident of Amherst,
Massachusetts.

This ceramic plaque hands on the brick facade of a building at the top of Main Street, in Amherst. Would like to take a walk down Main Street with me on a sunny, spring day?

After the Chinese Restaurant, there is a little square with a fountain and stone benches. Adjacent to it is a small park with benches and space for residents to sit on the lawn and read or sunbathe and for children to run.

click on all photos to enlarge

Toward upper Main Street, another park: a sort of tribute to the American poets Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Here the poets sit among flowering trees and daffodil beds.
Just a little way down, there is the Emily Dickinson Homestead and Museum and The Evergreens, Emily's brother Austin's home. It looked like the photo above just last week when I visited but on this day...

the area was sectioned off with construction fencing and the front lawn was being dug up. I notice last week that many of the stately trees in front had been cut down. I'm not sure what's going on.

Here is the backyard of the Dickinson house, including a corner of the garden...

with these fantastically red tulips,
these beauties - are they a variety of tulip?

and of course Emily's garden would not be complete without a bumble bee or two.
click to enlarge