Dickinson’s poetry looks clear in its short stanzas but the
lack of extra words almost makes the poetry harder to interpret. In poem 112
her rhyming scheme varies from the first stanza as a/b/c/b than second stanza
doesn’t rhyme at all, then third repeats the rhyming of the first. The two
rhyming stanzas sandwich the non-rhyming. I liked this method because it
prevented me from reading it in the sing-songy way that some rhyming poetry
induces.
This poem seemed to me to be about a solider or battle in
which the subject was defeated. However the second half of the first stanza I
wasn’t sure what it meant: “To comprehend a nectar, requires sorest need.” I
guess since the first two lines are “success is counted sweetest, by those who
ne’er succeed”, it could be interpreted as those sweetest moments or ‘nectar’,
if you will, are only able to be attained/appreciated by those who are in most
need of good or who have suffered etc. I was also confused by “the purple
Host”, because capitalized host makes me think of communion and I don’t know
the relationship it could have with purple.
In poem 320 (There’s a certain slant of light), I liked how
Dickinson used dashes to create pauses in her rhyming as well as capitalizing
words like Slant and Afternoons, Air, Landscape… she’s personifying the
environment (literally) instead of just illustrating the setting of the poem
(“Landscapes listens – Shadows – hold their breath). I think this poem is
beautiful although its content seems a bit depressing.
As we talked about in our presentation on Emily Dickinson and in our analysis of "Success is Counted Sweetest," I agree with your post, and think she was exemplifying the notion that those who don't "win" all the time or those who "ne'er succeed" find the most value in winning or succeeding. I like to think about this concept in terms of easy classes and hard classes. For example, if you consider a class to be an "easy A" and do well on all your assignments and tests without trying, it won't mean as much to you if you get an A on an exam than say perhaps in a class that is really hard. In this much harder class, you have to study for days and days to get that A. In this case, getting the A in the class that you have more trouble in is going to mean so much more to you than the easy class that you always get A's in. I think much of Dickinson's poetry can still translate in today's times, as this specific poem does, even though she was writing them in a much different time period.
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