Please study these two 14th century paintings by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in preparation for class on January 20, 2010.
Census at Bethlehem, 1566
Landscape with Fall of Icarus, 1558
You might also like to listen to W. H. Auden reading his 1940 poem, Musée des Beaux Arts, here.
by Thomas Hood.
One more Unfortunate,
Weary of breath,
Rashly importunate,
Gone to her death!
Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashion'd so slenderly
Young, and so fair!
Look at her garments
Clinging like cerements;
Whilst the wave constantly
Drips from her clothing;
Take her up instantly,
Loving, not loathing.
Touch her not scornfully;
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and humanly;
Not of the stains of her,
All that remains of her
Now is pure womanly.
.
.
Photo from Joanna Lipper's book, "Growing Up Fast" which reminds me of the woman in the "Bridge of Sighs."
January 4
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer. John Keats YouTube Version
Ulysses. Alfred Lord Tennyson YouTube Version
Ithaka. C.P. Cavafy YouTube Version
The Soul selects her own Society. Emily Dickinson
Here's an NPR piece that one of our guest speakers, Brian Maurer sent us: Crusty Patient Helps Shape Doctor's Career
January 7. Emphasis on Emily Dickinson See pages about her on this blog
January 14 Joe Eck: Wallace Stevens’ Sunday Morning, and I would like to read
Wayne Winterrowd: Andrew Mavel's To His Coy Mistress.
Nina Piazza: "Lament for Chen-tao" - Du Fu
In winter's first month from ten provinces
sons of good families--
their blood became the water that stood
in the marshes of Chen-tao.
The moors were wide, the sky was clear,
of battle there was no sound:
forty thousand imperial troops
had died on the very same day.
Bands of Turks were coming back
wiping their arrows clean,
still singing their nomad songs
they drank in the capital market.
Citizens of the capital turned
to face the north and weep,
day and night they keep looking
for loyalist armies to come. .
.
We will discuss these poems. They can be found at: AmericanPoems.com. All 1775 of E.D.'s poems are on this site -- and in the original form!
As I entered # 1696, I was alerted to some deer grazing on the bushes in front of my house.
These are the days that Reindeer love
And pranks the Northern star --
This is the Sun's objective,
And Finland of the Year.
#
67 Success is counted sweetest
108 Surgeons must be very careful
214 I taste a Liquor. Also see: Post.
215 What is -- Paradise.
254 "Hope" is the thing with feathers
258 There's a certain Slant of light.
328 A Bird came down the Walk. Compare with GH Hopkins' The Windhover.
341 After great pain, a formal feeling comes
441 This is my letter to the World.
448 This was a Poet -- It is That
712 Because I could not stop for Death.
919 If I can stop one Heart from breaking
986 A narrow Fellow in the Grass.
1129 Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --
1263 There is not Frigate like a Book
1333 A little Madness in the Spring
1696 These are the days that Reindeer love.
.
Henri Nouwen coined the phrase "wounded healer" in reference to individuals who have developed the ability to empathize with the sufferings of others through the sufferings that they have experienced themselves.
The other morning I greeted a woman who had recently had a total hip replacement. I was surprised to see her out and about so soon after the surgery. Another woman who had had a tumor removed from her lung last month approached the woman with the artificial hip and asked how she was faring. “Don’t get up,” she said, but the woman rose from the bench; and I watched these two elderly women embrace—two wounded healers reaching out through their individual pain to comfort one another.
Freud said: “Wherever I go, I find a poet has been there first.” To be a poet in this day and age is to have a broken heart. Here are the beautiful words of the poet Naomi Nye in an excerpt from her poem entitled Kindness.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you can see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore, only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
George Bascom was a surgeon and a poet who practiced in Manhattan, Kansas. Some of us are lucky enough to have been exposed to his poetry and his short stories. I think many of you will appreciate his poems as well. The two best collections are "Medicine Circle" and "Faint Echoes." Both, published in 1993, are sadly out of print. A few of the best poems can be found in the PDF documents below.
Bascom Bio: Download Dr. Bascom Biography
Poems from Medicine Circle: Download Medicine Circle
Poems from Faint Echoes: Download Faint Echoes
This short verse, epitomizes for me the special genius of Geroge Bascom:
Seminar at Breckenridge
The peaks are frozen gold
Born in Amherst, MA, Emily Dickinson is a major star of the poetic pantheon. She is a charter member in the Academy of the Immortals. There are many speculative biographies which try to parse her personhood -- but the important thing is her legacy -- of poems.
Dickinson defined poetry this way: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?"
Strangely, and wonderfully, we live in the Age of Project Gutenberg. Many of E.D.'s poems are available on P.G. and other online sites. If you are particularly taken with her, the best collection is The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by Thomas H. Johnson. The editors of many of the other Dickinson collections change her quirky punctuation and capitalizations, and, imho, detract from the essence of the poems.
Perhaps, the best introduction to her poems was penned by E.D. ~ 1862:
This is my letter to the World,Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see --
For love of her -- Sweet -- countrymen --
Judge tenderly -- of Me
There are many editions you could get, however, I'd recommend "The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson edited by T.H. Johnson (1775 poems).
Here are some online resources:Please go to "From an Ample Nation" for a few poems we may consider.
The Emily Dickinson Museum is around an hour from Williamstown.
The Emily Dickinson Electronic Archives are worth perusing.
Facsimilie and Poem
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 ompass --
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden --
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor -- Tonight --
In Thee!
See Selected Emily Dickinson Poems.
For care givers, this is ineffably beautiful and True!
If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life the Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain
Sarah Lee, a senior at Stanford
University, is studying Human Biology, with a focus on Women's Health. She is particularly interested in
establishing women's reproductive rights and fighting sexual violence, both in
the United States and abroad. After graduating from Stanford, she would like to
pursue degrees in medicine and public health and practice primary care,
catering to women and children in urban areas. Hailing from the great city of
Seattle, she love to drink coffee, sing in the rain and explore nature through
hiking, running, and backpacking.
Doctor, I know that you are busy –
Hospital traffic, buzzing, weaving in
and out,
But I’m your patient and I’ve been
patient.
B r e a t h e for a minute to feel what I’m all
about.
Read more: Download Doctor please
Here is a fine reading of this poem. ..