Emily Dickinson's Silly Side
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@Catseye3 said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
Hey, Aqua. Is this thing she wrote as bad as I think it is?
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong June
To an admiring bog!What exactly do you think is bad about it?
It strikes me as clunky, and random (how is a frog more public than anybody/thing else?) except that "frog" conveniently rhymes with "bog" unlike, say, "giraffe". And why dreary? Just kind of woolgathery and not making much sense.
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It strikes me as clunky, and random (how is a frog more public than anybody/thing else?) except that "frog" conveniently rhymes with "bog" unlike, say, "giraffe". And why dreary? Just kind of woolgathery and not making much sense.
@Catseye3 said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
how is a frog more public than anybody/thing else?
Frogs croak loudly to no one in particular, over and over again, to an audience of a bog. She's saying that Important People are just like that.
In fact, "public — like a frog" even implies that being a public person necessarily means loudly croaking to whomever's in earshot.
And why dreary?
Because Emily Dickinson lived in the 1800s. Back then, it was more common than it is now to use the word to describe dull and boring things.
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@Catseye3 said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
how is a frog more public than anybody/thing else?
Frogs croak loudly to no one in particular, over and over again, to an audience of a bog. She's saying that Important People are just like that.
In fact, "public — like a frog" even implies that being a public person necessarily means loudly croaking to whomever's in earshot.
And why dreary?
Because Emily Dickinson lived in the 1800s. Back then, it was more common than it is now to use the word to describe dull and boring things.
Okay, I get it. It still doesn't make me sigh with rapture, but I can dig snark.
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It's not my favorite kind of thing—I personally find her tone to not resonate very well with me—but nonetheless I think she was successful in being pretty damn clever.
Reading some Dickinson lately?
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It's not my favorite kind of thing—I personally find her tone to not resonate very well with me—but nonetheless I think she was successful in being pretty damn clever.
Reading some Dickinson lately?
@Aqua-Letifer said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
Reading some Dickinson lately?
No. I was reading the Look Inside of a PJ O'Rourke book and he included it.
Don't hate me, but I don't read poetry.
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@Aqua-Letifer said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
Reading some Dickinson lately?
No. I was reading the Look Inside of a PJ O'Rourke book and he included it.
Don't hate me, but I don't read poetry.
@Catseye3 said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
Don't hate me, but I don't read poetry.
All good, no one does. Which is almost entirely the fault of the poetry community.
Please love yourself.
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@Catseye3 said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
Don't hate me, but I don't read poetry.
All good, no one does. Which is almost entirely the fault of the poetry community.
@Aqua-Letifer said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
@Catseye3 said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
Don't hate me, but I don't read poetry.
All good, no one does. Which is almost entirely the fault of the poetry community.
Well, Baxter Black died recently. There is that...
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That includes me. Not knowing who he was, I mean.
Here's a bio and profile of Baxter Black: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/13/1104529533/baxter-black-obituary
Great name, wot?
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I’d bet I’m the only other one here - maybe Aqua - who knows who he was and has read some of his stuff.
@Mik said in Emily Dickinson's Silly Side:
I’d bet I’m the only other one here - maybe Aqua - who knows who he was and has read some of his stuff.
I love Baxter Black. He writes traditionally, but he's accessible and has a colloquial style.
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Waddie Mitchell and Baxter Black (his first time on The Tonight Show)
Link to video
