Эмили Дикинсон
6
Частенько леса розовы -
Частенько коричневЫ.
Частенько холмы раздеты
За городом моим родным.
Часто головку с хохолком
Привычно видывала я -
И как часта просвета
Прежняя колея -
И Земля - говорят мне -
Вокруг Оси обращалась!
Замечательное вращенье!
Дюжину раз выполнялось!
6
Frequently the wood are pink --
Frequently are brown.
Frequently the hills undress
Behind my native town.
Oft a head is crested
I was wont to see --
And as oft a cranny
Where it used to be --
And the Earth -- they tell me --
On its Axis turned!
Wonderful Rotation!
By but twelve performed!
Poem 6 F24 ‘Frequently the woods are pink’
Ruth Miller offers the following acute reading of a seemingly simple poem. The poet describes seasonal change twice. Firstly she mentions the pink blossom of spring, the brown tree trunks of autumn and the bare hills of winter (lines 1-4). Secondly she describes the head of a tree, which in summer has its full crest of leafage, but which when reduced to trunk and branches in winter, provides a cranny through which we can see (lines 5-8). Finally she concludes how amazing it is that this passage of the four seasons in their twelve months, which we know so well and see so clearly, is connected with still greater cycles in nature, which we do not see and have to be told about (lines 9-12).
Рут Миллер предлагает следующее проницательное прочтение, этого, казалось бы, простого стихотворения. Поэтесса описывает сезонные изменения дважды. Сначала она упоминает розовый цветение весны, коричневые стволы деревьев осени и голые холмы зимы (строки 1-4). Во-вторых, она описывает верхушку дерева, которое летом имеет полную крону листвы, но когда она сокращена до ствола и ветвей зимой, то дает трещину, через которую мы можем видеть (строки 5-8). Наконец, она приходит к выводу, как удивительно, что этот отрывок из четырех времен года за двенадцать месяцев, который мы так хорошо знаем и видим так ясно, связан с еще большими циклами в природе, о которых мы не видим и о которых нам нужно рассказать ( строки 9-12).
Linda Sue Grimes more
Poetry became my passion, after I fell in love with Walter de la Mare's "Silver" in Mrs. Edna Pickett's sophomore English class, circa 1962.
Despite a slight scientific error, Dickinson's "Frequently the woods are pink" offers a marvelous little jaunt around the Sun without leaving the Dickinson estate.
First Movement: The Colorful Changing Woods
Frequently the woods are pink —
Frequently are brown.
Frequently the hills undress
Behind my native town.
The speaker in Dickinson's "Frequently the woods are pink" begins by reporting that often the woods behind where she lives look pink, which, no doubt, indicates spring with trees that open up in the springtime into blossoms and then moving into summer replace the blossoms with leaves.
Then later the leaves turn brown, and after they leave the trees, that is, the trees "undress" in autumn, they reveal further brown because only the trees trunks and naked branches are visible.
Second Movement: The Head of a Bird
Oft a head is crested
I was wont to see —
And as oft a cranny
Where it used to be —
The speaker reveals that she has frequently observed a bird's head as she peered into the frequently changing woods. But then later when she looked, she could detect merely a "cranny" or empty space where that bird's head had been appearing. The word "crested" identifies the head as bird's head without the speaker having the employ the word, bird.
The word, "cranny," indicates how small a space the head of a bird would have occupied. The report of the viewing a bird's head and then viewing its former space moves the poem's theme from merely a seasons poem. The speaker could likely observe birds in the woods anytime of year.
Third Movement: Changing of the Seasons
And the Earth — they tell me —
On its Axis turned!
Wonderful Rotation!
By but twelve performed!
In the final movement, the speaker reports the reason for the change in her view, particularly the fact that at times the woods are pink and at other times brown: the Earth has moved through the year changing seasons as it goes; it has revolved around the Sun and completed one revolution, which causes certain areas of the Earth to experience changing landscape.
The speaker is in awe of this marvelous change as the Earth has turned, "On its Axis." She calls this turn "wonderful." And then she claims that only "twelve" had performed this wonderful feat. Of course, those twelve are the twelve months of the year—through that twelve-month period, she has been given the gift of observing a changing landscape that thrills her adventurous soul.
Regarding the scientific error: The Earth rotates on its axis once in 24 hours; it revolves around the Sun once in 12 months. Thus, to be scientifically factual the "Wonderful Rotation!" should be "Wonderful Revolution!" Interestingly, the term "revolution" here in conjunction with "wonderful" might sound political in nature. It is quite possible that Dickinson was satisfied with a slight scientific error to avoid the possibility of being misconstrued.
"By but twelve performed!"
The poem features only twelve lines which probably gave Dickinson great pleasure as she had her speaker quip in the final line of the poem, "By but twelve performed!" Of course, the speaker is referring to twelve months or perhaps twelve signs of the zodiac, but the fact that she has accomplished her little journey around the sun in twelves line likely gave her a bit of joyful mirth.