AUGUST'S CANTICLE

In 21 Aug 2011, I was thinking about the poem #1068 written by my DNA Maternal Cousin Emily Elizabeth Dickinson.  There are many documented versions of this poem, and I have posted one version here. 

Since discovering my Family connection to Emily (we share the same many Great Grandparents Moses Payne (1581-1643)  and  Mary Benison Payne (1585 – 1616)),   I have been reading her writings and about her life and times.

Below is a short 'reply' to the poem #1068, that I wrote as if it were to be part of a letter that I would send to Emily.  As I have been reading her writings, I find them affecting me in different ways, and frequently I feel that she is writing to me, for our lives are similar in so many ways.  Anyway, here is the 'reply' that I would include in my letter to her.

"As August cools, Haunting Dreams of wild imaginings burn as blue flames, Memories ripe, cannot Ferment fast enough for the intoxicant Day Dreamer."

[-dht-2011, DNA Cousin to Emily Elizabeth Dickinson]

AND, below is Emily's poem #1068

Further in Summer than the Birds
Pathetic from the Grass
A minor Nation celebrates
It's unobtrusive Mass

No Ordinance be seen
So gradual the Grace
A pensive Custom it becomes
Enlarging Loneliness.

Antiquest felt at Noon
When August is burning low
Arise this spectral Canticle
Repose to typify

Remit as yet no Grace
No Furrow on the Glow
Yet a Druidic Difference
Enhances Nature now

[-Emily Elizabeth Dickinson, Poem #1068]

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When also thinking of August, one of my favorite songs comes to mind, "Scarborough Fair", a hauntingly beautiful ballad with powerful lyrics that are larger than a single voice, expressing a special message only the Heart hears.  [dht-2011]

Song History and Lyrics link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough_Fair_(ballad)

  

YouTube link

Scarborough Faire Canticle - Simon and Garfunkel {SONG and HYMN}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfqpAWPx6T4

[PHOTO SOURCE: Renaissance Fair 1975 California with my daughter and myself dressed "haute couture"]