Comparing Emily Dickinson and Ezra Pound Poem - Essay Example

?Discuss how three Dickinson poems (If you were coming in the Fall; She rose to His Requirement; and Tell all the Truth) relate to Pound’s “River Merchant’s Wife.” Which of the three informs the Pound poem to the greatest extent, i.e., comes closest to those emotions that prompted the poem in the first place? Two of the three poems of Dickinson, “If you were coming in the Fall,” and “She rose to His Requirement,” are closely related to the poem, “River Merchant’s Wife,” by Pound, while the third poem, “Tell all the Truth,” takes readers to a distinct philosophical realm. Dickinson’s poem, “She rose to His requirement,” relates to “The River Merchant’s Wife – A Letter,” in many ways. She also, like the river merchant’s wife, leaves behind all her pleasures just to match her husband needs, as she wants to engross herself in the new roles of wife and mother. “The Playthings of Her Life/ Of Women, and Of Wife,” (Dickinson 2-4). Like the river merchant’s wife who has became totally submissive in behavior not to annoy her husband and had completely forgotten the childhood joys: “Lowering my head/I never looked back” (Pound 9-10). She is willing to forego any comfort to please her husband. Dickinson uses the metaphor of gold comparing it with marriage, as marriage after a certain stage loses its charm like the gold loses its shine over recurrent use. She also dedicates her life to her husband, all her characteristic values, her emotions, “But only to Himself – be known,” (Dickinson 11). In the case of river merchant’s wife, dedication is not one-sided, as husband is also wholly and equally dedicated. The reason of this can be ascribed to their childhood love, as no such connection is visible in Dickinson’s leading lady’s before-marriage relationship with her husband. Level of commitment in river merchant and his wife increased further with age for each other; she wanted to be only his: “Forever and forever and forever” (Pound 13). I do not get although the same feeling of reciprocity in the lady of She rose to his Requirement but she is ever-prepared to “lay unmentioned,” (Dickinson 9). The first stanza of the river merchant’s wife takes the readers to the childhood memories of the wife, as she speaks through the letter to her husband, the river merchant. She and her husband used to play like all children of their age in the village of Chokan. Her hair used to be cut and fall over her forehead while playing near the front yard, plucking flowers while her husband used to play horse. She is recalling the cherished memories of childhood spent together when there was no place for hatred or doubt in their calm lives: “…without dislike or suspicion” (Pound 6). So relatively Wife has more to share about the childhood time, which is not visible in both the poems of Dickinson, If you were coming and She rose. Wife describes the after-marriage life when five months have passed since the husband had gone on a business trip through Ku-to-yen River and not come back. The wife gets forlorn when she sees a pair of butterflies: “The paired butterflies/hurt me” (Pound 23-25). She feels growing in age but has not lost hope. She is willing to come to greet him by coming to Cho-fu-sa, if she gets some information of his arrival. I find the Wife’s eagerness to meet her husband surpasses that of the woman of She rose to. But it matches and even lags behind in extremeness of the woman in If you were coming. If you were coming in the Fall follows a somewhat similar line of her endless waiting for him. She is willing to wait for him during the summer in the hope that he will come in the fall. Even years and centuries do not matter if there is a hope that he will come. Beyond that she is even ready to be in eternal bliss with him after death but uncertainty of his coming back to her is so painful that she feels like she will be bitten any time like a goblin bee. But, now, uncertain of the length Of this that is between, It goads me, like the Goblin bee – That will not state – it’s sting. Like Wife, she is also a faithful woman who can wait for his man at any length of time of the physical being and even ready to wait for him in the world after death. In a way, her patience level is unlimited. Comparing her with Wife whose husband has been away for five months only, anyways, the waiting experience of the woman in If you were coming although is a sort of exaggeration, yet more convincing when she herself is not sure the length of time she has to wait till she meets him. The possibility remains of getting stung suddenly because the news of his not coming will be like the sudden pricking of a bee. In my view, the mental state of two women of Dickinson matches and relates to the Wife but yet there is a relative difference. The woman of She rose to his Requirement is the call of a woman ethically bound to fulfill her duties of wife and mother, while If you were coming in the Fall dwells more on waiting to be one with her lover or husband. There is no clue of the exact relationship, but the difference is of perspective. One woman of Dickinson can go to any extent in sacrificing her pleasures to fulfill her new obligations of married life, while the other woman in the second poem is just going and willing to spend her whole life in his waiting. Relating both these poems of Emily Dickinson with Ezra Pound’s The River Merchant’s Wife, I feel that Dickinson’s She rose to his Requirement is similar in memories of the time before marriage to Pound’s The River-Merchant’s Wife. Both women speak very fondly of their childhood memories. The missing element in She rose to his Requirement is the painful experience of a beloved in the waiting for her lover. The “paired butterflies” sting the wife that she is alone but the woman of If you were coming in the Fall is living in incessant fear of getting stung when it would be revealed that no more wait is required, as he is not coming. The third poem of Dickinson, Tell all the Truth takes the readers to a different philosophical realm. It does not relate in content and feeling in any way with The River-Merchant’s Wife. Tell all the Truth deals with speaking truth in the slanting way. It means truth should be stated not directly to one’s face, as success lies in circling: “Success in circuit lies/Too bright for our infirm Delight” (Dickinson 33-34). As our joys are not firm, truth should be revealed as lightening to children, who can be explained the reasons behind; how and why it occurred. Similarly, truth must shine slowly so that one is prepared to face it. Thus, at least two poems of Dickinson are closely related to The River-Merchant’s Wife by Pound, namely She rose to his Requirement, and If you were coming in the Fall, sharing the pangs of separation. Works Cited Dickinson, Emily. “Emily Dickinson Spring Supplement.” The Poems of Emily Dickinson. Ed. Ralph W. Franklin. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1988. Pound, Ezra. “The River-merchant’s Wife: A Letter.” Cathay. 1915. Read More