Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Heart! we will forget him
Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
Heart, we will forget him,
You and I, tonight!
You must forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.
When you have done pray tell me,
Then I, my thoughts, will dim.
Haste! ‘lest while you’re lagging
I may remember him!
Despite tremendous talents and good education most of Emily’s life was spent in seclusion. Only a very few, around seven of her poems were published in her life time. Her poems are more attractive to me because they are short and to the point.
I love this poem. It is about the pain of getting over someone that she loves. She still loves him because she remembers the warmth of his heart and the light he showed to her mind.
First I thought the poem is dripping with the lost love - the perfect love she found in him but isn’t there any more and is not likely to be reached again. Then I thought it is full of pain of unrequited love. When we love someone in imagination it is easy to believe they are perfect and idealize them. She wants to forget him because loving someone who doesn’t love you causes lot of pain.
This is the clear battle between the mind and heart. The mind is forcefully convinced to forget him but if the heart doesn’t co-operate then she might weaken. If she remembers him again then she will feel that pain again.
After all said and done, it is still better to love and lost then not love at all. Let us make the most of what we have in present instead of what it was in the past or what we wish for the future.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
XX
Heart, we will forget him,
You and I, tonight!
You must forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.
When you have done pray tell me,
Then I, my thoughts, will dim.
Haste! ‘lest while you’re lagging
I may remember him!
Despite tremendous talents and good education most of Emily’s life was spent in seclusion. Only a very few, around seven of her poems were published in her life time. Her poems are more attractive to me because they are short and to the point.
I love this poem. It is about the pain of getting over someone that she loves. She still loves him because she remembers the warmth of his heart and the light he showed to her mind.
First I thought the poem is dripping with the lost love - the perfect love she found in him but isn’t there any more and is not likely to be reached again. Then I thought it is full of pain of unrequited love. When we love someone in imagination it is easy to believe they are perfect and idealize them. She wants to forget him because loving someone who doesn’t love you causes lot of pain.
This is the clear battle between the mind and heart. The mind is forcefully convinced to forget him but if the heart doesn’t co-operate then she might weaken. If she remembers him again then she will feel that pain again.
After all said and done, it is still better to love and lost then not love at all. Let us make the most of what we have in present instead of what it was in the past or what we wish for the future.
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY
XX
# posted by butterflyuk : 2/14/2006 12:25:00 am
