He fumbles at your Soul
by Elouise
Hurricane Harvey’s recent visit brought me back to this poem from Emily Dickinson. My comments follow.
He fumbles at your Soul
As Players at the Keys
Before they drop full Music on –
He stuns you by degrees –
Prepares your Brittle Nature
For the Ethereal Blow
By fainter Hammers – further heard –
Then nearer – Then so slow
Your Breath has time to straighten –
Your Brain – to bubble Cool –
Deals – One – imperial – Thunderbolt –
That scalps your naked Soul –When Winds take Forests in their Paws –
The Universe – is still –c. 1861
Emily Dickinson Poems, Edited by Brenda Hillman
Shambhala Pocket Classics, Shambhala 1995
A disclaimer: I don’t think this poem from Emily is to be figured out. It resists. Emphatically.
Yet after more than a year of pondering it and the events of the last weeks, I’m ready to comment on it. Strangely, I’m sticking with my first impressions.
I’m a musician. A pianist. This poem is about music and a lot more. Not everyday music, but music that happens rarely in a lifetime.
I hear Emily describing a pianist, the power of music in the hands of a gifted performer, and the effect on the listener. This isn’t just any music, but the kind that begins innocently enough and ends with power that stuns the soul into silence. Not applause, but silence.
Some musicians were masters at this. Chopin comes to mind. I’m thinking about what’s called ‘the Raindrop Prelude.’ You can watch and hear Vladimir Horowitz perform it here. It doesn’t follow the flow of Emily’s poem precisely, but the opening raindrop notes, repeated throughout, set the stage for what’s coming. In the finale, Chopin doesn’t end with a flourish, but with a gradual distancing of the storm, raindrops still falling and fading into the distance.
I hear Emily describing the music of Nature. The kind that begins with the far-away sound of approaching thunder, and the first erratic fall of rain. Hammers, set in motion by fingers hitting piano keys, strike strings hidden from view. We hear the storm approaching. Sometimes waning, yet always moving our way.
The music draws us in, adding voices and turns of phrase, shifting and turning from here to there, sometimes lulling the listener into a reverie. Then, without warning, like the closing bars of Beethoven’s Pathetique, comes that unanticipated bolt of thunderous lightning followed by utter silence. You can watch and hear Daniel Barenboim’s performance here.
After that, nothing else matters. The music/storm has undone you. Totally. Silence is the only appropriate response. All the standup applause and shouts for more mean nothing. The finale already said everything.
Emily believed in God, and seems to have had a healthy on-again, off-again relationship with God. She also believed in the power of nature to reveal truth about us and about God. I wonder what Emily would make of Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath.
I can’t help noticing that the Winds in Emily’s poem take Forests in their Paws, not in their teeth or claws. Perhaps there’s an invitation to see more than cruel destruction here, or a vengeful God who is somehow punishing us.
Maybe God wants our attention, and is offering us another chance to attend to each other. Strangers as well as friends and family. Costly? Yes. No matter how you look at it. Pain free? Never.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 6 September 2017
Photo found at Shutterstock
Response to WordPress Daily Prompt: Anticipate
This post, this post is so…faithful. It was good for my soul to read it. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re so welcome, Nancy. 💜
LikeLike
Daniel Barenboim, the greatest Jew ever born. I have nothing but the deepest respect and admiration for him.
He certainly knows how to play the piano too.
Vladimir Ashkenazy is also a great favourite of mine, I recall in the late 1960’s he was appearing in Perth Western Australia and I had to choose between going to Perth, to see him live, or lose my job (I worked in the bush)
It was a magnificent night, not to be missed. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wish I had known both of them. And I’m green with envy about seeing Ashkenazy live! 🎶
LikeLike
Are they dead?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good question! No, they’re not dead. But both are now chiefly conductors. So I stick with listening to them on the piano via our wonderful classical/jazz music station here, and our own recordings.
LikeLike
Vladimir often conducts the Sydney Symphony, he was resident conductor for some time 2009/2013. He comes to Sydney and conducts for free a concert to raise funds for an hosptal. His son had a very bad accident and his hand was ripped off and the doctors at a Sydney hospital sewed it back on and saved it ; Vladimir never forgets 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
What an amazing gift for you all and for him and his son. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was being facetious 😀 🐻 🐱
LikeLiked by 1 person
Who, you???? I figured you were, but….! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The piece you link to is really so magnificent
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Paol.
LikeLike