757.1863.I think To Live – may be a Bliss
An interpretation
(ED’s alternate words in parentheses) [Bracketed inserts by LarryB]
I think To Live – may be a Bliss (Life)
To those who dare (allowed) to try –
[But it’s] Beyond my limit – to conceive –
[Or] My lip – to testify –
I think the [pre-Wadsworth] Heart I former wore
Could widen – till to me
The Other [My pre-Wadsworth Heart], like the little Bank
Appear – unto the Sea –
I think the Days – could every one
In Ordination stand –
And Majesty – be easier –
Than an inferior kind –
No numb alarm – lest Difference come –
No Goblin – on the Bloom –
No start (click) in Apprehension’s Ear,
No Bankruptcy- (Sepulchre, Wilderness) no Doom –
But Certainties of Sun (Noon) –
Midsummer (Meridian) – in the Mind –
A steadfast South – upon the Soul –
Her Polar time (Night) – behind –
The Vision – pondered long –
So plausible (tangible, positive) becomes
That I esteem the fiction – real (true) –
The Real (Truth) – fictitious seems –
How bountiful the Dream –
What Plenty – it would be
Had all my Life but been (been one) Mistake (bleak?)
Just rectified (qualified) – in Thee
Fifteen alternate words in one short poem suggests ED struggled with F757.
David Preest [2014, p.217, F757] quotes Judith Farr, with whose prose interpretation I agree. (Parentheses by Farr) [Brackets by LarryB]:
“[W]e take the ‘Thee’ [Line 28] to be that beloved master [Charles Wadsworth] whom Emily could not marry. She would then be saying: ‘I think to live with you would be a bliss if we dared to try it. (‘allowed’ is a significant [alternative word] for ‘who dare’ in Line 2). Each day would be counted as a special day like a Saint’s day, and it would be easier to feel like a king than a commoner. I would never start apprehensively through hearing some bad news, but my life would be ‘Certainties of Sun.’
“I have imagined this life so often that it seems more real than the reality of your absence. How bountiful would be that dream, if it came true and all my past life were some mistake, now put right by you coming to live with me.”
ED’s dream is a serious case of Would’a, Could’a, Should’a.
For Preest’s entire eBook of 1775 commentaries (Johnson 1955) in PDF format, free of charge, go to: https://studylib.net/download/8773657 Click “Not a Robot”, and download PDF.)
11/26/24 comment on The Prowling Bee (TPB):
1
For daring few who risk it all, life may be a bliss,
But I couldn’t imagine or describe such strength.
2
Since I met you, my kitten’s heart grows fierce
Now that kitten seems a lion to those who see.
3
I think my days could rank timid to brave
And courage easier than cowardice.
4
No frozen fear would father doubt, no hex halt our way
No sudden sound apprehend, no bankrupt doom block us
5
Only Certainties of Sun, Midsummer in the Mind –
A steady south wind blow our way, leaving frozen night behind
6
My long-longed heaven feels so close
My fiction seems so true, my truth so false.
7
How bountiful my dream, what plenty it would be
If my whole life had been mistake, just rectified by you.