752.1863.Ah, Teneriffe – Receding Mountain –

752.1863.Ah, Teneriffe – Receding Mountain –

David Preest (2014) is franker than usual in his sexual interpretation of Line 7, Variant A, F752, which ED signed and sent to Sue:

“The peak of Teneriffe, in geography a dormant volcano on the largest Canary island, in the poem stands for Sue herself. Just as the mountain of Teneriffe is heedless of the purple sunset displays of nature that take place before her day by day and indeed retreats from them, so Sue is heedless of Emily’s adoration which blazes a hundred yards away unnoticed. Sue is still and unmoved, made of steel, covered in unmeltable ice, with granite thighs that do not open in welcome, not even aware that she and Emily are parted. All Emily can do is to go on kneeling in adoration, and wait for Sue to notice her once more.

“In the [Variant B] version the sexual overtones of [Line 7] are toned down to ‘Eye of Granite – and Ear of Steel.’

“‘Teneriffe’ is a four-syllable word.”

[Get Preest’s closing joke?]

No wonder Sue wrote Lines 6-9 in her 1891 elegy for ED, ‘Minstrel of the Passing Days’ (TPB Comment on F752, July 3, 2024):

“Of all the gaudy shameless tints
That fire the passions of the prince
Strangling vines clasping their Cleopatras
Closer than Antony’s embrace”
_______________________________________________
David Preest, 2014. Emily Dickinson Poems Commentary, pp. 224-225.

For a free copy of Preest’s ED Commentary, go to
https://studylib.net/download/8773657
Click “Not a Robot”, and download PDF.

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