88'ers:

G'morning (from New York City...). I'm replying to Joselyn (just below),
but it might help you to follow the "thread" about Em's lava steps all the
way down.

I want simply to ask Joselyn - and EVERYONE - about Joselyn's notion that
Dickinson does not or does not want to "climax all at once." What does
this mean in terms of poetry? Does this have anything to do with

        * the Dickinsonian rejection of first-hand experience?
        * Dickinson's commitment to a kind of inarticulateness / inability
                to "say it just right"?

And what do you think of Walt, who did "say it right" all the time (by
describing EVERYTHING; by believing that "success in directness lies")?

Also relevant here is Dickinson's idea of pleasure. Does she seem to get
(or offer) pleasure in or by or from her poem? 

Is "Vesuvius at home" pleasurable for her - the one who is "here"?

--Al

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Joselyn most recently wrote (about "lava steps" & Em's climaxing):

| sessa, i think we all agree that emily writes poetry about poetry, but i
| don't think that emily will climax all at once with one poem..i think the
| volcanoe represents all the emotion within her and that the lava steps
| represent each poem that she writes..i could be wrong but i get the
| impression that she won't climax until she has released all within her..she
| just seems to deep to "let it all go" with one poem..she's like a mystery
| women..sort of like books or movies that have more than one part..you can't
| wait until you read enough to get to the end..

Valerie had written:
| 
| 
| >Alternatively, if Emily writes poetry about writing poetry, then I see the
| >volcano, as a conceit for her poetry, as the "climax" of the poetry plot.
| >Lava steps are each line leading up to [peer into] the volcano crater.
| >

Prior to this, I had asked:

| >> Nice. By the way, what does "lava" refer to in the overall analogy or
| >> comparison (volcano = Em's room/Em's body/Em's here)? What is Emily's
| >> equivalent of lava?--Al
| >>

Someone--Joselyn again? or Jessica?--had written:


| >> | i think "here" is where emily is now..her geography is her
| body..perhaps
| >> the
| >> | emotion within her is ready to come out..she needs to vent things that
| >> are
| >> | being held within..in other words, you think the volcanoes in south
| >> america
| >> | are something..they don't compare to what i'm feeling.."a lava step at
| >> any
| >> | time"..she releases her emotion at any time through her writing..
| >> |

And here of course is the poem we've been discussing:


| >> | >     #1705
| >> | >
| >> | >     Volcanoes be in Sicily
| >> | >     And South America
| >> | >     I judge from my Geography
| >> | >     Volcanoes nearer here
| >> | >     A Lava step at any time
| >> | >     Am I inclined to climb
| >> | >     A Crater I may contemplate
| >> | >     Vesuvius at Home