A Distraction

Just thought I would share with everyone a little note I had sent to Dan after our last class.

At the end of class, I thought of Julia Ward Howe's "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord"---Such a beautiful and noble lyrical text, which unfortunately is often eclipsed by a mindless singing of the familiar tune to which these glorious words were set, and to a much later nonsensical rewrite by adolescents boys, I would imagine, ---shows my bias, even though I have two wonderful male offspring myself!-- "glory glory hallelujah, teacher hit me with a ruler...etc".

It might be interesting to compare Howe's Civil War poem with Emily's poem...and to see that they were written in the same year!  Howe, as a deeply committed abolitionist, seems to have seen the war as a profound moral obligation, with God on the side of the North, and through her lyrics, she paints with a broad, sweeping brush on a monumental canvas.  I would imagine that Emily would have read Howe's poem, as it was printed in the Atlantic Monthly, which apparently the Dickinson family subscribed to!

   Emily's poem is such the antithesis, in scope and in the animating forces behind it. Much more the dark underbelly of war, with no noble justifications to rationalize the consequences.

I do wonder if Emily knew of Julia, who was quite a well-known abolitionist living much of her adult life in Boston, and who coincidentally happens to be buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery!

  ( Interestingly, apparently Julia was known to have commented, after her much-older husband died, "Now my life can begin!".)