~~~Emily Dickinson~~~"Thro' lane it lay - thro' bramble" 9/1775

Calling All Emily Dickinson fans! Oops, sorry (said just like Jilly) I missed yesterday's Emily Dickinson insert. I guess I was pre-empted by the intense heat. Je m'excuse mon petites. Can you blame me? But I hope you liked the Group of Seven Canadian painters instead and tres fantastique chanteuse Melody Gardot!

[edit] Version 1
Thro' lane it lay - thro' bramble -
Thro' clearing, and thro' wood -
Banditti often passed us
Opon the lonely road -
The wolf came peering curious -
The Owl looked puzzled down -
The Serpent's satin figure
Glid stealthily along -
The tempests touched our garments -
The lightning's poinards gleamed -
Fierce from the crag above us
The hungry vulture screamed -
The satyr's fingers beckoned -
The Valley murmured "Come" -
These were the mates -
This was the road
These Children fluttered home.

[edit] Version 2
Through lane it lay - thro' bramble -
Through clearing, and thro' wood -
Banditti often passed us
Opon the lonely road.

The wolf came peering curious -
The Owl looked puzzled down -
The Serpent's satin figure
Glid stealthily along.

The tempests touched our garments -
The lightning's poinards gleamed -
Fierce from the Crag above us
The hungry vulture screamed -

The Satyr's fingers beckoned -
The Valley murmured "Come" -
These were the mates -
This was the road
These Children fluttered home.

[edit] Version 3
Through lane it lay — through bramble —
Through clearing and through wood —
Banditti often passed us
Upon the lonely road.

The wolf came peering curious —
The owl looked puzzled down —
The serpent's satin figure
Glid stealthily along —

The tempests touched our garments —
The lightning's poinards gleamed —
Fierce from the Crag above us
The hungry Vulture screamed —

The satyr's fingers beckoned —
The valley murmured "Come" —
These were the mates —
This was the road
Those children fluttered home.

Emily Dickinson

This particular rhyming and construction poem is definitely different from the previous poems; the 4 stanzas time 4 and then the last synopsis-type line. In my opinion, this is a fairly, straight-forward poem. Although allusion to Greco-Roman allegory. This poem is similar to a longer limerick. In the first stanza; Emily is walking through the woods again; in nature; as usual; discussing nature's importance in her world of Amherst Massachuetts.

"Thro' lane it lay - thro' bramble -
Thro' clearing, and thro' wood -
Banditti often passed us
Opon the lonely road -"*


Emily is using the reinteration produces a song-like poem. This poem is almost a choral quartet with the four time reinteration of "Thro'". "Thro'" or "through", Emily chooses to use the contraction like the poem who's verse; "And Thro' the woods to grandmothers house we go" is massively popular a song. No doubt a very popular contraction during Emily's times, Very nostalgic; this poem reminds me of paintings by Currier and Ives. Even Emily's use of dashes is new in this poem.

Bandits or latin "banditti" often passed us along the road. Emily is disclosing her knowledge of the Latin language here.

"The wolf came peering curious -
The Owl looked puzzled down -
The Serpent's satin figure
Glid stealthily along -"*

In the above stanza Emily discussing the various woodland animals like the wolf, The Owl (oddly capitalized, yet not the "wolf" why I am not sure) and the Serpent (which is capitalized) So obviously the Capitalized animals are more important in the poem. Again the allegory of the Serpent being satan is clearly established and even a pun on the word "satin" for Satan. As well as "stealthily" glid is reference to the Biblical analogy of Satan or the Devil.

"The tempests touched our garments -
The lightning's poinards gleamed -
Fierce from the crag above us
The hungry vulture screamed -"*

Now the storm touches "our garments" this reminds me of the picture of the guardian angels and flowing, drapery of angels. So the tempests or storms could be good or bad foreboding, we have to read more to figure this out. The "lightning's" (note; note spelled "lightening", again another contraction; done on purpose for musicality? Maybe? Did Emily play a musical instrument or want to, one thinks this may have been made into a song.) Now vultures have (notice past tense in this poem?) "screamed" from the "crag" (isn't crag spelled 'craig'? I guess there are more than one way to spell some of the Old English words that seem to us modern folks to be spelled incorrectly!). What is making the "hungry vulture" to scream and is the "vulture" also demonized? I think so! Let's read more to find out! By the way (btw) a poinard is a point like on a sword of light, giving this description of lightening by Emily as something which is dangerous, like a weapon.

"The satyr's fingers beckoned -
The Valley murmured "Come" -
These were the mates -
This was the road
These Children fluttered home."*

In this last stanza, Emily is discussing "satyr" which is a Greco-roman halfman half beast mythical creature. And like Satan, the satyr is a seducing devil-like analogy to sin and evil. The satry (notice not capitalized here? I wonder why not? Maybe to make it appear more like a regular, everyday existing creature of the woods. Did Emily really believe in such creatures, did they take on more of a realness to Emily; and if so; why? The "Valley" is capitalized, obviously important a place. Remember in the last poem the "Valley" of the Bargemen (the Apostles or Angels) may have been a reference to the far shore or Heaven. So the Valley or Heaven, or Jesus, or God is telling Emily to "Come" home, get out of the woods and the unknown dangers. Maybe it is the voice of her guardian angel which I think is the case when Emily refers to "The Village" in this way.

The next way Emily says "These" and "This" is very interesting as well. So the "children", probably Emily and friends realized the dangers approaching in the woods, the Evil in the sentient beings there and decided to listen to their intuition or their guardian angel and swiftly "fluttered" home. So the children if they "flutted" are what? Birds? It certainly looks like the children are personified and are now birds. Interesting how Emily relates to nature in this way, making nature and natural settings, and animals and other objects into human form. Emily has in this poem a very vivid imagination and uses what she is learning at Amherst College to be synthesized into her own unique Emily Dickinson world. Fascinating!

Chiccoreal@logb via Virginia Whitley channel through to Jane Jones take on Emily Dickinson's poem "Thro' lane it lay - thro' bramble";

Children of The Wing by Jane Jones

Fly Home
At my beckoning
Command
The Guardian
At The Village far
calls
The Dangerous
Surround the Woods today
found in creatures
of the slithering kind
The Satyr
The Snake
The Vultures
AS the young foundlings
Find Their home
Save and Sound
Souls Redeemed
Listen to the Sound
Then You'll Always Be
Home

Jane Jones





















Bandit \Ban"dit\ (b[a^]n"d[i^]t), n.; pl. Bandits
(b[a^]n"d[i^]ts), or Banditti (b[a^]n*d[i^]t"t[i^]). [It.
bandito outlaw, p. p. of bandire to proclaim, to banish, to
proscribe, LL. bandire, bannire. See Ban an edict, and cf.
Banish.]
An outlaw; a brigand.
[1913 Webster]
pon·iard (pnyrd)
n.
A dagger typically having a slender square or triangular blade.
tr.v. pon·iard·ed, pon·iard·ing, pon·iards
To stab with such a dagger.

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[French poignard, from poing, fist, from Old French, from Latin pugnus; see peuk- in Indo-European roots.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


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poniard [ˈpɒnjəd]
n
(Military / Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) a small dagger with a slender blade
vb
(Military / Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) (tr) to stab with a poniard
[from Old French poignard dagger, from poing fist, from Latin pugnus; related to Latin pugnāre to fight]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poniards
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Not to be confused with Satire or Seder (disambiguation).
This article is about the Greek mythological creature. For the musician, see Sigurd Wongraven.
Satyr
A bald, bearded, horse-tailed satyr balances a winecup on his erection, on an Attic red-figured psykter, ca. 500-490 BC.
Mythology Greek mythology
Grouping Legendary creature
Sub grouping Hybrid
Country Greece
Habitat Woodland and mountains
Similar creatures Minotaur, Centaur, Harpy
In Greek mythology, satyrs (Ancient Greek: Σάτυροι, Satyroi) are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In mythology they are often associated with pipe playing.

The satyrs' chief was Silenus, a minor deity associated (like Hermes and Priapus) with fertility. These characters can be found in the only remaining satyr play Cyclops by Euripedes and the fragments of Sophocles' The Tracking Satyrs (Ichneutae). The satyr play was a lighthearted follow-up attached to the end of each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus. These plays would take a lighthearted approach to the heavier subject matter of the tragedies in the series, featuring heroes speaking in tragic iambic verse and taking their situation seriously as to the flippant, irreverent and obscene remarks and antics of the satyrs. The groundbreaking tragic playwright Aeschylus is said to have been especially loved for his satyr plays, but none of them have survived.


Another horse-tailed satyr suspends his pipe-case from his erection, on an Attic black-figure plate, 520–500 BCE, from VulciAttic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being strongly built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair, and full beards, with wreaths of vine or ivy circling their balding heads. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus: the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone.

Satyrs acquired their goat-like aspect through later Roman, conflation with Faunus, a carefree Italic nature spirit of similar characteristics and identified with the Greek god Pan. Hence satyrs are most commonly described in Latin literature as having the upper half of a man and the lower half of a goat, with a goat's tail in place of the Greek tradition of horse-tailed satyrs; therefore, satyrs became nearly identical with fauns. Mature satyrs are often depicted in Roman art with goat's horns, while juveniles are often shown with bony nubs on their foreheads.


Satyr on a mountain goat, drinking with women. Gandhara, 2nd-4th century.Satyrs are described as roguish but faint-hearted folk — subversive and dangerous, yet shy and cowardly. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine and women, and they are ready for every physical pleasure. They roam to the music of pipes (auloi), cymbals, castanets, and bagpipes, and they love to dance with the nymphs (with whom they are obsessed, and whom they often pursue), and have a special form of dance called sikinnis. Because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding wine cups, and they appear often in the decorations on wine cups.* Wikipedia Satyrs "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyr