酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Poem of the Week

Poem Lyrics of The Three Emilys * by Dorothy Livesay

These women crying in my head
Walk alone, uncomforted:
The Emily's, these three
Cry to be set free --
And others whom I will not name
Each different, each the same.

Yet they had liberty!
Their kingdom was the sky:
They batted clouds with easy hand,
Found a mountain for their stand;
From wandering lonely they could catch
The inner magic of a heath --
A lake their palette, any tree
Their brush could be.

And still they cry to me
As in reproach --
I, born to hear their inner storm
Of separate man in woman's form,
I yet possess another kingdom, barred
To them, these three, this Emily.
I move as mother in a frame,
My arteries
Flow the immemorial way
Towards the child, the man;
And only for brief span
Am I an Emily on mountain snows
And one of these.

And so the whole that I possess
Is still much less --
They move triumphant through my head:
I am the one
Uncomforted.


Thematic Review

The three Emilys of the title are presumably Emily Bronte, Emily Dickinson, and Emily Carr, each of whom escaped marriage and motherhood in order to pursue their artistic careers with no burdens engendered by their roles as women. In this much-anthologized autobiographic poem which she wrote when she was a young wife and mother, Dorothy Livesay tries to address the difficulty of being a woman and a writer in contemporary society, struggling with the role-conflict between these two vocations.

In stanza one, writing “These women crying in my head / … / Cry to be set free -- / And others whom I will not name / Each different, each the same,” Livesay vividly portrays the centuries-old yet relevant issue facing women: they have felt constrained by gendered expectation imposed by society which does its best to play a facade that women will be happy if the take on the domestic role prescribed for them.

Making an illusion to William Woodsworth in stanza two, she captures this Romanticist image of how magnificent an artist is, and writes, “Yet they had liberty!/ Their kingdom was the sky:/ They batted at clouds with easy hand./ Found a mountain for their stand;/ From wandering lonely they could catch/ The inner magic of a heath -- / A lake their palette, any tree/ Their brush could be.”

In stanza three, Livesay evokes her beloved literary foremothers -- all solitary figures – by comparing the speaker’s role as mother and writer to that of them, and writes, “I yet possess another kingdom, barred / To them, these three, this Emily. / I move as mother in a frame, / My arteries / Flow the immemorial way / Towards the child, the man.” The speaker wishes to join the three Emilys, but due to her children and her husband, "only [a] brief span" of time can be devoted to her writing.

Finally, the poem concludes with the speaker’s unhappiness with the life she chose. “And so the whole that I possess/ Is still much less -- / they move triumphant through my head:/ I am the one/ Uncomforted” This surprising conclusion contradicts with the opening stanza that single women should be uncomforted. Through this poem, Dorothy not only moves beyond Virginia Woolf’s conception of “a room of one’s own” but also raises for women writers the important issue regarding make a decision between their art and a domesticated life.


Dorothy Livesay 1909 -- 1996

Dorothy Livesay was one of most important public poets that emerged, read and wrote in Canada in the twentieth century, and her aesthetically creative and socially reflective literary works spanned almost seven decades. Throughout her literary career, she mentored many generations of Canadian poets and received numerous awards, including receiving the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry twice: in 1944 for Day and Night and in 1947 for Poems for People. She published twenty-one volumes of poetry during her lifetime, leaving behind hundreds of poems, many of which were published posthumously in Archive for Our Times in 1998. She was not only a prolific poet but also a literary critic, literature professor, social worker, wartime journalist, magazine editor and more importantly, a compassionate activist devoted to the promotion of human welfare and the advancement of social reforms. For her, “the writer in any country must be committed to seek better things for humanity.”

Politically speaking, Livesay was concerned with writing to, for and about the people in Canada and on the international stage; aesthetically speaking, influenced by the Imagist ideas of clarity, terseness, and direct, unsentimental presentation of experience, she wrote in a direct, accessible and easily understood way and manner. In an interview about her poetry writing, she said emphatically, "I suppose all my life I have fought against obscurantism! For me the true intellectual is a simple person who knows how to be close to nature and to ordinary people. I tend to therefore shy away from academic poets and academic critics. They miss the essence.”

Livesay’s poetry is mostly politically oriented; as literary critic Peggy Kelly stresses, “from the radical politics of the Communist Party of Canada in the 1930s, she migrated to the socialist politics of the New Democratic party of Canada after the Second World War and maintained a feminist perspective throughout her life. One thing left unchanged is the assertion of her continued belief in social change through her poetic language of everyday and the rhythms of speech. Her work was infused with extraordinary grace and power, and shaped by a prescient feminist sensibility which led her to be called a "voice of women." She is regarded as a major influence for many writers, not only for her poetry but for the remarkable manner in which she lived her life. The B.C. Prize for Poetry was renamed in 1986 after Dorothy Livesay for her extraordinary contribution to Canadian poetry. The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize is awarded annually to the best collection of poetry by a resident of British Columbia, Canada.


Note:

Emily Dickinson (1830 -- 1886) was an American poet noted for her mystical and unrhymed poems.

Emily Carr (1871 ?1945) was a Canadian writer and artist named as "The Mother of Modern Arts."

Emily Jane Bronte (1818 -- 1848) was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Poem of the Week

Poem Lyrics of The Three Emilys * by Dorothy Livesay

These women crying in my head
Walk alone, uncomforted:
The Emily's, these three
Cry to be set free --
And others whom I will not name
Each different, each the same.

Yet they had liberty!
Their kingdom was the sky:
They batted clouds with easy hand,
Found a mountain for their stand;
From wandering lonely they could catch
The inner magic of a heath --
A lake their palette, any tree
Their brush could be.

And still they cry to me
As in reproach --
I, born to hear their inner storm
Of separate man in woman's form,
I yet possess another kingdom, barred
To them, these three, this Emily.
I move as mother in a frame,
My arteries
Flow the immemorial way
Towards the child, the man;
And only for brief span
Am I an Emily on mountain snows
And one of these.

And so the whole that I possess
Is still much less --
They move triumphant through my head:
I am the one
Uncomforted.


Thematic Review

The three Emilys of the title are presumably Emily Bronte, Emily Dickinson, and Emily Carr, each of whom escaped marriage and motherhood in order to pursue their artistic careers with no burdens engendered by their roles as women. In this much-anthologized autobiographic poem which she wrote when she was a young wife and mother, Dorothy Livesay tries to address the difficulty of being a woman and a writer in contemporary society, struggling with the role-conflict between these two vocations.

In stanza one, writing “These women crying in my head / … / Cry to be set free -- / And others whom I will not name / Each different, each the same,” Livesay vividly portrays the centuries-old yet relevant issue facing women: they have felt constrained by gendered expectation imposed by society which does its best to play a facade that women will be happy if the take on the domestic role prescribed for them.

Making an illusion to William Woodsworth in stanza two, she captures this Romanticist image of how magnificent an artist is, and writes, “Yet they had liberty!/ Their kingdom was the sky:/ They batted at clouds with easy hand./ Found a mountain for their stand;/ From wandering lonely they could catch/ The inner magic of a heath -- / A lake their palette, any tree/ Their brush could be.”

In stanza three, Livesay evokes her beloved literary foremothers -- all solitary figures – by comparing the speaker’s role as mother and writer to that of them, and writes, “I yet possess another kingdom, barred / To them, these three, this Emily. / I move as mother in a frame, / My arteries / Flow the immemorial way / Towards the child, the man.” The speaker wishes to join the three Emilys, but due to her children and her husband, "only [a] brief span" of time can be devoted to her writing.

Finally, the poem concludes with the speaker’s unhappiness with the life she chose. “And so the whole that I possess/ Is still much less -- / they move triumphant through my head:/ I am the one/ Uncomforted” This surprising conclusion contradicts with the opening stanza that single women should be uncomforted. Through this poem, Dorothy not only moves beyond Virginia Woolf’s conception of “a room of one’s own” but also raises for women writers the important issue regarding make a decision between their art and a domesticated life.


Dorothy Livesay 1909 -- 1996

Dorothy Livesay was one of most important public poets that emerged, read and wrote in Canada in the twentieth century, and her aesthetically creative and socially reflective literary works spanned almost seven decades. Throughout her literary career, she mentored many generations of Canadian poets and received numerous awards, including receiving the Governor General’s Literary Award for poetry twice: in 1944 for Day and Night and in 1947 for Poems for People. She published twenty-one volumes of poetry during her lifetime, leaving behind hundreds of poems, many of which were published posthumously in Archive for Our Times in 1998. She was not only a prolific poet but also a literary critic, literature professor, social worker, wartime journalist, magazine editor and more importantly, a compassionate activist devoted to the promotion of human welfare and the advancement of social reforms. For her, “the writer in any country must be committed to seek better things for humanity.”

Politically speaking, Livesay was concerned with writing to, for and about the people in Canada and on the international stage; aesthetically speaking, influenced by the Imagist ideas of clarity, terseness, and direct, unsentimental presentation of experience, she wrote in a direct, accessible and easily understood way and manner. In an interview about her poetry writing, she said emphatically, "I suppose all my life I have fought against obscurantism! For me the true intellectual is a simple person who knows how to be close to nature and to ordinary people. I tend to therefore shy away from academic poets and academic critics. They miss the essence.”

Livesay’s poetry is mostly politically oriented; as literary critic Peggy Kelly stresses, “from the radical politics of the Communist Party of Canada in the 1930s, she migrated to the socialist politics of the New Democratic party of Canada after the Second World War and maintained a feminist perspective throughout her life. One thing left unchanged is the assertion of her continued belief in social change through her poetic language of everyday and the rhythms of speech. Her work was infused with extraordinary grace and power, and shaped by a prescient feminist sensibility which led her to be called a "voice of women." She is regarded as a major influence for many writers, not only for her poetry but for the remarkable manner in which she lived her life. The B.C. Prize for Poetry was renamed in 1986 after Dorothy Livesay for her extraordinary contribution to Canadian poetry. The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize is awarded annually to the best collection of poetry by a resident of British Columbia, Canada.


Note:

Emily Dickinson (1830 -- 1886) was an American poet noted for her mystical and unrhymed poems.

Emily Carr (1871 ?1945) was a Canadian writer and artist named as "The Mother of Modern Arts."

Emily Jane Bronte (1818 -- 1848) was a British novelist and poet, now best remembered for her only novel Wuthering Heights, a classic of English literature.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

In 1943, Dorothy Livesay wrote to her father, "I find I get in a desperate state in the house alone and if can possibly carry on working I am a better mother for the children." In another letter, she wrote, "If married, a woman writer cannot work at all unless she has a housekeeper. But no deductions in her income tax are available for this heavy overhead expense."

Motherhood made her aware of the systemic denigration of reproductive labour, a denigration which leads to the trivialization of the needs of women writers who have children.

Later in her life, she qualified her conclusion in The Three Emilys as "one phase of my feelings," a phase in which she "envied" single women writers.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

In 1943, Dorothy Livesay wrote to her father, "I find I get in a desperate state in the house alone and if can possibly carry on working I am a better mother for the children." In another letter, she wrote, "If married, a woman writer cannot work at all unless she has a housekeeper. But no deductions in her income tax are available for this heavy overhead expense."

Motherhood made her aware of the systemic denigration of reproductive labour, a denigration which leads to the trivialization of the needs of women writers who have children.

Later in her life, she qualified her conclusion in The Three Emilys as "one phase of my feelings," a phase in which she "envied" single women writers.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[fanfan]

[[FAFAFA]]

[星子]

I read this and understand her. But for me I really think being a mother is the most wonderful thing. I know things changed a lot. Women have more free spirits and freedom now than they had then.

I just talked with Doug who owns a book store in F.L. We discussed my poem "Turn 30" He said he remembered when he turned 30, he aso tried to find the desitination of life.

I will try to read more of livesay's poems. Thanks for shaing.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

I read this and understand her. But for me I really think being a mother is the most wonderful thing. I know things changed a lot. Women have more free spirits and freedom now than they had then.

I just talked with Doug who owns a book store in F.L. We discussed my poem "Turn 30" He said he remembered when he turned 30, he aso tried to find the desitination of life.

I will try to read more of livesay's poems. Thanks for shaing.
_________________

[Champagne]

[[Champagne]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[非马]

Good review work! Eric. Aside from its contents, I found the rhyme scheme in the poem somewhat unsettling though.

[[FAFAFA]]

Good review work! Eric. Aside from its contents, I found the rhyme scheme in the poem somewhat unsettling though.

[星子]

Hi Eric,

I asked poets in our group today about Dorothy Livesay, it seemed nobody read her poems. So tomorrow I will ask Terry and Bunny to see if they have read hers.

Today we have eight people, a few painters or founder of art group etc.

Very nice place and wonderful people. Hope you all one day could visit us.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

Hi Eric,

I asked poets in our group today about Dorothy Livesay, it seemed nobody read her poems. So tomorrow I will ask Terry and Bunny to see if they have read hers.

Today we have eight people, a few painters or founder of art group etc.

Very nice place and wonderful people. Hope you all one day could visit us.
_________________

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[星子]

[[ANNA]]

[fanfan]

[[FFFFFF]]