Welcome back to The Daily Poem. I'm David Kern, and today is Friday, July 24th, 2020.

The poem that I'm going to read to you today is by Emily Dickinson. She lived from 1830 to 1886,

and is, of course, one of the most important poets in American history, and really in the entire history of poetry.

The poem that I'm going to read is called Of Bronze and Blaze, it's number 319.

It goes like this.

Of Bronze and Blaze, the North to Night,

so adequate it forms, so preconcerted with itself, so distant to alarms,

and unconcerned so sovereign to universe or me. Infects my simple spirit with taints of majesty

till I take vaster attitudes and strut upon my stem, disdaining men

and oxygen for arrogance of them.

My splendors are menagerie, but their competeless show will entertain the centuries

when I am long ago an island in dishonored grass whom none but daisies know.

Carol Ruhmans wrote about this poem in The Guardian, back in May actually, and she talked

about how this is a response to seeing the northern lights.

And she says that it's possible that Emily Dickinson might have been able to see the Aurora Borealis from her home in Amherst, Massachusetts.

She writes this about the poem, quote, the poem's focus is immediate

and simple. No fulsome adjectives, no list of colors, diffuses it. Dickinson selects a single

color associated noun, bronze, and pairs it with blaze, a noun that connotes the effect of fire or intense fiery light.

Single-syllabled and alliterative, the twinned words also gain resonance from the surrounding Dickinsonian

typography, the capital opening letter, and the dash. End quote. This is definitely a poem that I would recommend you look at online.

You can even Google Carol Ruhman's piece, and she does post the poem at the top of that.

And again, that's in The Guardian back on May 11th.

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