Emily dickinson how many flowers fail in wood

It is a very feminine image. A good soul casts such pods throughout life without even realizing the effect they have on others. Because Dickinson specifies the effect of the pods on others as "Scarlet Freight" born to the eyes, it may be that she is also talking about poetry.

Poems are visual, most times. That Dickinson considers they deliver some heavy freight has been discussed in earlier discussions here and quite extensively elsewhere. I think it likely that the brilliant red maple achene, the samara, is the pod she is visualizing.

It's a lovely image: the graceful maple tree dispersing its winged seeds in the breeze. Granted the achenes are not pods, but "Pod" is just such a fine word, I would never quibble with it. A commenter mentioned a couple of uses of "pod" in recent poems — and here is a third.

Dickinson touches on a similar theme in "Except to Heaven, she is nought" F In that poem she writes of a small flower that is not valued by any except Heaven and the tiny creatures who benefit from it.

I read that poem as a metaphor for a woman, perhaps Dickinson herself. Except to the bees, butterflies and breezes who recognize her beauty and importance, the little flower is "superfluous" and "provincial"; as a result, she is "lone" and "unnoticed". I don't find the tone in either that poem or this one to be anything but sweetly, wistfully sentimental.

There are quiet souls to be appreciated, perhaps in contrast to men like the poet's opinionated father and brother or the well-traveled and lionized men that were her favored correspondents.

These men certainly were aware of their "beauty" and the impact of their pods. But doesn't it sound odd to phrase it like that? Our thoughts turn immediately to the housewives who die sad, quiet, early deaths in other Dickinson poems.

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