258: There's a certain Slant of light - Emily Dickison

Coming from The Normal Review, I can tell you that we absolutely hate rhyming poems unless they totally blow us away. This would probably be one of those poems that blow us away. There's so many different little things to interpret, it's so freaking awesome! I see the slant of light in this poem as the light that comes from the sun setting during winter afternoons. She says "Heavenly Hurt, it gives us-/We can find no scar,/But internal difference,/Where the Meanings, are-" Wintertime sunsets for some reason always give me a slight sense of distress. The days are shorter, and I just hate seeing the day come to an end. For me it always meant my parents would be coming home from work soon, and I was one of those weird children that didn't want my parents to come home. Not that I didn't love the, but I had just gotten so cozy with the day, that the end of the day, and them coming home was just kind of distressful. It was a change.

I don't know why, but this feeling evokes a kind of relieving distressful tone with me; seeing that someone else has written about this sort of distress is a relief. The words she uses aren't particularly sad, and her dashes give me a chance to just stop, break, and think about what she's saying. I just love this kind of stuff. I feel like there's still so much more behind this poem than what I'm seeing, and I wish I could find out what it is. Maybe it has something to do with death, and the feeling of distress you get with that? (Heavenly Hurt - somebody dies, and goes to heaven, but you still feel sad). Cathedral tunes, like sad Cathedral tunes during a funeral procession? I don't know, it's still pretty amazing. I love how I don't have to know entirely what a poem is about to know that I like it.