I once wrote a short story inspired by "There is a certain slant of light". Tell me what you think of it. I still can't tell how serious I was when I wrote this. If I was trying to make a relevant point, its how Emily's poems seem to gain fairly modern interpretations which could not have existed for her. I split it into 2 bits, the end is the 1st comment. Here it is:
It was a winter afternoon.
"Wake up Jake, time to go" said the voice in my dream. 5 pm. I hate sleeping in the day waking up to a time when the sun still shines but knowing, that soon it will not. I hate it and yet can never stop myself. A certain strip of light came from a narrow gap between the curtain and the wall. I opened the curtain letting it fill the room, filling me with certain peace and satisfaction. Shadows and objects grew distinct - I like it when there is no doubt between what is shadow and what is not. The sun was low, but still shining (battling against dark) purposefully. I knew that there was at most an hour of daylight left, but at least that promised to be bright. Which was good since I had to go out in ten minutes, but bad since I wound not return within the hour.
I got dressed - I wear blue jeans, and a white shirt today, so the remaining suns rays would shine off my clothes declaring light. I wasn’t hungry; I drank a glass of milk and took an iron tablet. Into my pockets I put a torch, and a gun containing silver bullets. Then i went outside: It was a winter afternoon.
* * *
"Get up Jessica, time to go" said the voice in my dream. 5 pm. I hate waking up in the day when the sun still shines. I hate it, and yet can never stop myself. A slant of light came from a narrow gap between the curtain and the wall. I closed the curtain thoroughly, extinguishing the light, filling me with certain peace and satisfaction. Shadow filled the room and my heart. The sun was low, but still shining (fighting a losing battle against the dark). I knew that there was at most an hour of daylight left, but it promised to be bright. Which was bad since I had to go out in ten minutes, but good since I wound stay there throughout the night.
I got dressed - I wear blue jeans, and a black blouse today, so the remaining suns rays would be extinguished by my clothes. I wasn’t hungry; I drank a glass of milk and took an iron tablet. I put on my sunglasses. Then I went outside: It was a winter afternoon. Immediately I got the urge to vomit, which I was able to quench. I also got the urge to squeeze my eyes shut, which I was unable to fight. Looking out at total darkness through my eyelids, I could still feel the heat on my skin and the numbness under my skin. Finally with a mental push, I pushed my eyelids open and proceeded with the task at hand.
* * *
With every step, the shadows grew longer. With every step, I thought I could see the sun's movement, creeping under the earth - casting its shadow onto the sky. This made me inexplicably sad. I longed for summer just like I did yesterday, as I will tomorrow. Why I am like this, I do not know. When normal people look at a sunset, they see the beauty of its colours. I see only the setting sun and rising dark - no beauty, just sadness. And because of this simple misconception of refraction and dispersion, I am cursed. Cursed to spend my life fighting vampires(?!). It is strange, but whenever I kill a vampire, I always have the faint hope that the sun will not go down the next morning. When it does I feel betrayed. So really I barely care about the slaying of evil. All I want is to kill off those winter afternoons when the sun sets and numbness creeps under my skin and into my mind, and I feel fear, inexplicable fear, all I want is to feint - to sleep through it, but all I can do is go outside, where it hurts even more, and find a vampire to kill. I would gladly let every vampire I've ever killed rise up, If only I could get rid of these winter afternoons.