There’s a certain Slant of light - Please Help

[TrulyByronic]

Hello,

I would really appreciate it if anyone could help me analyse “There’s a certain Slant of light”. I'm really stuck, please help.

So far, I’ve found this the most difficult Emily Dickinson Poem in terms of understanding.

Also, do we as readers take the poems to be narrated by Dickinson?

258 –

There's a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons –
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes –

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are –

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the Seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –

[Virgil]

There is a certain slant of light from the world that oppresses. It hurts to take it in. Then you can initmate as to where the light is from and why it hurts.

[ladymacbeth8088]

honestly i have no idea

[TrulyByronic]

Ah thanks for that, but isn't that also only taking it to be one layer? Does the light not represent something deeper?

[Virgil]

Ah thanks for that, but isn't that also only taking it to be one layer? Does the light not represent something deeper?

Oh, absolutely. It's a symbol. For what you may ask? Well, certainly there's a religious aspect to it. Also there is a nature aspect to it. There is an internal psychological aspect to it.

[TrulyByronic]

Thanks again, I’ll try incorporate that into my analysis

[poliveira87]

Right now, I am writing an essay specifically on this poem. The way I see it, the poem is talking about a type of, I don't know, "hit" given to the speaker from heaven. I believe that it is alluding to the experiences of St. Theresa of Avila. I would suggest that you look it up on Google to read of her experience. Basically it's about an angel of God that came down to St. Theresa and he pierced her several times in the heart. She said that it caused so much pain but also so much joy. I connect this with the poem because the poem speaks of a "Heavenly Hurt" and "oppression" doesn't necessarily have to do with something bad, it can also mean that something weighs heavily on you, like an emotion. "We can find no scar" means that the spear that penetrated her chest left no outward mark and the "Meanings" are associated with the feelings that St. Theresa received after/during this experience. There are many other connections that I will not go into, but if you research the writings that St. Theresa made about this experience, you could probably find the connections yourself.

[Zong-in Kim]

Hi,

To watch the poem will be another small "slant of light"... !!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lt1R-lPSnU

I put it into Korean this morning in my blog
(http://blog.daum.net/kimzi-122). thanks.

[Sumaya]

Well, I interpret it similarly - a religious experince. But one where Dickinson, perhaps, questions the conventional role of the Church which may "oppress" compared to the nature aspect of religion, if that makes sense.

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are –

Now, maybe the 'internal difference' is meanings/interpreations found in differnet Christian texts? Perhaps Dickinson (rather radically) suggests that such differneces are somewhat insignisfcent.

None may teach it – Any –
'Tis the Seal Despair –
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air –

The tone here is of paticualr interest. Is it beign ironic? The vocab/phrases IS a bit dramatic, like that of a sermon, even - "imperial affliction" and "Seal despair" come from "the Air", perhaps God.

When it comes, the Landscape listens –
Shadows – hold their breath –
When it goes, 'tis like the Distance
On the look of Death –

I love this stanza . Because, afterall, maybe it's just about a slant of light on a wintry afternoon.

[JBI]

I think she is ionizing an insightful dark thought. The slant of light is a paradox, being that it illuminates, but also leaves a bitterness, emptiness, and a lack of answers. Cathedral is mentioned specifically to allude to god, and the agnosticism that she believed in (wrong word?). This illumination burns a whole in her, lets her know how helpless and alone she is. The thought is that there is nothing, meaning she found that the meaning is that there is no meaning.