L f T " w -- Page Sixteen THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE Sunday, November 17, 1957 Sunday, November 17, 1957 THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE Emily Dickinson JOHN AUBREY: The Determined Gossip (Continued from Page 1) sors, of the sovereign self-suf- ficiency of the individual soul. Testing the validity of self-reli- ance by its application to the inner, rather than the social life, she became convinced of the transcendental power and beauty of rational perception. Her poems are exercises in proportion; like Emerson's "Compensation," they were re-creations of the theolog- ical paradox of spiritual gain springing from earthly loss. At best, they reflected the moral stability as well as the intellectual ferment of New England society, mingling polished artfulness and accuracy with idiomatic roughness and "the rugged power of sense" THE LAST PART of the book deals extensively with the structural clothing of Emily Dick- inson's thought. Her poems were essentially simple in meter and form, adopted mainly from the lyrics and hymns that she knew, but like any artist, she struggled to match her thoughts with her expression of them. Caring little for the niceties of perfect grammatical structure and absolute rhyme, she nevertheless discarded them only when neces- sary for meaning or contextual consistency. The imagery is always clear and often startling; usually taken from nature, it becomes as complex as the thought to which it refers. Whicher follows the 9athkn4 NOW... AN E The Belle of this seas whirl will surely be t wise woman who mak lection from Dillon's collection of Pary and dresses. CHIFFONS, silk poidesois, satins, and wool jersey from 17.95 to $ JUNIOR Sizes Regular-petite 10-20. Half siz to 24. i They were too busy rebuilding to have time for childhood shape of the metaphor through several levels of Miss Dickinson's intellectual poetry, from the mere n o t i n g of mental phenomena through similes, to the actual per- sonification of the abstract gen- eralizations derived from the dis- tillation of this data. CONSTANTLY SEARCHING for the confirmation of her poeti- cal truths through experience, Emily Dickinson shifted from ra- tionalist to mystic to transcen- dentalist to humorist with the speed of spilled mercury. Whicher sees her as an anticipation of the future. Realizing in her loneliness, "the full implications of the in- dividualist's defeat by circum- stance," she created for herself a dynamic existence, within the static bonds of isolation. This Was a Poet is a pain- stakingly complete treatment of Miss Dickinson's life and poetry. Despite the author's claims to the contrary, the critical part of the book is more valuable to the aver- age reader than is the strictly biographical section. W h i c h e r claims for Miss Dickinson a posi- tion closer to that of the Meta- physicals than to that of the Romantics commonly associated with her century. Whether his conclusions are entirely justified depends primarily upon the in- dividual reader's experience with the poetry in questibn and his will- ingness to accept the universal validity of the poet's work. (Continued from Page 0) down the last detail concerning someone's birth or death, and to undersand the problems he would meet. DICK WRITES of Aubrey: Sometimes ,too, he asked so many questions that his friends took pleasure in teas- ing him: "Dr. John Newton-- -he told me he was borne in Bedfordshire, but would not tell me where": while at other times his repeated queries seem to have exasperated them: "The Earle of Carnar- von does not remember Mr. Brown, and I ask't his Lord- ship lately if any of his serv- ants doe; he assures me NO." There was also the problem of accuracy with which Aubrey had to cope: Tombstones were scanned for dates, and often proved fallible, for though Aubrey noticed that there was some- thing wrong about the follow- ing: "Pray for the soul of Constantine Darrel Esq. who died Anno Domini 1400 and his wife, who died Anno Domini 1495": he had no way of checking . TIS, of course, raises problems in the reading of the Lives. (CITING COLLECTION en's social the style- es her se- fashion cocktail lr w { "r GG gI1M11'M ;. ts FROU FROU Petticoat of Nylon net and lac.e $5.95. A must for your full skirts. Left - LUSTROUS SATIN.makes this stunning Princess Dance Dress with Jacket at $29.95. Extreme Left - SATIN MIDRIFF makes news in this flattering velvet sheath at $19.95. Some of the stories he tells can be easily discounted by the lay- man's knowledge of medicine, as can the incident in the life of Dr. William Butler: A Gent, with a red ugly, pumpled face came to him for a cure. Said the Dr., I must hang you. So presently he had a device made ready to hang him from a Beame in the roome, and when he was e'en almost dead, he cutt the veines that fed these pumples and lett out the black ugley Blood, and cured him. But how is one to judge the sto- ries of Aubrey's which sound so reasonable and raise no questions in the reader's mind? The infer- ence in Dick's prefatory essay is that Aubrey, as well-intentioned as he may have been, believed what he recorded to be actual. When there was a doubt, Aubrey usually indicated it. Credible or not, however, Aub- rey's writings have a verisimili- tude that rises from the author's apparent conviction-unless oth- erwise noted. And the author's be- lief reflects on the nature of the seventeenth century, leaving his writings to represent, if not the truth, certainly the seventeenth century viewpoint of life. ONE OF these viewpoints, or at- titudes, is the concern for sci- ence that was growing steadily in that century. The persons Aubrey writes the most about are the men of science - Francis Bacon and his Advancement of Learning, Halley and the comet, and Wil- liam Harvey and his theory of the circulation of the blood. Aub- rey says of the latter, when his book came out, that he fell mightily in his Practize, and that 'twas be- leeved by the vulgar that he was crack-brained; and all the Physitians were against his Opinion, and envyed him; many wrote against him. The new science, the first re- fusal, the old superstition - Aubrey has caught them all in this passage. Halley's life, how- ever, a very short one, is primarily superstition. Bacon's is science to the end, where Bacon himself dies of exposure in an experiment. There are many other promin- ent lives that Aubrey describes, too. Of Shakespeare, he says, "His Comoedies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is un- derstood .. . " Of Sidney, "He was a reviver of Poetry in those darke times, which was then at a very low ebbe: there is not three lines but there is 'by God', or 'by God's wounds'." AUBREY'S faculty for descrip- tion of features was well- developed. Of Sir Walter Raleigh, "an exceeding high forehead, long-faced and sour eie-lidded, a kind of pigge-eie. His beard turnd up naturally." Since Aubrey depended on in- formation to come in his direc- tion and only rarely went looking Yes! It's True! GENUINE $25.00 QUALITY for only DIAMOND $ 05 PHONOGRAPH for most single point needles diamond-sapphire dual point $11.95 *Every PFANSTIEHL Diamond needle is made from a tiny WHOLE SOUTH AFRICAN DIA- MOND, , not a chip or splint. 9 Every PFANSTIEHL Diamond Needle protects your records . . IS FULLY GUARANTEED BY THE MANUFACTURER. " Every PFANSTIEHL Diamond Needle lasts 20 times longer than sapphire.. . AT A PRICE NEVER BEFORE HEARD OF .. : ONLY X9.95. MUSIC CENTER 300 SO. THAYER, PH. NO 2-2500 Just West of Hill Auditorium for additional facts, many of the Lives are short, incomplete, odd- ly-constructed passages which only give hints of the real person and make no attempt at a com- plete description. An example is the Life of Richard Lovelace, the cavalier poet: Richard Lovelace, Esq., he was a most beautifull Gentle- man. Obiit in a Cellar in Long Acre, a little before the Res- tauration of his Majestie. Mr. Edmun4 Wyld, etc., have made collections for him, and given him money. George Pet- ty, Haberdasher, in Fleet Street, carried xxs. to him ev- ery Monday morning from Sir John Many and Charles Cot- ton, Esq., for many moneths, but was never repayd. One of the handsomest men in" England. He was an extraordinary handsome Man, but prowd. He wrote a Poem called "Lucasta. ANOTHER of the shortest of the Lives is the two-paragraph story of Sir Everard Digby, a con- spirator: Sir Everard Digby was a most gallant Gentleman and one of the handsomest men of his time, 'Twas his ill fate to suffer in the Powder-plott. When his heart was pluct out by the Executioner (who, secundum formam, cryed, Here is the heart of a Traytor) it is credibly reported, he replied, Thou liest! Indeed, Aubrey seems most con- cerned with physical descriptions and with deaths, the most-n- cluded information in the Lives as a whole. But he is not above di- gressing, something he often does. Half of the essay on Bacon is a description of the country home of Sir Francis. In the life of Sir John Birkenhead, Aubrey relates the circumstances of the gentle- man's death (he "pined away") and then concludes the Life with: I remember at Bristow (when I was a boy) it was a common fashion for the woe- men to get a Tooth out of a Sckull in the Church yard; which they wore as a preser- vative against the Tooth-ach. Under the Cathedral-church at Hereford is the greatest Charnel-house for bones, that ever I saw in England ... a poor old woman that, to help out her fire, did use to mix the deadmen's bones: this was thrift and poverty: but cunning alewives putt the Ashes of these bones in their Ale to make it intoxicateing. BUT THESE extended com- ments, often more than any other part of the Lives, present a candid view of England in the 1600s. The conflict, really just starting, of science vs. superstition and, eventually, religion, is one whose beginnings are easy to recognize. Aubrey's ability to create living characters in a few words is com- mendable although probably un- conscious. But the most pleasant moments of all in Aubrey's Brief Lives come with the short, off- hand comments of a contempor- ary historian that today have a different meaning and context for the world. "He wrote a Poem called 'Lucasta'," is one of these. Another concludes the life of James Bovey, a merchant who had seen most of Europe: "In all his Travills he was never robbed." Another is the comment on the person sought by a potential pa- tron, but who had been hung two weeks earlier: "He unluckily lost a good opportunity of being pre- ferred." The Dick edition of Aubrey's Brief' Lives has indeed many re- wards for the reader seeking ac- gaintance with seventeenth cen- tury England. The scholar, how- ever, will want co return to the original editions, as the present one is intended for the general reader, who should find it very instructive gossip. MARIA ZAGORSKA (Continued from Page 4) and wastelands came another name on the map. Alex and Maria are proud of the new face they helped to put on their country. They report that even today large-scale building is in progress. From all outward ap- pearances, battle-scarred Poland seems to have recovered well from the war. "Yes," Maria muses thought- fully, "we have built up Poland materially." She pauses, contin- ues very seriously: "You know they say that Germany lost the war, but it was really Poland. Per- haps some people even in Poland never realize the deep effect ,of a war. It does not matter that they destroy 90 per cent of Warsaw," Maria leans forward, eyes burn- ing, face intense. "A house you can rebuild, the chance to be young, never!" SHE relaxes, continues, slowly, more quietly: "You wonder why we feel cynical toward life? I will tell you: It is because we have never had anything to do with youth. We are 20 and 30 years old; we feel like 40 or 50." With a wistful smile she says: "Now I am here at this University where I see people at parties, act- ing like teenagers, having a good time. And I feel jealous that I couldn't have had a normal child- hood. I wanted to laugh, to play, to feel no pressure, to feel secure. But somehow there was never time. Now I can do these things. But I don't feel right; I feel too old." Maria and her friends matured too quickly. When they should have been having fun, they were hiding out in cellars, fighting Nazis; when they should have been exploring the adolescent's world, they were rebuilding their country. If they act and feel old- er than people of their own age, as Maria says, it's because they- assumed more demanding respon- sibilities. They had to. Maria's feelings, she points out, are peculiar only to her genera- tion. Today's Polish teenagers are more normal. They don't remem- ber war and its aftermath as viv- idly as Maria, and their attitude, if less mature than Maria's was at their age, is certainly brighter. MARIA'S generation may be bit- ter, but it is also realistic. Its young people know they are the real leaders of their country, and as such they are seeking positive means for its betterment. Education is their prime tool. Alex remembers the first year or so after the war when he was go- ing to a university in Krakow: "We had to walk many miles to get there. The whole country was1 in such a mess; there was no1 transportation. At the school, no glass in the windows, no heat in the winter. Yet many, many people came to study." Education is a subject upon which Maria can talk for hours. An English teacher - she ma- jored in English philology at the University of Warsaw and later taught it there - she has great faith in the power of education to improve communications between nations. It's easy, she maintains, for one to get a wrong idea of life in a country across the globe. "You Americans speak-of an iron cur- tain. But I would stress a hundred times"-her voice rises, tone is emphatic- "that Polish people feel no iron curtain. If there is any barrier, it is misunderstanding, not an iron curtain." MARIA is a linguist and she "believes in perfecting com- munications." It is her firm con- viction that if we knew more about life in other countries from the people there, some of our miscon- ceptions would be cleared up. One wrong idea she hastens to reinterpret is "your assumption of Polish ideology." Claims she: "Most Americans think that communism and its ideology occupies more of the daily life of the people than it really does." If we considered Poles as being primarily similar to us: students, husbands and wives, people with jobs and families to raise, we would be more realistic. Maria has given this topic much thought. What she asserts she does sincerely and with strong convic- tion: "When we start wars, we say that we fight our enemy because he is bad, cruel, or whatever, but really because he is different from us. It is not so. We are exactly the same as our opponents. We build racial, social and class prejudices with our imagination. And it is this imagination that deceives us, because we are basically the same. We feel the same pains and joys no matter whether we are com- munists, socialists or capitalists." WHEN it comes to politics, Maria shies away from direct com- ment. But she doesn't hesitate to "-- - the L, USE OUR CONV $1.00 Ho SHOF Your selec Monday thru Fr, P IPE r-ps 118 East Huron -- Opposii declare that "modern politics and science have become, so to speak, dehumanized. It is as if we were dealing with tree trunks, not people." Maria's greatest dream "is to or- ganize a large-scale student ex- change program among Poland, West Europe and the United States. Some sparse student interchange has already taken place, mostly in the last year since the revolt. Here Maria interjects a word about last fall. It was not an attempt to over- throw the existing regime, she explains and Alex agrees, but to make it "more honest for the people. We wanted to make social- ism really socialism." Although communism may have a political connotation for Americans, Maria points out that when Poles speak of communism, it's mainly in terms of a socialist economy--one with which they would have no quarrel "if the execution were as honest as the principles." Were they successful? Maria an- swers in her own terms. The post- revolt period is "a different exist- ence." There is much more per- sonal freedom, and also English books can be freely . imported, Americans and Westerners are coming to visit, student exchange is beginning. EVEN BEFORE the uprising, Polish students were avid in their quest for knowledge of their own and foreign cultures. Maria and Alex report that the least stimulating lectures or exhibits on foreign subjects are always jam- med to capacity in Polish universi- ties. She wonders why American stu- dents are indifferent to their own and other cultures: "Sometimes a Pole will know more about America and American history than the average American." In the Polish eye, Americans are especially lackadaisical when it comes to discussion groups. "The other day, recalls Maria, "I attended a political issues club you have here on campus. I was amazed to find only a small group. See POLISH, page 19 r~ >;> ti %u' _ : ,:< y +4; Y:= 'r ";:.ti {. r, titi .1,.. q; };':';" " :"t : :;} ::, '!ยง{ ,, rn, . ALEX MATEJKO A~UT L STY failles, velvets, s. Priced 49.95. 7 7-15. and tails es 1212 TICE3 The happiest combina comfort we've seen a by Style-Mart. 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