The other day, Sara of Much Ado About Something mentioned that she had just started reading Emily Dickinson. So I told her in the comments that I would post my favorite Dickinson poem soon. Here it is:
How happy is the little stone
That rambles in the road alone,
And doesn’t care about careers,
And exigencies never fears;
Whose coat of elemental brown
A passing universe put on;
And independent as the sun,
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute decree
In casual simplicity.
Why do I love this poem? Because of its portrayal of something that is free of ambition, vanity, self-consciousness, pride. Because the little stone is independent and wholly itself. Because it accepts what the universe offers and seeks no more. Because it is not fussed about exigencies or urgent situations. Because it is content to fill God's purpose for it "in casual simplicity."
It's a very Zen poem. It's also very much in keeping with Jesus' admonition "Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!"
In many ways, I want to be more like Dickinson's little stone.
In many ways, I want to be more like Dickinson's little stone.
P.S. If you didn't catch yesterday's post, please glance at my blog list on the sidebar. Saturday, I tried very hard to put all my regularly read blogs on it. If you're not there and would like to be, please let me know.
19 comments:
I LOVE this!
And I hadn't heard it before....
Thanks!
As is so often the case, I find exactly what my soul needs here.
Thank you!
Absolutely beautiful! That is perfect in so many ways. I hadn't read it before....
~*
Oh, I love that poem! I'm not as familiar with Dickinson as I intend to be someday.
I love this poem and your commentary is perfect. What a wonderful comparison.
I love that poem. That is one with which I am not familiar, so I appreciate you introducing me to it!
I admire the little stone, too.
Thank you for including me on your blog list! I also appreciated your kind words on my post about modesty.
Blessings,
Elizabeth
Thanks for sharing. This poem is new to me and I love it for the same reasons you do. Last night, I started searching out blogs on voluntary simplicity, making the timing on this post divine.
What a lovely poem! It does ring of "Consider the lilies" and all that.
I keep trying to remember these things. Maybe it's the best way to do a day.
I love this poem...I to, want to be more like the little stone.
It is really Zen isn't it. I actually like it a lot. It speaks to me of that desired place within where I just am, just as I am.
What a lovely poem. I've never heard it before. Contentment and simplicity are great blessings, and very counter-cultural.
A great post that I needed to read today - thanks
Good post Ruth. I love E.D. and that's such a sweet poem! Would that we all could live "In casual simplicity"!
I was unfamiliar with this particular poem by Emily Dickenson. I enjoy personification as well as the next guy, but this poem struck me as a little strange.
We can certainly consider the lilies (see presbyterian gal, above), how they grow, and that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these, because they are living, like us. And we can behold the fowls of the air, that they sow not, neither do they spin, etc., because they too are alive, like us. But a rock? It just lies there. What's to emulate?
Is the author telling us don't worry; be happy (like a rock)? My apologies to Bobby McFerrin, but I just don't get this poem.
Animal and vegetable, yes, personify all you like. Joyce Kilmer's tree wore a nest of robins in her hair. But mineral? Never!
I apologize for this long comment.
Maybe I'm just dumb as a rock.
Bob, you don't have to apologize to me for long comments. And as I'm sure you know, you're not dumb at all. Poetry is such a personal thing. Just as I told you the other day that I don't like Kipling, I don't expect everyone to love this poem.
Wonderful poem! I would like to be as the little rock, too......just content to be.
The odd thing to me is that I have liked everything I have ever read by Emily Dickenson -- until now.
Well, I think you put your finger on it. For you, it's just too much of a leap to anthropomorphize an inanimate object. Dickinson must not do that in the other poems you've read.
I like the poem! I think it's just to keep in mind that the desires, ambitions and complications in our life are unimportant and we need to remember that. I don't take it all the way to emulating being like a stone.
I like "Kimo's Rules" which I got from a Hawaiian t-shirt, which is also rather Zenlike - here are a few of them -
"The best things in life aren't things."
"Goals are deceptive - the unaimed arrow never misses."
"There are two ways to be rich - make more or desire less."
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