Paintings
One of my favorite Emily Dickinson poems:
I saw no Way-- The Heavens were stitched --
I felt the Columns close --
The Earth reversed her Hemispheres --
I touched the Universe --
And back it slid -- and I alone --
A Speck upon a Ball --
Went out upon Circumference --
Beyond the Dip of Bell --
The speaker sees "No way" and yet finds her way, simply by doing the impossible... she reaches beyond what is allowed her, a mere "Speck," yet becomes, through that reach, a person who sits astride the globe. Words have taken her where her daily world cannot. The image I love here is that she is "Beyond the Dip of Bell," which means she cannot hear any bell calling her to church, to school, to dinner. But instead of using an image that would call to mind the sound of a bell, she uses the picture of a bell, its "Dip." So this makes the poem even more a blend of senses and perception...
I found the object pictured on this cigar-box lid on the beach at Watch Hill. I like to think it is from a sailboat passing, a ship headed "Beyond the Dip of Bell."
