Emily Dickinson
A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown —
Who ponders this tremendous scene —
This whole Experiment of Green —
As if it were his own!
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2 comments:
I love this poem. How prescient of Ms. Dickinson, given the recent judicial outcome of banning patents on human genes.
NYT article:
US District Court Judge Sweet's findings & ACLU argument: "genes, products of nature, fall outside of the realm of things that can be patented"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/business/30gene.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
I also found this article abt Ms. Dickinson's spiritual journey:
http://www.spiritualitytoday.org/spir2day/894133doyle.html
According to a few Web sites, the originals of the poem show that she went back and changed the phrase, "whole" Experiment to "wild" Experiment (Scroll down here. Other links searched via Google):
http://www.eliteskills.com/analysis_poetry/A_little_Madness_in_the_Spring_by_Emily_Dickinson_analysis.php
Much of current dialogue (often buttressed by several relevant historical references) centers precisely on what it means to create favorable conditions for the delicate balance of the rights of the collective vis-a-vis the rights of the individuals who comprise that collective. No equation can be balanced that erroneously favors one over the other. Indeed, the conversation seems to be coming around to the notion that individual sovereignty (as protected in our Constitution as unalienable rights, and reinforced via the Bill of Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Nuremburg Code, to name a few), when violated, predictably throws the Equation into disarray.
That Ms. Dickinson went back and changed "whole" to "wild" sublimely speaks to the construction of self-determination, a legally-protected buffer zone for individual authorship, creativity, spontaneity and self-emergence. (You know the chant, "Keep your laws off my body!")
I have found the wisdom in this prose contained in constructs across many disciplines, whether physics, mathematics, law, philosophy, or spiritual practice. She suggests that when pondering (indeed, "designing" and participating in) the grand scheme of all things Green and living, you must first consider the primacy of the individual sovereignty of the flower. Wow :) peace, UUgal
P.S. One more link about Dickinson's word selection process for the poem (scroll to #1356) here
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